130 ORGANIZING ACADEMIC COLLEGES: A GUIDE FOR DEANS —If we did end up reorganizing, how would success be measured and recognized? • It is important to consider if the college is functioning as well as it can in its current configuration. This may be the most critical issue to understand in the functioning of your office. Will improvements be made by changing the people, the structure, or both? If existing positions are filled with the wrong people for your needs as dean, then change the people—not the structure. Due to retirements or other opportunities, the people are destined to change anyway, so do not needlessly change structure around the wrong people. You do not want to propose change only to then have someone else point out to you that the structure is likely fine but one member of the office staff is not performing well. • If you are new to the dean’s position, particularly if you have arrived from outside the university, you should live in your job for a while and think about the types of individuals who could complement your strengths and cover for your weaknesses in the office’s assistant/associate dean and staff positions. • Even with the right people in the office, deans may need to redefine positions and redeploy individuals. Expect internal reorganization to the dean’s office to be an ongoing endeavor as opposed to the infrequent-to-rare reorganiza- tion of departments or college structure. • If you suspect it is more than who is staffing specific positions that is driv- ing the need for change in the college, then collect appropriate data so your decisions are based on information, not instinct or bias. Use data to discuss the case with others and continue to build and share data as you communi- cate the rationale for change. Reorganizations are highly visible, however, so keeping data or reasoning confidential is usually misguided. If the data, your interpretation of the data, or your rationale are not sound, it would be better to learn that earlier in the exploration process. And just because the envi- sioned reorganization may be a really great idea and easily justifiable, that does not mean that the faculty or other specific stakeholders will buy into the idea. Consider, and have others (including the provost) help you consider, if the improvements from a reorganization outweigh the political effort and time investment needed to steer the process, especially with the expected pushback from stakeholders not in agreement with the proposed change. • Do not underestimate the amount of time needed to reorganize. Thoughtful- ly assessing the need for change and then planning for a restructuring can easily take a year. Implementing the change can take an additional year or more. Reorganization is something you commit to and see through to com- pletion as dean. It is not something you begin and then hand off to another dean as you depart the institution for a new position.