While an Organizational Chart can be helpful, it often leaves too many open questions and lacks useful information. More effective is the concept of an Accountability Chart, especially crucial for business growth over the next 6 to 12 months.
In a rapidly changing world, your business structure and responsibilities must adapt quickly. To succeed in the modern economy, innovation and change are necessary. Keep your team engaged and poised for success.
"To succeed in the modern economy, innovation and change are necessary."
- Jeff Rogers, CPMBC
The Importance of Simplicity in Organizational Structures
Another necessary component to make this a helpful tool is to keep it simple. If your company has 20 employees, you do not need to create a chart with 20 boxes. This strategic planning tool; it must be streamlined and straightforward for all to grasp and implement.
To that end, the starting point should be dividing your business into three primary functions. Think of it as Find, Mind, and Grind.
Find, Mind, and Grind: Streamlining Business Functions
These three functions can represent any business – Sales and Marketing represent activities used to generate (Find) business. Operations and Delivery (Grind) provides the product or service and takes care of the customer. Support (Mind) covers all of the money and infrastructure components. Find, Mind, and Grind provides simple, functional clarity for all.
To have a strong business, all 3 of these functions at a strategic level need to be strong. It makes sense if you think about it – if you have great sales and Marketing but poor Operations and Delivery, you will lose customers and struggle to find new ones to sell to.
If you have weak Sales and Marketing, it almost does not matter what else you do, and you will not generate any new business. If you have weak Support, you are probably leaking money like a sieve and minimizing the bottom line. All three are priorities, and balance is required for you to win.
The Role of the Visionary CEO in Business
Finally, one additional role can be optional for some organizations. The CEO. This role may be more likely to be a critical role during periods of growth or transformation.
Building an Accountability Loop
Everyone understanding Find, Mind, and Grind must have strong organizational functions; the next steps are to layout and determine who is accountable for keeping those functions strong. Here is one of the keys to making this work.
- There can only be 1 person ultimately accountable for each function
When more than one person is accountable, then no one is accountable. Leadership and Accountability are ultimately how issues get solved. Things will get done, and businesses will grow.
To learn more about this process, download the full document. There you will learn in great detail these five integrations and detailed images to support the points made.
Defining Responsibilities: The Power of Five Key Roles
What makes the Accountability chart useful is the clear delineation of responsibilities defined by five significant roles within each function.
The 5 roles are the primary points of Accountability – other roles and responsibilities will fall under the various functions. But, it is critical to narrow it down to the five most important things and to keep it streamlined. To keep it simple and to provide clarity for the best implementation.
Now you have the primary functions broken out. Next, develop each process and break out additional positions below that.
Remember, each of those positions has no more than five significant roles.
At some point, you will reach a position that encompasses multiple individuals. As an example, the members of the Sales team will all have the same significant roles and can be represented by a single position.
You know what to do!
