Our business has grown rapidly, and our Operations seat has become a catch-all for everything from customer service to logistics, inventory, and facility management. Our operations leader is drowning. How do we split this seat logically without disrupting daily service delivery?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When an operations seat becomes a catch-all, it is a clear sign that your business has outgrown its current Accountability Chart structure. You cannot simply hire an assistant to help the operations leader; you must split the seat into distinct functional areas.

To do this logically, follow these steps:

- List every activity currently managed under the operations umbrella.
- Group these activities into natural functional buckets, such as Client Delivery, Supply Chain, and Facilities.
- Create new, separate seats below your Integrator for each of these buckets.
- Define five clear roles for each new seat without assigning names yet.

Once the structure is defined, evaluate your current operations leader against the new seats. They may transition into the Client Delivery seat, which is often the most critical. You will then need to recruit or promote individuals to fill the other newly created seats, such as Supply Chain Manager.

During this transition, you must expect some temporary friction. To minimize disruption to daily service delivery, execute the split in phases. Start by delegating the lowest-value roles first, allowing the legacy leader to maintain oversight of critical client delivery while the new seat owners get up to speed. This phased approach maintains operational stability while systematically rebuilding your chart for scale.