We designed our Accountability Chart but people are still operating in their old, siloed organizational chart habits. How do we break this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An Accountability Chart is not a traditional organizational chart. An organizational chart is about status, titles, and reporting lines. An Accountability Chart is purely about function, roles, and accountability.

To break old habits, you must enforce the GWC framework, which stands for Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it. Every seat on your Accountability Chart must have five clearly defined roles.

If people are falling back into old behaviors, it is often because they do not truly understand their new roles, or they lack the conative capacity to execute them. Use assessments like the Predictive Index to evaluate whether an employee's behavioral wiring matches the cognitive and behavioral requirements of their seat.

You must also stop treating departments like isolated silos. When an issue arises, do not let leaders retreat to their functional corners. Use the Level 10 Meeting to address problems as a unified leadership team.

When a leader brings up a siloed issue, force them to look at the Accountability Chart and ask, who owns this function? Let that person own the resolution. By consistently reinforcing who owns what result, you will dismantle the old hierarchy and establish true operational accountability.