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Move guide

Draw the organisation from the map

Your report suggested a move on at least one of these five practices:

  • how many people report to the CEO, and how much still lands on the CEO's desk;
  • who below the CEO owns a margin they can actually move;
  • how many layers sit between the CEO and the front line, and how many people a typical manager manages;
  • whether senior roles have a purpose that the people around them would describe the same way;
  • whether people move between parts of the business, or stay where they started.

This move guide draws the structure from where the work now sits, two levels below the chief executive first. It gives each leader a named line of the profit and loss, and sets spans and layers for the work. Then it rewrites each senior role on one page.

1. When it applies

Use this move guide if your report placed any of these practices in the lowest two stages.

Practice Where it may sit today Where this move guide aims
How many people report to the CEO, and how much still lands on the CEO's desk Lagging: "Ten or more people report to the CEO, and tenders, hires and anything over a few thousand dollars still wait for the CEO's signature."
Basic: "Fewer people report to the CEO than once did, but most decisions still route through the CEO's office."		 Competent: "Five to eight people report to the CEO, or in a group each division head holds a full profit number, and each of them runs something with a result they are held to."
Who below the CEO owns a margin they can actually move Lagging: "One part of the business owns the revenue, another owns the cost, and nobody below the CEO owns the margin."
Basic: "Some managers have a profit number on their scorecard, but the levers that move it (price, staffing, purchasing) sit with someone else."		 Competent: "Each main unit (branch, product line or customer segment) has an owner who is accountable for a contribution they control most of."
How many layers sit between the CEO and the front line, and how many people a typical manager manages Lagging: "Managers have three or four reports each, some manage a manager who manages one person, and a decision waits at every layer it passes through."
Basic: "Someone has counted the layers or the head-office roles and winced, a round of them was cut, and nothing was set so they will not grow back."		 Competent: "Most managers have six to eight reports, more where the work is repetitive, and there are no more than four layers from the CEO to the front line in a business under a hundred million, five in a larger one."
Whether senior roles have a purpose that the people around them would describe the same way Lagging: "Two or three executives each believe they run the same operation, and people in embedded teams are not sure who they actually work for."
Basic: "Job descriptions exist from when people were hired, and the actual job depends on who is in it."		 Competent: "The people around a senior role describe its job and the decisions it owns the same way the person in it does."
Whether people move between parts of the business, or stay where they started Lagging: "Nobody has moved from one part of the business to another in living memory."
Basic: "People leave a team for another part of the business, but no team takes anyone in."		 Competent: "Moves between parts happen when a job needs them, not only when someone asks."

If all five already sit at the middle stage or higher, skip this move guide.

Do it after placing each function and deciding who decides. If those are done, the change this step asks for is often small.

2. What to do

Five steps, in six to eight weeks.

  1. Draw the structure to two levels below the chief executive. Detail below that comes later.
  2. Give each leadership role a named line of the profit and loss. Give it the levers to move that line, too.
  3. Count the layers to the front line, and the reports per manager. Six to eight reports suits most managers. Specialist teams run nearer four to six, and repetitive work fifteen to twenty.
  4. Rewrite each senior role on one page. Its purpose, its accountabilities and the decisions it owns. Where a role has two bosses, have both sign the same goals.
  5. Fill the new roles from inside first. Ask who in another part of the business could do each job with support.

Table A below holds the top of the structure on one page.

The five free worksheets do the recording:

3. What to produce

One table, plus the five worksheets above.

Table A. The top of the structure

Role reporting to the chief executive Its line of the profit and loss The levers it holds Reports Filled from
Layers from the chief executive to the front line

A leader with a profit number and none of its levers holds a forecast.

4. A worked example

Illustrative. Written for this move guide. It describes no client.

A building services contractor has placed its functions and written who decides. It now draws the structure.

The top two levels.

  • Six people report to the chief executive: three regional managers, and the heads of national contracts, finance and people. Each regional manager owns their region's contribution and sets its crew levels.

Spans and layers.

  • The count found five layers to the front line, and eleven managers with two or three reports. Two supervisor layers in the larger regions became one.

The roles.

  • The head of national contracts and the regional managers had each thought they owned large customers. One page now says who leads each account and who delivers it. Two of the new supervisor roles went to people from another region.
Eight weeks on Illustrative
  • 6 reports to the chief executive, each with a result
  • 5 to 4 layers from the chief executive to the front line
  • 2 roles filled from another part of the business

On a retake, all five practices could be answered at the middle stage.

What it looked like in our work

From our own work. Redrawn.

A government-owned industrial services business had one profit number, at the top. The new structure gave a profit number to each part of the value chain.

Before After
Reports to the chief executive Many, with the only profit and loss Fewer, each running a profit centre
The largest executive role Most of the staff, answering only for cost Split across three profit centres along the value chain
Tenders Every one through the chief executive Decided in the profit centre that delivers the work
Work between the profit centres Charged by negotiation Transfer prices set by rule

Each leader now answered for a margin they could move.

5. Effort and dependencies

Who
  • Chief executiveDraws the top two levels and assigns each profit line.
  • Head of peopleCounts layers and spans, and leads the moves between parts.
  • Senior role holdersEach rewrites their own role on one page.

What you need

  • The placements and decision page from steps 5 and 6.
  • The current org chart, with every manager's reports counted.

How long

  • Six to eight weeks.

What gets in the way. We have seen this in our own work:

  • One profit number, at the top. At a government-owned industrial services business, the chief executive had ten direct reports and the only profit number. One executive held most of the staff and answered only for cost.

6. How will you know it worked?

The test is whether each leader runs something with a result they are held to. Retake the check once the new structure has run for a quarter. Each of these should be true when you answer:

Practice You can answer Competent when A document alone does not count if
How many people report to the CEO, and how much still lands on the CEO's desk Five to eight people report to the chief executive, and each runs something with a result. The chart has fewer boxes, and the decisions still route through the chief executive.
Who below the CEO owns a margin they can actually move Each main unit's owner holds its contribution and the levers that move it. The profit numbers are assigned, and the levers sit elsewhere.
How many layers sit between the CEO and the front line, and how many people a typical manager manages Spans and layers are counted and within the ranges, with a rule so they do not grow back. The layers were cut once, and nothing stops them coming back.
Whether senior roles have a purpose that the people around them would describe the same way Each senior role's page matches how the people around it describe the job. The pages are written, and nobody around the role has read them.
Whether people move between parts of the business, or stay where they started New roles are filled from other parts of the business when the job needs it. Moves are allowed, and no team has taken anyone in.

The worked example is illustrative.

Start the check

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Draw the organisation from the map · onestepright