When revising our Accountability Chart for growth, our leaders keep designing seats around the existing skill sets of our current people instead of the business structure. How do we force the team to design the right structure first?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Designing an Accountability Chart around current employees is one of the most common ways companies accidentally institutionalize their operational bottlenecks. When you create seats to fit the unique habits, preferences, and weaknesses of existing staff, you build an organization designed to preserve comfort rather than accelerate growth.

To break this habit, you must mentally remove all human names from the chart before touching the structure.

Start by wiping the slate clean and asking a fundamental question: If our business were starting completely fresh today to deliver our three-year picture, what functional seats would be strictly required to execute that vision?

Look only at the functions: Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance, led by an Integrator and a Visionary. Define the five major accountabilities for each seat without discussing who might fill them. Every single seat must have five crystal-clear, non-overlapping operational roles that drive bottom-line execution.

Only after the structure is finalized and agreed upon by the leadership team do you turn your attention to the people.

Now, place your current personnel into those seats using the GWC framework: Do they get it, do they want it, and do they have the capacity to do it? If an existing leader does not fit the ideal seat, you do not alter the seat to accommodate them. You either adjust their role, transition them to a seat they actually fit, or find someone who does.