The team org chart, and the org chart with responsibilities written on it

Updated

A team org chart is read by different people than the company chart: mostly by the team itself and by whoever is about to work with it. That changes what belongs on it. Who reports to whom is settled in about four boxes; what each person owns is the question the chart is actually being asked, and most team charts answer the first and ignore the second. This page is how to draw one that does both and still fits on one page, and how the responsibility line on each box stops the chart from being redrawn every time somebody's remit shifts.

Four boxes of structure, then stop

A team of seven has one manager and six people, and the reporting structure takes four seconds to read. Spending the page on it is a waste of the only screen anybody will look at. Draw the line once, plainly, and give the rest of the space to what each person owns, which is what the person reading it came for.

One line of responsibility per box

Under each name, one line: the thing that is theirs and that somebody outside the team would come to them about. Not a job description, not three bullets, one line. It is the difference between a chart that answers who do I ask about billing and a chart that answers who does Sam report to, and only one of those questions gets asked in a normal week.

Keep it beside the company chart, not instead of it

A team chart drawn separately becomes a second version of the truth and drifts within a quarter. Drawn as a view of the same records it inherits every change automatically: on the worked example twenty-eight changes a year at six minutes each is under three hours of upkeep for every chart the company has, rather than three hours per chart.

Questions people ask about team org chart

Should the team chart show dotted lines?

Yes, especially into the team. The people most likely to read a team chart are the ones who work with it from outside, and the dotted lines are exactly what they need.

How big is too big for one page?

About fifteen boxes with a line of responsibility each. Past that the team has sub-teams and the chart should show them as groups.

Do responsibilities belong on the company chart too?

Usually not: at 128 boxes it is unreadable. Keep them on the team view and the profile, where they are read.

Sources

Related answers

Keep this chart and the people on it in Orgbix Pro, $24 a monthEvery person, every reporting line, every version of the chart. $24 a month.