Something to readWorking with your manager
Reorgs Happen
A short essay from a tech leader on why reorgs happen and what makes one work
Why it’s worth your time
Camille Fournier's Reorgs Happen explains why reorganizations keep coming and what a leader needs in place for one to work, which makes the memo much easier to read from below. She draws on three reorgs she helped lead, written up from a talk she gave to other technology leaders. If a reorg feels like something done to you, knowing what it was meant to fix tends to make the weeks after steadier.
What to ask when a reorg is announced
The essay · 8 min · Free
Opens their site. We don’t copy it here; we’d rather they get the read.
- Read the essay.
Look for the five-part structure she borrows from another blog post: a vision, the skills, incentives, resources and an action plan. Her three stories run from an easy switch to cross-functional pods, through a pillar that never got the staff it needed, to a reorg slowed by false starts while goals were reworked. The last paragraph is her warning about what reorgs can't fix.
- Ask what the reorg is for.
In your next 1:1, or in a short message to whoever now leads your team, ask what the change is meant to fix and what good would look like for your team in three months. Write down the answer and use it to decide what to work on first.
You“I want to make sure I'm focused on the right things after the reorg. What is the change meant to fix, and what would good look like for our team three months from now?”
Good moments for this: the week a reorg is announcedwhen you get a new managerbefore you lead a team change
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
One your own manager planned can come with the full reasoning; one handed down from several levels up may reach your manager knowing little more than you. Asking still tends to help, and an honest "we don't know yet" is an answer too.
What might make this harder
Use the same question to open your first 1:1, and add one about how they like to be kept informed. It gives you both something concrete to start from.
Questions people ask
What is Reorgs Happen about?
A 2015 essay by Camille Fournier, an engineering leader, adapted from a talk to technology executives. She argues reorgs are disruptive but often necessary and describes what has to be lined up for one to succeed, using three reorgs she helped lead.
Why do companies reorganize so often?
In Fournier's experience, usually because teams aren't communicating or collaborating well, products or focus areas are being added or dropped, or the team has changed in size or makeup.
What should I do after a reorg is announced?
Find out what problem the change is solving and what success looks like for your team now, then aim your next few weeks at that.
Do reorgs fix company problems?
Not on their own, in Fournier's view. She warns that a reorg won't repair a culture problem or a missing strategy, and done for its own sake it's disruption with no payoff.
What it says, and how it holds up
Fournier's 2015 essay still reads as current, partly because it's about people more than org charts and partly because she counts her own mistakes, including a team she thinks should never have been created. Writing after taking part in three top-down reorgs over about four years, she treats them as a recurring and often necessary disruption. In her account, a reorg is usually an answer to something specific, such as teams that don't work well together or a change in focus.
Her stories carry the essay. A switch to cross-functional pods was probably the easiest, she says, because the team was still small; the reasons were clear and needed little more than good communication. A later reorg into business-facing pillars created one pillar the company never managed to staff, and when it was eventually cut, the people who had been given roles in it took it hard. A third stalled through false starts while goals were reworked. Communication, she argues, decides whether people trust the change, and uneven timing is how rumors start.
Fournier wrote it for engineering leaders, with examples from tech teams and advice pitched at people with a hand on the lever. Where a reorg is mostly a round of layoffs with a new chart attached, her framework says little, and the questions that tend to matter more are about your own role's security and what the company needs from you now.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.