Organisation chart

Org charts are wrong within a month of being drawn, which is why the important quality is how cheap they are to change. A text-generated chart is a one-line edit; a slide is a redraw.

Vacancies and dotted lines are the parts people actually look for, so draw them explicitly.

#When to reach for one

• Onboarding, where the first question is always who does what.

• Reorganisations, where current and proposed sit side by side.

• Planning, where vacancies and spans of control are the subject.

#How to draw it in Capable

#A worked example

Reporting lines, a vacancy and a dotted line:

The source, which you can paste into a new diagram and edit:

flowchart TD
  CEO[Chief Executive]
  CEO --> CTO[CTO]
  CEO --> CFO[CFO]
  CEO --> CPO[Chief Product Officer]
  CTO --> ENG1[Platform lead]
  CTO --> ENG2[Apps lead]
  CTO --> SEC[Security lead - VACANT]
  CPO --> DES[Design lead]
  CPO --> PM[Product manager]
  DES -.-> ENG2
  SEC -.-> CFO
  classDef vacant stroke-dasharray: 5 5
  class SEC vacant

#A few things that catch people out

• Draw roles, not only people. Roles survive individuals leaving.

• Mark vacancies. They are usually the reason somebody opened the chart.

• Consider what belongs on an internal page. Org charts are sensitive in a way most diagrams are not.

#Related

Editable during the meeting beats pretty afterwards.