Our leadership team is struggling to design our future Accountability Chart because they are too focused on our current employees. They are worried that creating the right structure for our upcoming exit will hurt feelings and force us to terminate loyal team members. How do we get them past this emotional block?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This emotional block is the most common hurdle when building an Accountability Chart. It is natural to care about your team, but you must realize that designing your structure around people is a recipe for operational mediocrity.

To get your team past this, you must enforce the EOS principle of structure first, people second. You must build the ideal structure to get the business to the next level, completely ignoring your current team members and their feelings.

Explain to your leadership team that you are designing the business for the next three to five years. Imagine you are selling the business tomorrow. What is the leanest, most efficient structure a buyer would want to see?

Once you have designed the ideal Accountability Chart with empty seats and clear roles, only then do you look at your current people. This is where you run the GWC tool for every seat.

You will find that some of your loyal team members do not fit the new seats. That is okay. By separating the structure from the people, you make objective decisions based on what is best for the business. This approach is not cold; it is the only way to build a sustainable company that can support all of your employees over the long term.