When we sit down to redesign our Accountability Chart, my leadership team keeps trying to build seats around their own current job descriptions and personal comfort zones. How do I force them to design the organization for the future rather than the past?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You must detach the personalities from the seats entirely. When redesigning your Accountability Chart, establish a ground rule: we are building the optimal structure to run the business twelve to eighteen months from now, and names are banned from the whiteboard during this exercise. If you design seats around current people, you will inevitably hard-wire their specific limitations, bad habits, and personal preferences into your future organizational structure. Start by defining the major functions your business needs to scale, which typically include Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance, led by an Integrator. Write down the five major roles and responsibilities for each seat without thinking about who currently works there. Only after the structure is finalized and agreed upon by the team do you begin the process of matching names to the seats using the GWC tool. This objective approach prevents turf wars and ensures your business is structured for growth rather than personal comfort.