Every time we sit down to build our Accountability Chart, my leadership team gets defensive because they are trying to protect their current titles and direct reports. How do we force the team to design the structure before people, especially when the future structure threatens their current status?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This defensiveness is a classic sign of ego and fear overriding the health of the business. To break this impasse, you must establish a ground rule before you start drawing boxes: we design the structure first, and we do not talk about people for the first two hours. You must explain to the team that titles do not matter in EOS®. We do not use titles like Vice President or Director on the Accountability Chart; we use seats defined by five major roles. Ask your team to temporarily step outside of their current roles and put on their owner hats. Their job during this session is to design the absolute best structure to take the business from where it is today to your three-year picture on the V/TO®. If you were building this company from scratch today with unlimited capital, what seats would you create to achieve that vision? Draw those boxes on the board. Only after the structure is completely defined and agreed upon by the entire leadership team do you begin matching names to the seats. When you transition to placing people in the seats, use the GWC™ tool. If a legacy leader does not fit the newly designed seat, it will become obvious to everyone in the room, including them. This process removes the emotion and forces an objective, data-driven discussion about what the business actually needs to scale and prepare for a clean exit.