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The title of this newsletter is Simple, Not Easy because I believe that sentiment often governs the most important tenets of leadership. A close relative to Simple, Not Easy is the notion of Boring, But Important. That is, those things which are easy to overlook or half-ass but which have an outsize influence on your team’s ability to execute.

First among all things Boring, But Important is the Org Chart.

Org Charts may seem the domain of well to do consultants and B-School professors, but I assure you there are few things in your leadership arsenal which will help your team execute better than a thoughtfully designed Org Chart.

Resource allocation

At some level, particularly leader of leaders and higher, effective leadership is about effective resource allocation. The two primary resources a leader has at their disposal to allocate are human (talent) and capital (cash).

Effectively allocating resources requires both a strategists ability to place accurate bets, and a tacticians ability to marshal those resources toward activating those bets once placed.

The blocking and tackling required to marshal resources toward a common objective is often a question of organization as much as it is motivation. The org chart is the tool that enables this clarity of organization.

Call me old fashioned, or just a Marine, but clear chains of command act as a means of effectively allocating resources toward those priorities which are most important for your team and business. Accountability is challenging absent clear chains of command because everyone owns success and no one owns failure. Org charts solve this problem.

Delegation through the DRI

If I were paid for every RACI I’d seen in my career which was promptly thrown out the window when it came to actually doing the work I would be a rich man.

I’ll admit, I myself fall prey to the idea that a well defined RACI will solve all of my problems when it comes to both communication and execution (they just look so good on paper), but the truth is they are unnecessarily complicated and remembering the correct RACI across multiple projects isn’t feasible.

Instead of the RACI I recommend the Directly Responsible Individual or DRI. Originally coined by Apple, a company famous for world class execution, it’s the DRI’s job to deliver results and success or failure ultimately ride on their shoulders.

The DRI is far from the only person who will work on a project, but ultimately it is their job to ensure the work gets done. If more resources are needed, go find them. If you’re blocked by another team not delivering, figure out how to motivate them or outsource the work to get it done.

In the Marines, a common piece of coaching given to leaders is, “adapt and overcome.” Basically, go figure it out.

The concept of a DRI reminds me of this advice. Org charts can be used to assign DRIs to your most important objectives while ensuring they have, at least a minimum level, of resources to accomplish them.

A note on all star teams

You should use your org chart to build all star teams.

Practically speaking leaders often fail because they disperse their talent too broadly across their organization.

Famously the Marine Corps doesn’t allow it’s best officer candidates to choose the same Military Occupational Specialty (job) upon completion of their initial training. Instead, they split the class into thirds and allow the top candidates from each third to choose the speciality they want.

I understand the logic, spreading talent across an organization prevents any single team from being too weak and bringing the broader organization down. But, as an enlisted Marine who had to serve with some of the “best” officers from the bottom third I can assure you this approach is a mistake.

It is akin to the mistake we’ve discussed previously whereby leaders put their best team members on their biggest problems as opposed to their biggest opportunities. Remember, this type of diversification is fundamentally a defensive posture. While that might be appropriate in some cases where you work at a large company looking to preserve existing market share I still feel the day an organization takes a pivot from offense toward defense is the day that organization begins to march toward obsurity.

So, back to the all star teams.

Put your best people under your best leader and assign them to capture your biggest opportunity.

Sure ego management can be a challenge when it comes to all stars working with all stars, but the truth is if the team is really full of your best players they’ll begin to push each other in a way that will leave them bored if you put them on any other team.

The leader you assign here truly needs to be your best, but if they are your business will be much the better for it.

Conclusion

Allocating resources, aligning them to a DRI, and leveraging all star teams to capture your biggest opportunity. Who knew the unassuming org chart could be so powerful.

See y’all next week.