Work Arts LLC
Building more effective and engaged organizations.
workartsadvisors.com · Business Consulting and Services · Rochester, Michigan · Founded 2020
Work Arts is an organization and performance advisory firm. We help clients design effective organizations and enable their teams to produce remarkable performance. We specialize in organization design, organization development, and enterprise transformation initiatives. We collaborate with senior executives and their teams to deliver performance improvement, increased capability, and lead high-stakes change. Our services include: ◦ Organization & Performance Assessment – we quickly learn and assess complex organizations to form gap analyses that allow leadership teams to engage in productive action ◦ Organization Design & Development – we consult with management teams to make and implement design choices that enable your strategy, operating model, organization capabilities, and functional alignment ◦ M&A HR Due Diligence & Integration – we have contributed to strategic growth through HR & organization due diligence and integration of many complex M&A transactions; we contribute to assessing key talent, organization alignment, value drivers, and risks ◦ Talent Management Practice Development – we offer expert facilitation to help leadership teams articulate their talent priorities and establish or enhance their organization’s scalable talent practices, processes, and tools/technology ◦ Interim & Fractional Leadership Engagements – we serve clients as a retained CHRO, CPO, Integration Manager, or Transformation Leader through periods of change or transition
Designed a PE-Backed Auto Supplier's Org Structure to Sustainably Profitable BU Structure
After selling one of its four business units, a multi-billion dollar automotive supplier was left with an oversized, centralized corporate management structure and stranded SG&A. Its three remaining business units needed their own functional resources so they could own their performance and operate with speed closer to their customers. I ran an organization diagnostic that included interviews with the full executive team, a review of performance trends from the prior two years, current-state org charts, and operations review decks. From there I worked through several rounds of design options with the CEO and CHRO before moving into detailed design of a business unit structure. I then worked directly with each BU's GM and functional leaders to finalize their designs, and with their HR Directors to build change activation plans specific to each region. The initial design took six weeks. In the Americas and Asia, we activated and implemented the new structure in under 30 days once decisions were finalized. Europe moved on a slower timeline because of statutory notice periods, works council consultation requirements, and differences in employment law, so we adjusted the activation plan there to stay fully compliant while still respecting those processes. The redesign improved SG&A by 2% of revenue and gave each business unit the functional ownership to build its own growth strategy, setting up the three BUs to move on organic expansion and acquisition opportunities on their own.
Advised DSG's Corporate Strategy Development and Organization Design Process
DSG had roughly doubled in size to around 1,000 employees across ten states through a run of acquisitions, and the executive team knew that kind of growth had left inconsistent product lines, supplier relationships, and commercial policies from one region to the next. As they set out to keep growing, they needed a structure and a strategy that could support an omnichannel model, stronger digital capabilities, and a consistent customer experience across the whole footprint. I was brought in first to lead the organization design and operating model work with the management team, a phase that ran about seven months. I worked mostly solo, pulling in one consultant to help with the initial diagnostic, and coordinated with the other advisors around the CEO as the work progressed. That phase led the organization to invest in a Chief Supply Chain Officer and a Chief Digital Officer, and to restructure its Demand organization into East and West Districts, each with four market teams supported by scaled functions. Recruiting those two executives and standing up the new structure took the organization about seven more months. Based on that work, DSG invited me back between May 2025 and May 2026 to facilitate their strategy development and deployment. I worked with the executive team to sharpen where they had a real competitive edge, landing on a model built around distinct trade segments that played to their multi-trade reach and their employee-ownership culture, then helped translate that into a phased execution plan sequenced around capability dependencies rather than an arbitrary timeline. I can't share specific figures since the results are confidential, but the organization saw meaningful improvement in sales growth, inventory (DOH), and gross margin return on inventory (GMROI) over the course of this engagement. Just as important, DSG strengthened their leadership team, structure, and managing processes to accelerate strategic decision making and execution at scale going forward.
Led Org Redesign Aligning Structure to Constituent Impact
As lead advisor, I directed an organization design engagement for a client wrestling with how to structure itself for maximum mission impact. I recruited a colleague with deep OD expertise to join me, then personally led diagnostic interviews with the CEO, board members, and a cross-section of 15 department heads and subject matter experts to surface the real decision rights, data, and cultural dynamics shaping the organization. I synthesized these findings into a set of structural options and facilitated design workshops with the client's chosen design team, while my team member developed workshop activities and drafted deliverables covering decision rights, data analysis, and change management planning. The core challenge was a set of high-stakes trade-offs: the design team evaluated four structural models—aligning around funding sources, geography, program type, or constituent/market segment—ranging from a centralized hub to a fully federated structure. Though many assumed funding-source alignment would win out, the design team quickly rejected it because it commoditized the organization's value proposition and undercut differentiated impact. Facing tension between operational efficiency and mission fidelity, I mapped each option against the client's design criteria and strategic goals, guiding leadership to choose an organizational structure aligned to the constituent groups they exist to serve—strengthening market differentiation and positioning the organization as a uniquely efficacious, high-impact partner for funders. Activation was staged in waves: first identifying where the new operating model could be implemented and where new leadership needed to be recruited, then supporting each workstream leader with coaching and planning on a bi-weekly and later monthly cadence as teams migrated into new structures and ways of working. I facilitated cross-workstream sessions to clarify new decision rights, ran full implementation sessions with the leadership team, and personally advised the CPO, Chief of Staff, and CEO through regular implementation conversations. Monthly pulse-check sessions with department heads allowed us to catch culture-fit issues early and adjust the change management plan in real time. The engagement culminated in successful communication of the new organization design to the board of directors and an all-staff convening, where the design's strong alignment to the organization's purpose and strategy was clearly showcased. The result was a fully activated, constituent-aligned structure that sharpened the organization's value proposition, strengthened its efficacy narrative for funders, and was rolled out with minimal disruption thanks to embedded coaching and continuous culture monitoring throughout implementation.