Maybe we're arguing the same thing. I kind of view it like... If there's a group of people who aren't talking, adding someone to facilitate communications doesn't add much. Improving the structure is better than adding on top of it. (This is sometimes why PMOs fail. Adding someone to make sense of a bunch of projects doesn't address why they weren't making sense previously)
Right, mere facilitation is no good, you need to give that new person directive authority and make that function their job.
That's actually one of the things I'm struggling with in my current job. I oversee a collection of units that can easily track a certain pool of wastefully-utilized resources, but have no actual power to fix it.
Those with actual directive authority over the individual elements of that pool have no incentive to correct things other than some guy 8 levels higher in the chain of command being irritated.
And a third party that actually does the work that would get elements of this pool out of the pool drag their feet on it completely as for them it's "just admin".
So I get to make reports on this waste everyday but with little effective power to fix it. Standing up an audit team that would have the power to fix requires resources, resources which no one seems to have now...
It sounds like you're being underutilized. Many times people "Create an organization" to solve a problem as a way to say they're doing something, without actually having to get dirty themselves.
I don't know your situation well, but perhaps it may be time to look around.
I'm a freaking O-3, I have nowhere near enough 'pull' required to tell organizations led by O-5 all the way through O-9s to get their collective organizations off of their collective asses, even if I felt like 'getting dirty'.
But, even if I felt like it, what happens when I leave and the next guy comes along who doesn't care at all? The situation I'm talking about here isn't one of my primary duties, it merely happens to be related. Right now this issue is essentially no one's primary duty, which is one of the problems.
My proposed solution is a tested principle from software refactoring, applied to organizations writ large. In fact I've often been surprised at how well software engineering practices can translate over to organizational systems design practices.
Ah - got it now. Harder to look around when you're in the military, and the stakes are higher.
I've noticed similar in software practices (especially project management and metrics) leading broader org design. I'm not sure if it's because the failures are bigger, or the orgs are more willing to experiment, but software firms do seem to drive HR and organizational design trends.
