DirectoryThe org’s shape
Most organizations aren’t a tree. Teams nest as deeply as yours does, people sit in more than one, and the mentors, committees and dotted lines that a chart can’t draw are recorded as what they are.
Nest it as deep as it goes. And put people in more than one.
A team holds a lead, a colour and its own place among its siblings; it can sit inside another team, as far down as your organization genuinely runs.
- Teams inside teams, as deep as the place actually goes
- A lead on each, and a colour that carries through the chart
- Siblings in the order you put them, not alphabetically
- A team cannot end up inside itself, however hard you drag
- People can belong to several teams at once
The lines that aren’t reporting lines. Recorded as what they are.
The reporting line is one manager, full stop. Everything else keeps its own kind, between any two people or teams, or one of each.
- The reporting line is one manager, and only that
- Everything else is recorded as the kind of thing it is
- Dotted line, mentor, committee, collaborates-with
- Either end can be a person or a whole team
- So a person can sit on a committee, and two teams can pair up
A chart that shows the gaps. Not just who’s here.
The org chart draws from the teams you already built, and each box carries its lead, its headcount, and the number of postings you have open against it.
- The chart draws from the teams you built, not a second structure
- Each box carries its lead and its headcount
- Teams with open postings say so, on the box
- Which makes the chart the place you notice a gap
The whole structure, one screen
Teams inside teams with their leads and headcounts, the postings open against each, and the relationships that run sideways across all of it.
Structure is where they sit. The record is what they’ve done.
As deep as your organization genuinely is. Each team records the team it sits inside, and Cadre checks the whole chain every time you move one, so a team can never end up inside itself: not even through a long loop of three other teams.
Yes, and it is the normal case rather than an exception. Somebody can belong to as many teams as they need to, and each membership carries its own role: a full member of one team and an observer on another is one person with two memberships.
A team is where somebody sits; the reporting line is who they answer to, held on the person as a single manager. They are separate on purpose, because the two disagree constantly in real organizations, and collapsing them forces you to lie about one of them.
As what it is. There are four kinds of relationship beyond the reporting line (dotted line, mentor, committee and collaborates-with), and either end can be a person or a team. A safety committee that includes three people and the facilities team is expressible without inventing a fake team to hold it.
No. A change to the structure takes effect the moment you make it. You cannot set a change to arrive on a future date, and there is no draft org chart. What is preserved is the past: a position records the team as it was named at the time, so history stays accurate even when today’s structure moves.