As multi-academy trusts grow, the greatest threat to their effectiveness may not be the challenges outside the organisation, but the structures, behaviours and decisions within it.
There is a question I believe every multi-academy trust CEO should ask their executive team:
"If we were building our trust from scratch today, would we design it the way it currently operates?"
It's a deceptively simple question.
Yet for many growing trusts, the answer may be uncomfortable.
Across the education sector, organisations are being asked to achieve more with increasingly constrained resources. Financial sustainability, workforce pressures, rising expectations and the complexities of school improvement are demanding greater organisational sophistication.
At the same time, many trusts are continuing to grow.
More schools. More employees. More responsibilities. More complexity.
But growth creates an important leadership challenge that is too often overlooked.
An organisation can become bigger without becoming better.
And unless leaders deliberately address how their organisation operates, growth can expose weaknesses that were previously manageable.
The hidden cost of organisational complexity
Most organisational structures are not created through a single, carefully designed process.
They evolve.
A new school joins the trust, and additional capacity is introduced.
A colleague takes on responsibilities because they have the knowledge or experience to manage them.
A new role is created to resolve an immediate operational challenge.
A central function expands to meet increasing demand.
Each decision may be entirely reasonable in isolation.
But over time, these incremental decisions can create an operating model that no longer reflects the organisation's strategic priorities.
Responsibilities become blurred. Decision-making slows. Professional expertise is fragmented. Senior leaders find themselves drawn into operational matters that should be resolved elsewhere.
Perhaps most concerningly, colleagues can become exceptionally busy without necessarily becoming more effective.
This is the hidden cost of organisational complexity.
It rarely appears as a single line in a financial report, but it can affect productivity, leadership capacity, employee confidence and ultimately the quality of support provided to schools.
The question is not simply whether a trust can afford its current structure. It is whether that structure is delivering the value the trust needs.
Restructuring is not transformation
Having led and supported complex organisational change, I have seen how easily restructuring can become the solution before the problem has been properly defined.
Organisations identify inefficiencies, redraw structures, create new reporting lines and revise job descriptions.
Yet months later, many of the original challenges remain.
Why?
Because changing an organisational chart does not necessarily change how an organisation works.
True transformation requires leaders to look beyond reporting relationships.
It means examining the interaction between strategy, people, systems, processes, culture and accountability.
It requires difficult questions:
These questions are not always comfortable.
They can challenge established ways of working, long-standing responsibilities and assumptions about how an organisation should operate.
But they are essential if transformation is to deliver more than a different organisational chart.
The leadership capacity problem
One of the clearest indicators that an operating model may no longer be fit for purpose is the amount of time executive leaders spend resolving operational problems.
Consider the CEO who is routinely drawn into decisions that should sit with central functions.
The CFO who becomes involved in administrative matters because processes are unclear.
The COO who spends more time resolving cross-departmental disputes than developing organisational capability.
Or the Chief People Officer whose capacity is consumed by reactive employee relations issues, leaving little opportunity to shape the workforce strategy.
These are not necessarily failures of individual leadership.
They may be symptoms of an organisation that has not adequately defined accountability, decision-making authority or the relationship between central services and schools.
The real purpose of an effective operating model is not simply to distribute work. It is to create the conditions in which leaders can lead.
When accountability is clear, decisions can be made with greater confidence.
When specialist functions are properly designed, professional expertise can be deployed more effectively.
And when operational arrangements work as intended, executive leaders gain the capacity to focus on the issues that matter most: educational outcomes, organisational sustainability, culture and long-term strategy.
The people challenge: transformation without losing trust
Of course, organisational transformation is never purely structural.
Behind every role, reporting line and proposed change is a person.
For employees, change can raise fundamental questions about professional identity, security, fairness and future opportunity.
For leaders, it creates the challenge of balancing organisational necessity with humanity.
This is where the quality of leadership becomes decisive.
Effective transformation requires more than a compelling business case.
It requires a credible explanation of why change is necessary, meaningful consultation, transparent decision-making and a willingness to engage with challenge.
It also requires leaders to recognise an uncomfortable reality:
People can understand why change is necessary and still find it personally difficult.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
In my experience, some of the most difficult organisational decisions are not necessarily those involving the greatest financial consequences.
They are the decisions involving colleagues who have contributed significantly to an organisation, built long-standing relationships and become deeply invested in existing arrangements.
Leaders must be able to recognise that contribution while remaining clear about what the organisation needs for the future.
Empathy and accountability are not competing leadership qualities.
The strongest transformation programmes require both.
Why culture cannot be an afterthought
An organisation's structure may define formal accountability, but its culture determines how people experience that structure.
You can create clear reporting lines and still have ineffective communication.
You can introduce specialist roles and still experience territorial behaviour.
You can establish sophisticated processes and still have a workforce that lacks confidence in how decisions are made.
Culture is shaped by what leaders do consistently, particularly when circumstances become difficult.
How is professional challenge handled?
Are colleagues encouraged to raise concerns?
Do managers address performance issues fairly and constructively?
Are decisions explained transparently?
Do leaders demonstrate the behaviours they expect from others?
These questions matter because organisational effectiveness depends on more than technical competence.
It depends on trust.
And trust is difficult to establish through policy alone.
Five questions for every trust executive team
For trust leaders considering their next phase of development, I would encourage five conversations.
1. Is our organisation designed for where we are going, or where we have been?
A structure that supported five schools may not be the right structure for ten or fifteen.
2. Do we have genuine clarity about accountability?
If multiple people believe they own a decision, or nobody is confident who owns it, the operating model requires attention.
3. Are we using our most valuable resource effectively?
Workforce investment should be considered not simply in terms of cost, but in the capability, expertise and value it creates.
4. Are our executive leaders leading strategically?
If senior leaders are routinely consumed by operational activity, consider whether the issue is capacity, delegation, systems or organisational design.
5. Would our people describe our culture in the same way that our strategy does?
The gap between stated values and lived experience can reveal some of the most important opportunities for improvement.
The real measure of transformation
There is a temptation to measure organisational transformation through what has changed.
The number of roles redesigned.
The departments reorganised.
The financial efficiencies identified.
The systems implemented.
These measures may be important, but they are not the ultimate test.
The real question is what the organisation can now achieve that it could not achieve before.
Are decisions better?
Are leaders more effective?
Do colleagues understand their responsibilities?
Are schools receiving stronger professional support?
Is the organisation more resilient, adaptable and capable of delivering its strategic priorities?
And, ultimately, is the trust better positioned to improve outcomes for children and young people?
That is the difference between restructuring an organisation and genuinely transforming it.
As the multi-academy trust sector continues to evolve, I believe the organisations that thrive will not simply be those that grow.
They will be those prepared to challenge how they operate, invest in leadership capability and align their people, culture and structures with a clear strategic purpose.
Because growth should never be the destination.
Building a stronger, more effective organisation should be.
About the author
Stephen Watson FCIPD is Director of Sterren Consulting, an executive advisory and organisational transformation consultancy supporting education leaders with complex people challenges, organisational design, workforce strategy and leadership effectiveness.
A former Chief People Officer within the multi-academy trust sector, Stephen has extensive executive experience leading complex organisational change, developing people strategies and working alongside CEOs and executive teams to strengthen organisational performance.
Meet Stephen at the Schools & Academies Show Birmingham, 18–19 November 2026, at the NEC.
Website: www.sterrenconsulting.com
Linked in: (1) Stephen Watson FCIPD | LinkedIn