My leadership team intellectually agrees with the concept of structure before people, but they keep sneaking personal preferences and custom roles into the Accountability Chart to protect our legacy employees. How do I force them to build the structure first?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your leadership team resists the structure-before-people rule, it is usually because they are letting their emotions and personal relationships override operational logic. They are trying to protect people rather than building a scalable business.

To break this habit, you must call a timeout during your next Accountability Chart session. Remind the team of the EOS rule that we must design the organization six to twelve months into the future with completely blank boxes. Take all the names off the chart entirely. If a name is on the whiteboard, your team will inevitably build the seat around that person's specific strengths, weaknesses, and quirks.

Ask your leadership team this question: If we were building this company from scratch today to hit our three-year targets, what seats would we need to deliver our product and support our customers? Write down those seats and define the five key roles for each.

Only after the entire team agrees on the structure do you begin placing names back into the seats. If a legacy employee does not GWC any of the new seats, you must address it as a Right Person Right Seat issue. Reassuring your team that you will handle legacy employees with care and respect will help them let go of their fear and focus on building the right structure.