How to You Roll Back a Major Change?

Question

Have you guys ever made a major organizational change then needed to go back?

This last year I tried to help buy back some of my time and created a Project/ Operations manager position so I could focus on sales and marketing. It's been a bumpy road to say the least.

I first tried to hire two guys from outside the organization, I really thought I did my due diligence but it didn't work out with either of those guys. One guy I learned after a week (lol) the other took me a month and a half. On our third guy, I promoted from within and it seemed like it was working but here we are almost two full quarters in and we have less capacity because I haven't been successful in finding a replacement for him in the field, and we are making less money on jobs because ... well it's a combination of things but he might not be a fit for the position.

I'm thinking I need a more decentralized approach since essentially we are at the same revenue number as last year when we didn't have his big overhead position.

So the question is - how do you roll that back? Is it possible to make a change like that without alienating the person I'm demoting? Would it be easier to demote if I'm citing financial and structural changes for the company?

What's ya'll take on that.

anthonysalazar · Answer

I’ve had to roll back hiring decisions before, and it’s never fun.

I hired 2 different VAs from the Philippines because I wanted to buy back time on the office side. The idea made sense. I wanted help with lead follow-up, admin, outreach, CRM work, and the repetitive tasks that were pulling me away from higher-value work.

Both ended up being bad fits. Performance wasn’t where I needed it, expectations kept getting missed, and no-shows became part of the problem. Eventually I had to let both of them go. That experience taught me that creating a role because you need relief doesn’t automatically mean the role is ready, or that the person in it is the right fit.

In your situation, I’d probably separate 2 questions:

Is the position financially justified?

And is this person the right fit for it?

If the company has less capacity, margins are worse, and revenue is flat compared to last year, I think it’s fair to revisit the structure. I’d be careful about making it sound like a punishment if the bigger issue is that the role itself isn’t working the way you expected.

Something along the lines of:

“We created this position because we believed it would improve capacity and profitability. After 2 quarters, the numbers are telling us we need to restructure. I want to talk through where your strengths fit best in the company and what that transition could look like.”

They still may be disappointed. You probably can’t eliminate that. But being clear about the business reason, the numbers, and what you’ve learned gives you a much better chance of handling it respectfully than dragging out a structure that isn’t working.

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How to You Roll Back a Major Change?

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