This is a blatant Aquire case example – I don’t typically blog this directly about our solutions. The story is not a fairy tale – but it does include “magic” and has a happy ending.

Now, this client has OrgPublisher to do their planning.  When showing it to teams of HR professionals their eyes lit up.  They could see that simply creating what-if scenarios and projecting the options on the wall allowed for everybody to be on the same ‘page’ at the same time.  Searches are automating the creation of groups to consider for positions or for other changes.  Changing titles, reorganizing departments, reassigning positions was so easy that a quick cheat sheet and a few show ‘n tells and they were off and running.

No longer does the process over run the decision making.  Costs can be rolled up for review dynamically as changes are considered.  Headcount, span of control and budget changes are reflected with each change.  One HR pro said –“oh my gosh it looks like magic”.

Now their organizational design, visualization of the org charts and succession planning are all managed by their HR professionals with a similar feel, confidence and efficiency.

This is a very rewarding part of my job – seeing Aquire solutions solve problems and make customers very happy.

Cheers,

Lois

People need structure. We naturally seek relationships, effective communication channels, and some sense of order.  Just because your company has a traditional org chart or hierarchy, doesn’t mean it’s managed with command and control, overlords barking orders, micro-managing and over ruling decisions.  Those are elements of a culture – not the product of a hierarchy.

Effective businesses are not run by democracy vote. You need the expertise of the employees and the experience of teams to move projects forward, base decisions and execute. If every decision was made by committee or democratic vote of teams, nothing would get done. If you don’t have some people with authority and experience to facilitate the demand of timelines, goals, and production, you don’t have a business you have a commune. The last time I checked, there were not a lot of happy people thriving in this type of economic environment. (Anyone thinking they are thriving in a commune is REALLY under the influence of an overlord-type leader who has typically “whipped” people into submission – thus, we are back to the REAL command and control environment, but with only 2 layers of the org chart – this is bad).

So, stop blaming your org chart for your culture deficiencies. Stop pretending that the new social media is creating networks that will overthrow the need of a decision matrix of some type. Yes, teams are very effective ways to conduct business. Yes, networks are now easier to build and communicate with than ever before.

But is your entire network going to go to the bank to borrow money and explain how it will be managed? Is your entire social network within the company going to go before Congress to illustrate the need for a new way of doing things in your industry? Is your investor going to feel comfortable seeking out responsibility and answers from 10,000 independent employees so that they know how their investment will grow? Is the team going to decide how much money each employee is going to make?

Hmmm, go chew on those questions for awhile, and then tell me how any place over a 10 person company is going to operate without bosses or some type of chain of command. Because, this I want to hear.

Cheers,
Lois

Why is this visualization of the organization still so important? An org chart gives a clear definition of very important relationships.

• Who is responsible for you?
• Who are you responsible for?
• Whose budget do you belong to?
• Who will conduct your performance appraisal?
• Who will you consider as your most probable candidate to succeed you in the succession plan?
• Who should you go to when you have a concern about something in the business?

There are reasons why Sarbanes–Oxley audits utilize an org chart during several steps of the process. There is a real need for an accountability span of control.

Let’s look at the relationship aspect of the org chart even more. Employee retention is vital to the health of an organization. It’s often said that people don’t leave a company, they leave their supervisor. So, you want to turn that around and keep people because of their supervisor. You want to know clearly who is ultimately responsible for each person’s job satisfaction, besides the individual. Objectives are tied to retention and employee engagement in many companies; that means it is even more important to build the relationships up and down the chain of command. Dotted-line reporting, or matrix organizations, creates an ever greater need to visualize the relationships between people – the multiple responsibilities we hold to each other.

I’d like to hear about your experience with the formal relationship links you maintain. Next week is the Aquire User Conference, and I am really looking forward to hearing from the attendees about their recent issues and rewards of having clean organizational charts available to their entire workforce.

There will be more discussion in this blog about this topic – I hope you will add your ideas to the comments for discussion.

Cheers,
Lois

The question to ask is: what is the thought horizon, or goal horizon, for each manager and team member? In other words, if the boss’ objectives, goals, even compensation, are tied to events and plans that take a year to achieve, can they effectively relate and manage people whose objective is that their goals be met by the end of the day? For example, should the bank branch manager manage the teller whose primary measurement is a balanced till at closing time?

This logic is beautifully structured by groups following a practice typically called the Requisite Organization (RO), defined and developed by the late Elliott Jacque. Organizations like Rio Tinto, Ford, Novus, the U.S. Army, and many others, use this and other methodologies supporting the Requisite Organization, as well as the Stratified Systems Theory.

The RO system provides a framework and details for refining your corporate structure to maximize efficiency. The Global Organization Design Society is an association dedicated to bringing RO to companies. The GO conference draws members from all four corners of the earth to share ideas and exchange benchmark data on their success. Some organizations dive into the practice to the letter of the theory, while others adopt or adapt many of the best practices.

Wikipedia contains a concise definition of the Requisite Organization theory. Elliott Jacque has written a number of books, as have the Society members, to help you on this quest.