A better org chart visualisation than the one you’re using

An organisational chart shows where departments sit and who manages who in your business. It’s useful because it’s visual and (you might think) unambiguous. I’ll often ask to see an org chart or organogram at the beginning of an engagement because I can immediately guess what some of the firm’s challenges are likely to be.

(Here are 3 that spring to mind, just so you know what I mean: 1. Managers have too many direct reports, which suggests they might struggle to get their own work done; 2. The People/HR function lines into Finance, which suggests the business might view its people as a cost to be optimised, not an asset to be unleashed; 3. Delivery teams line into different leaders, which suggests one team might feel another is preferred and there might be division in the culture.)

The problem with org charts is that they all look the same: hierarchical. The boss is on top of what could easily be an ivory tower.

A typical organisational chart.

The easiest option is to just flip your org chart on its head, with the boss on the bottom.

Here’s why it’s good:

• It reminds managers that they are here to serve and support their teams, not the other way around; you might consider referring to your “direct reports” as “direct supports”
• …so it feels less hierarchical to everyone on the chart; nobody feels “bottom of the pile”
• It reminds the leadership team that one of their main jobs - communicating with the team - is really pushing messages uphill; it’s hard to get comms out there, and to make them stick. The idea that a leader passes on a message to their direct reports and they “cascade” the information down the business is absolute bullshit and is one of the reasons why 99% of staff surveys tell you that communication from “the top” leaves something to be desired
• The people closest to the clients might well be at the top, depending on your size, which is helpful to remind people who you’re all there to serve (the customers, not the boss); it also helps to demonstrate you want them to “cascade” customer feedback.

Miro has an inverted org chart template, if your HR software won’t make one for you.