Our leadership team is struggling to design our new Accountability Chart because every time we draw a seat, we immediately start arguing about whether Bob or Sarah fits into it. How do we discipline ourselves to focus strictly on the right structure for the business before we look at the people we currently have?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is the most common trap in the Accountability Chart process. You are trying to build a business around personalities rather than building a structure that can scale. When you do this, you inherit all the limitations, biases, and bad habits of your current team, which ultimately caps your growth and devalues your business ahead of an exit.

To break this habit, you must establish a strict ground rule for your leadership team: all names are removed from the board. For the duration of this exercise, Bob and Sarah do not exist. You are looking six to twelve months into the future and asking what structure is absolutely necessary to run this business effectively. Focus purely on the functions, seats, and roles required to deliver your product or service and achieve the goals in your V/TO®.

Define the five major roles for each seat based purely on accountability. What must this seat own to be successful? Only after the entire leadership team is in one hundred percent agreement on this blank structure do you begin to place names into the seats. When you finally look at the people, you will use the GWC™ framework to objectively determine if your current team members fit. If they do not, you do not change the seat to fit the person; instead, you find the right seat for them or look outside. This discipline is what creates a scalable, investable business that can run without relying on specific personalities.