Helix Model: Useful Or a Double Whammy?

I recently came across an article on the Helix model, by McKinsey and Co. I found myself quite enriched by the article, wondering if it could really solve a lot of structural issues among organizations.

The helix model proposes that instead of having a top-down, or even a matrix model of organization, they can have a two-way helix model, in which there are two managers who play an equally important role in making an organization blossom.

The first is responsible for the day to day tasks or “what gets done”, while the other focuses on capability management or “how it gets done”. Their suggestion is that this can create a helix structure, much like in DNA, where each manager feeds one part of the overall process.

I really found it interesting, and wondered - is it really going to be helpful?

What happens in Matrix Organizations?

Reflecting on my own experience, I’ve always had both line managers as well as dotted managers in my field of work, and I had previously always accepted this as the system that must be in place for an organization to function well.

Now that I think back to my time in the field, it’s amazing how much work I actually had to do! I sometimes had three or even four bosses - and it was always a task to get all the bills and reviews from all the dotted line managers ready for the solid line manager. This left me often in a confused state of mind, because I would have to pay for prioritizing one boss over another. Sometimes, it wasn’t even a choice, and I would make a particular decision more as a default rather than as a conscious decision.

Ultimately, did that experience leave me worse off or did that enrich my working life? Did having multiple managers make me a better employee or did that confuse me to the point where I felt disoriented?

To be completely honest, the answer is somewhere in the middle. There were moments that I shared with some of my dotted managers that I felt were extremely useful, and sometimes even more important than the ones I had experienced with my line managers. However, sometimes the opposite was true as well - there was much to be desired in the overall disposition of many of my dotted managers, and they had an overall detrimental effect on my work at the particular organization.

Will Helix be any different?

I want to say with certainty that it will be different from Matrix organizations. But I think even when the matrix hierarchy was proposed - the idea for it was to be radically different from a top down hierarchy, wasn’t it? 

With that being said, I'm reasonably optimistic about its implementation. After all, every new system tries in earnest not to replicate the faults of its predecessors, while improving on their features. And I'm sure that the helix system will have its pitfalls as well, and that it will have to work through them. I'm hoping the journey is a memorable one in any case!

The only hang up I currently envision is that they may not have thought through the experience of the employee who is under such a system.

Much like what I experienced under a matrix organisation, it is possible that there is scope for getting lost in translation when it comes to the daily work experience of employees. They too can end up feeling lost and confused, searching for a way out.

Hiccups, resistance and complexities are a given when implementing any new system, but we must learn to expedite the fixing process with every past experience.

From that perspective, it’s always good to get a third party opinion, when introducing a cultural or structural change.

As I mentioned before, I remain largely optimistic about it, and would love to know what you think about this as well!