The Issue Tree

Hi, everybody, it's Mark C. Winters. And today I want to ask you about your issues. And actually, I want to introduce you to a new. A new graphic I've got today. So I'm calling this the issue tree. See if you can figure out why. So this is a tree and then tree. We got lots of issues, Lots of issues. And if you look down here to the root system of this tree, you'll see a representation of the accountability chart. So my question for you today is how many of your issues are really rooted in the accountability chart? And one of the things that I'm finding with my clients is every once in a while I have a client, and when I look, you know, maybe 80% of their issues in some form or fashion have their roots back down to that accountability chart. Maybe it's unclear for whatever the issue is, who owns that thing. Maybe they haven't mapped it out yet. Maybe they've got too many people trying to own it. And there's several different places on the accountability chart that people think it lives. Maybe people aren't playing by the rules for the way that the accountability chart is structured. We have end runs going on. Maybe there's some sort of a whole shadow structure that's the way people are really operating. That's totally inconsistent with the structure that you have laid out in your accountability chart. Or maybe it's just not up to date. Maybe things have moved along and the accountability chart has never really caught up. So it's causing lots of confusion and not allowing you to have the clarity that you need to really tap into the accountability chart and use it to do what you want to do. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to be really intentional about making sure that your accountability chart is right. Making sure that you've got the structure designed that you think is really appropriate to get you to that next level you're going to try to get to. I've got several different phases that you're going to move through to get there. The first one is you're going to iterate with your leadership team. You're going to go through and try the different things in order to really get it right until you can really all stack your hands together. Go. Yep, this is the right structure to get us to this next place that you're going to try to go. The second thing you're going to do is you're going to communicate that structure to the organization so that we're not surprising folks, we're not blindsiding them. We're making it crystal clear that this is what their seat looks like. This is what they're going to own in that seat. This is who they're going to be accountable to. And they can see that map, they can see that picture for how the rest of the organization is going to work together. The third thing is then we're going to migrate to that picture so we are where we are. The accountability chart lays out this picture of where we're going. Some things you're going to be able to get there really quickly because it's really simple. Maybe you're really close, it's an easy change to make. Other things are going to take longer. And that's okay. We can have a plan for how we're going to make that transition over time. But you're going to migrate from where you are to that new intentional accountability chart you've designed and get there collectively as quickly as we can. And once we're there, we're going to operate, we're going to live it, we're going to behave absolutely consistent with the way we've got that structure designed so our behavior is going to be true to it, it's going to help it have integrity. And then as things change, which they always do, it's a living document, we're going to update that accountability chart so it's coming along with us. It's always accurate, it's, it's always up to date. It's a ready reference for how our structure is supposed to look and behave. Okay, so remember too, in the process of your accountability chart, there are three tests ultimately that you must pass for you to be able to check that accountability chart is done. The first one is you have to agree that you've got the right structure. So remember I talked about the leadership team stacking hands and saying, yep, this is a structure that's going to get us to that next level. That's test one. Test two is, when you look at it and you've got it all filled out, you should feel that you have everyone as a right person in a right seat, whoever's sitting in those seats, all across the organization, everybody needs to be a right person so they fit your core values. Everyone sitting in a right seat for them, meaning they GWC that seat. So we've got everybody 100% right person, right seat across the accountability chart. The third test then is we must be able to confidently say that everyone has enough time to do the things we're asking them to do early in the process. Clients are not able to say that later on in the process, as you fill those gaps, as you get those right people in the right seats, you create tons of capacity and you get closer and closer to everyone having enough time. But every once in a while you'll discover, you know what, we have a seat here that's just too big for any one human to fill. We need to change that structure. We need to modify it to make it possible ultimately get to everyone having enough time. Okay, so three key things to wrap this one up. Number one, I want you to recognize for many of these issues, the accountability chart is the solution. It's the root. So go down there and fix it. Number two, the five eights that I laid out for you. Iterate, communicate, operate, actually Iterate, communicate, migrate, then operate and then update. And finally, the three tests that you got to pass to consider your accountability chart done. Thanks for watching. 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