Rearranging the Chart Rarely Fixes It

I think about one organization full of smart, hardworking people, where the leaders were sure the problem was who reported to whom — when the real problem was happening somewhere else entirely. They kept losing great job candidates and blamed the structure, but the truth was that their hiring was painfully slow. Every strong candidate had to wait weeks while four different people tried to agree on one simple yes, and by the time the offer finally went out, the best ones had already taken a faster job somewhere else.

The managers who used to fight to bring in good people slowly gave up — and that is the warning sign most leaders catch far too late.

What I Look at First

It helps to think of an organization like a body — the chart is the skeleton, and while bones matter, you would never describe a person by their bones alone. Before I change a single line on that chart, I walk through five living parts with the leaders. Each one tells us a whole lot more than the chart ever could.

1. Does everyone understand the big plan and how their part fits into it? Leaders love to announce a bold new direction and then assume it will make its way down on its own. The organizations that win are the ones where someone three levels down can tell you, in plain words, how their everyday work connects to where the company is going — that is what turns a nice poster on the wall into a plan people are actually living out.

2. Does everyone know exactly what their job is? Work changes much faster than the job descriptions meant to describe it. I look for the moment when each person knows exactly what is theirs to handle — because that is when people stop bumping into each other over who does what, stop carrying work that was never theirs, and start giving their best in a role that truly fits them.

3. Do the people in charge of something actually have the power to decide it? When you make someone responsible for a result but force them to get three levels of approval for every little choice, you build frustration right into the structure. The goal I aim for is simple: trust good people to make the calls their job needs, and watch decisions happen faster, problems surface earlier, and your best people jump all the way in.

4. Can people of different ages and levels really talk to each other? This is the one leaders miss the most, and it sits at the heart of the CALM framework my business partner Dr. Greg Baldeo built. I have watched real, open conversation do more for a struggling organization than any reshuffle I have ever drawn up — a chart can place two people in the same department, but only good conversation ever teaches them to understand each other.

5. When a decision is made, does it actually get done? Plenty of organizations stay super busy and still go in circles, simply because no one is in charge of finishing the job. I look for the kind of follow-through where every person knows what they are responsible for and trusts that their good work will get done, get noticed, and get a little credit out loud.

And Sometimes the Chart Really Is Worth Changing

The chart still matters, and every now and then it truly is the thing you need to fix. When two people who should be working side by side have to send everything through a third person who slows them both down, you change it — and gladly. When one manager is somehow in charge of forty people and could never give each of them real attention, you give them a setup that finally works for everyone.

Getting the structure right is a real win on its own — and it works best of all once those five living parts are healthy and running well.

The Organizations That Do Well