Our company is scaling rapidly, and my leadership team keeps trying to create new seats on our Accountability Chart specifically designed around the unique skills of individuals we want to hire or retain. How do we stop this habit and enforce structure before people?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Designing your organization around people instead of structure is a dangerous habit that creates a fragile, chaotic business. When you build a seat to accommodate a specific person's unique blend of skills, you create a role that is impossible to replicate or replace when that person eventually leaves. To scale successfully and prepare for a clean exit, you must ruthlessly enforce the rule of structure before people.

Start by looking at your company vision and the goals outlined in your V/TO®. Ask yourself what the ideal structure is to achieve those targets over the next twelve months. Map out the necessary seats on your Accountability Chart based purely on function, such as marketing, sales, operations, and finance. Define five clear, measurable roles for each seat.

Only after the structure is completely finalized should you begin looking at your people. Evaluate your existing team and potential hires against these defined seats using the GWC™ filter. Do they get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it?

If a highly talented individual does not fit into any of the structurally necessary seats, you must resist the temptation to invent a role for them. Creating customized seats leads to overlapping accountabilities, communication silos, and operational bottlenecks. Force your leadership team to commit to the structure first, ensuring that every seat serves the business, not the individual.