Day 10: Draw Your Org 3 Ways
1. Draw an organization that you have been part of (where you work, community organization, etc.), at least 3 different ways. Especially when getting ideas flowing, have fun with it… do the obvious, the playful, etc.
2. Jot down reflections on what you learned about your org from doing this. What do these different views illuminate? What do you learn looking across them?
3. Now “go meta” and think about the views you drew:
What first occurred to you to draw? What do our customary views of organizations suggest? What views are helpful? Why?
Of course, the classic, as org structure doodles (all grown up into a comic) go, is Manu Cornet’s! (Which manages to be an “org structure chart” that is about power, communication, and org culture.)
"One of the hardest and most valuable things you can do as a company is the following:
- Have a fully up to date org chart
- Have a diagram that is not the org chart that accurately reflects how work flows through the company
- Have an up to date and accurate diagram and explanation of what the company does and how it does it (architecture, revenue funnels, business value streams, code-bases)“
Discussion
Spoilers ahead, so save reading this section until after you have completed this exercise.
Here are some of the wonderful explorations shared by our fellow Adventurers:
From Adrian Cockcroft's post:
"One organization I work with as an advisor uses Slack as the primary communication channel, with very little email. Their org chart is embedded in Slack, so it’s trivial to figure out for anyone you are talking to, who they work for and what part of the org that is. The slack channels form the communication structure of the company and I think this works well."
This is one of Sebastian Hans' org sketches, and what jumps out is that being at the intersection, creates integrator opportunities across these areas:
Image by Sebastian Hans: At the intersection of various teams and communities of practice