There is only one rule to adhere to when re-organizing your team – design what your team(s) needs to look like to be successful, before deciding where specific people fit.
A remarkable number of leaders get this wrong by doing the reverse: elevating specific people first and designing the rest of the org around them. I understand why people might think this is a good idea: a reorg will inevitably create new focus areas, and investing first and foremost in the highest performers is an excellent retention lever. While this might be true, resist this urge at all costs. You might promote someone for exhibiting behaviors at the next level. Then separately, as a new opportunity opens up for someone at this level in your new organization design, this person might fit right in. But these should remain separate events. Thinking about both simultaneously creates all sorts of perverse incentives and bias, which often create blind spots that are at odds with diversity and inclusion.
