Template:M intro design org chart: Difference between revisions

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:M intro design org chart (view source)

Revision as of 20:19, 23 October 2023

806 bytes added ,  23 October 2023
no edit summary
No edit summary
Line 14: Line 14:
The [[org chart]] is a formal diagram that places everyone in a logical, hierarchical relation to everyone else, reporting lines radiating out and down from the the splayed fingers of the [[chief executive officer]]. It is a centrally-sanctioned, aspirational, blueprint: to the executive suite what the “built environment” is to the town planner: a plausible account of how the organisation is ''meant'' to work.
The [[org chart]] is a formal diagram that places everyone in a logical, hierarchical relation to everyone else, reporting lines radiating out and down from the the splayed fingers of the [[chief executive officer]]. It is a centrally-sanctioned, aspirational, blueprint: to the executive suite what the “built environment” is to the town planner: a plausible account of how the organisation is ''meant'' to work.


But it is [[the map and the territory|a map and not the territory]], and is little use in understanding how the organisation ''does'' work. For that we should look for desire lines. Communication channels that personnel open because they want to, or need to, to get what they need to do, done. These vital channels rarely run along the formal lines of the org chart.
But, being a [[the map and the territory|a map and not the territory]], and tells you as much about what the organisation does as an ordinance survey map tells you what the weather will be like or what’s on at the cinema. It contains no ''desire lines'': the communication channels the firm’s personnel willingly open because they ''want'' to, or ''need'' to, to get anything done.  


===What you see is all there is===
(Don’t underestimate the importance of the “want” in that calculus, by the way: there is always a choice as to whom you call to get a given job done. All other things being equal, we choose the dude over the bore. It is reflexive: over time dudes field more calls get more experience build better networks and give better outcomes: “want” converges with “need”. ''Lesson: if you want to get ahead, don’t be a dork.'')
Management is obliged to focuse on its [[formal]] structure, made flesh in reporting lines, because ''that is all it sees''. Reporting lines are “[[legible]]”. Measurable. [[Audit|Auditable]]. You can count and optimise the [[spans and layers]], and attribute to them the profits and losses of the organisation even if, in practice, they don’t map awfully well.


And these reporting lines are the most sclerotic, rusty and ''resented'' communication channels in the organisation. They are the “keep off the grass” signs; vain attempts to coerce inferior modes of communication over better ones, for if they really were the best lines of communication, you wouldn’t ''need'' to formalise them. They would just ''happen''.
In any case, these vital informal communication channels rarely run along the formal lines of the org chart. Why would they?


Since they don’t, management exhorts [[line manager]]s to [[one-to-one|meet weekly]] with their directs and populate standing agendas to furnish [[management information and statistics]] fit for injection into [[opco]] [[Microsoft PowerPoint|decks]] and [[RAG status|RAG dashboards]] of handsome looking, but — given the circumstances of its generation — basically useless data.  
===What you see is all there is===
Yet management is obliged to focus on this [[formal]], static structure, made flesh in reporting lines, because ''that is all it sees''.  


It is all very [[performative]]. ''Because they wouldn’t do it otherwise, and no-one would miss it''.  
Consider poor old Dan Grade, an ED in the risk team. The CEO can’t see what everyone knows: that Dan is the go-to guy for dumb questions, sensible takes and tricky credit escalations. He’s also an affable chap: he has been in the organisation twenty-five years, runs a tight ship, holds a trove of [[institutional knowledge]] and personal capital which he applies deftly to managing risk, fixing flare-ups, tamping down client situations, patiently educating generations of grads, inside his department and out, about the tenets of risk management, all the while and making his really rather useless boss look good. Dan does all this so well that he rarely comes to the attention of anyone important, and from 30,000 feet he’s just a node in the thickets of branches in the org chart. Only his reporting line and salary is “[[legible]]” from the executive suite. They can count and optimise the [[spans and layers]], of which he is part, and attribute to them the profits and losses of the organisation even if, in practice, they don’t map awfully well, but they have no clue as to what he does to move the organisation on.


{{data as a self-fulfilling prophecy}}
Instead, the reporting lines which management sees are the most sclerotic, rusty and ''resented'' communication channels in the organisation. They are the “keep off the grass” signs; vain attempts to coerce inferior modes of communication over better ones, for if they really were the best lines of communication, no-one would ''need'' to coerce them: they would just ''happen'', the same way lateral communications naturally flow into Dan.


Communications up and down the chain of command do not advance the [[commercial imperative]], but ''react'' to it. They are validations of things the report already knows; reluctant, strained, for-the-sake-of-it FYIs; updates and postings serving only to spare the manager’s blushes should she be blind-sided by someone else.  Vertical communications fulfil formal, not substantive, requirements for order.  
Since they don’t, management exhorts [[line manager]]s to [[one-to-one|meet weekly]] with their directs, populating standing agendas to furnish [[management information and statistics]] fit for injection into [[opco]] [[Microsoft PowerPoint|decks]] and [[RAG status|RAG dashboards]] of handsome looking, but — given the circumstances of its generation — basically useless data.  


The firm’s real business is done only when its gears are engaged, and that means its on-the-ground personnel communicate with those who are ''not'' in their immediate hierarchy. The business unit is a gear: what matters is what happens ''when it is engaged''.
It is all very [[performative]]. ''Because they wouldn’t do it otherwise, and no-one would miss it''.  


But as the complicatedness of our organisations has grown we have developed more and more internal “engines” that engage not with the outside world, but with each other, generating their own heat, noise and movement — frictions and vibrations which wear out parts and fatigue the machinery — and which are lost as [[Entropy|entropic]] energy.
=== Reaction and advancement ===
Communications along the formal chain of command do not advance the [[commercial imperative]], but ''react'' to it. They are validations of things the subject matter expert already knows: reluctant, strained, for-the-sake-of-it FYIs; updates and postings serving only to spare the manager’s blushes should she be blind-sided by someone else. Vertical communications fulfil formal, not substantive, requirements for order.  


Of course, of course: one must have [[legal]], [[compliance]] and [[internal audit]], but when those departments have their own operational infrastructure and are themselves monitored and audited, the drift from optimal efficiency is plain. [[Internal audit]] must periodically audit ''itself''. But who audits ''that'' function? [[Elephants and turtles|Turtles]] ahoy: we approach an infinite regression.
The firm’s real business is done only when its gears are engaged, and that means its on-the-ground personnel communicate with those who are ''outside'' their hierarchy. The business unit is a gear: what matters is what happens ''when it is engaged''.


===The map and the territory===
===The map and the territory===
Retrieved from "https://jollycontrarian.com/index.php?title=Special:MobileDiff/79902"

Navigation menu