Organizational Charts (Part 2)

Synopsis

Need an org chart to map your team? Below, we'll explain what Organizational Charts are, why you need them, how to customize our 49-slide template to get you started, and if you read until the end, you'll learn how a product company like Dell could use org charts to develop their next hit product. While it's nice to see all of the faces of the people in charge, org charts are for more than to establish hierarchy. They're actually great collaboration tools that are best shared across teams so stakeholders know who to reach out to or who they'll work with on a specific project or team. They are also great for overall project management because your team is also a resource.

Questions and answers

What are some of the common mistakes to avoid when creating org charts?

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Some common mistakes to avoid when creating organizational charts include: not updating the chart regularly, making the chart too complex or detailed, not including all team members, not clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and not using the chart as a communication and collaboration tool.

How can org charts help in identifying the hierarchy within a team?

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Organizational charts can help in identifying the hierarchy within a team by visually representing the structure of the team. They show who is in charge of whom and who is responsible for what areas. This can help team members understand their roles and responsibilities, as well as who they should report to. It can also help in identifying potential gaps or overlaps in responsibilities. Furthermore, org charts can be great collaboration tools, helping team members know who to reach out to or who they'll work with on a specific project or team.

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Org charts can be easily forgotten to create or update, and can come back to bite a team with a bunch of work that no one wants to do. The customizable Organizational Charts (Part 2) template we've created includes some of the best org chart visualizations for you to download and customize to your needs. Here's a review of some of our favorites and how you can use them for various business needs.

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How can org charts help in managing team workload?

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Org charts can help in managing team workload by providing a clear visualization of the team structure and responsibilities. They can help identify who is responsible for what, which can lead to better distribution of tasks and prevent overloading of certain team members. They can also help in identifying gaps or overlaps in responsibilities, which can be addressed to improve efficiency.

What are some of the ways to make org charts more effective?

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To make org charts more effective, they should be regularly updated to reflect the current structure of the team or organization. They should also be visually appealing and easy to understand. Using customizable templates can help in creating effective org charts. These templates can be tailored to suit various business needs. It's also important to ensure that the org chart is accessible to all team members and used as a reference tool.

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Tool highlights

Alternate org chart view

Traditionally, when people think of an org chart, they think of a tree shape that branches out to show a team's hierarchy. This visualization branches out from left to right to fit more information on a single slide. The light blue branches are the executive team. They are probably the lead of their respective team or department, and could also be customized to department names with the leads and reports underneath. (Slide 3)

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What are some examples of effective org chart visualizations?

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Some examples of effective org chart visualizations include hierarchical org charts, matrix org charts, and flat org charts. Hierarchical org charts are the most traditional and show the chain of command from the top down. Matrix org charts show complex relationships and dual reporting scenarios. Flat org charts are used in organizations with few or no levels of middle management.

How can an org chart be used to improve collaboration within a team?

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An org chart can be used to improve collaboration within a team by clearly defining the hierarchy and roles within the team. It helps in understanding who is responsible for what, thus facilitating better communication and collaboration. It can also help in identifying the decision-makers and the reporting structure, which can further enhance the efficiency of the team.

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Cross-functional org chart

Organizational charts typically show who falls under what umbrella and who is responsible for certain tasks. But this visualization can serve a cross-functional purpose. Let's say you're working on a project that entails input from several different teams and each task includes several sub tasks. This visualization is helpful to list task names and the department (or individual) that is involved in the task.

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How can customizable org chart templates be beneficial for businesses?

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Customizable org chart templates can be beneficial for businesses in several ways. Firstly, they provide a clear visual representation of the company's structure, making it easier for employees and stakeholders to understand the hierarchy and reporting lines. Secondly, they can be tailored to reflect the unique structure and needs of the business, ensuring that all roles and departments are accurately represented. Thirdly, they can be easily updated as the organization grows and changes, ensuring that the chart always reflects the current state of the business. Lastly, they can be used as a collaboration tool, helping teams understand who they need to work with on specific tasks or projects.

Why wouldn't the HR team be involved in a product mockup task?

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The HR team typically isn't involved in a product mockup task because their primary responsibilities lie in managing people, not products. They handle tasks such as recruitment, training, employee relations, and benefits administration. A product mockup task, on the other hand, is more related to the design and functionality of a product, which is typically the responsibility of teams like IT, engineering, sales, or marketing. These teams have the technical expertise and understanding of the market to effectively carry out such tasks.

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If the task is market research, it would involve the marketing team and sales team, but wouldn't necessarily involve the IT team, operations, engineers, finance, or HR, so these teams can be toggled on and off. However, a product mockup task would involve the IT and engineer teams and could involve input from sales or marketing, but definitely wouldn't involve input from HR, so those teams can be toggled off. (Slide 22)

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Scrum-inspired org chart

A SCRUM team org chart shows the title and role of each team member as well as their skillset. This visualization creates a legend and label structure to visualize these roles. The key on the right-hand side shows that the grey icons indicate the skills themselves while the color keys relate to titles and positions that have those skills. Fill in the shapes with the respective title color to feature that role. For more on how a company like Dell could use this tool to help develop its latest product, watch to the end. (Slide 24)

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Can you compare the effectiveness of the agile team visualization with other project management tools?

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Agile team visualization is a powerful tool in project management. It provides a clear picture of dependencies between team members and tasks, which is crucial in agile projects that are characterized by rapid iterations and tests. This visualization allows for easy adjustments and real-time updates, enhancing flexibility and responsiveness. However, its effectiveness can vary depending on the project's complexity and the team's familiarity with the agile framework. Other project management tools, such as Gantt charts or Kanban boards, might be more suitable for projects with a linear workflow or for teams less experienced with agile methodologies. Ultimately, the effectiveness of a tool largely depends on its alignment with the project's needs and the team's working style.

How does the agile framework in organizational charts align with rapid iterations and tests?

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The agile framework in organizational charts aligns with rapid iterations and tests by visualizing the dependencies between team members and tasks. In an agile organizational chart, each column represents different iterations, while each personnel involved is listed as rows. The features and dependencies are represented by different colored dots. This visualization allows for quick adjustments and changes, embodying the agile principle of rapid iterations and tests.

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Agile-inspired org chart

There is also an agile team visualization. This slide shows any dependencies between team members and tasks. The agile framework is designed around many rounds of rapid iterations and tests. Each column represents different iterations, while each personnel involved is listed as rows. The blue dots relate to features, while the green dots refer to a level of dependency. The editable curves can easily be copied, pasted, and dragged to show the dependency and the relationship between each. To actually visualize the responsibilities and task allocation of each member or project, you can use the RACI team matrix presentation template we have. (Slide 26)

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Regional org chart

A regional org chart is great for companies with teams or offices in separate locations. This slide visualizes the names, responsibilities, and country where each team is located. For instance, this could be useful for sales teams that have regional divisions or branches to better serve their diversity of clients. For multiple slides tailored to individual regions, you can check out our other presentation called the Ultimate Map Collection, which features editable maps of every majority country and region to visualize more locally-based teams. (Slide 14)

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Case study: Dell

Dell had one of its best quarterly earnings reports ever in Q1 of 2022. Let's say you're a tech product company like Dell, and you're about to launch a new initiative. As the project manager, you'll be responsible to make the organizational charts that dictate the team roles and responsibilities on this new product development.You'll need to determine who will be involved across each step of the product development roadmap. For instance, when will the marketing team need to be looped back in after the initial product is created?

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Dell's Innovation team utilizes agile development, so it could use this slide to plot out which features, tasks, and team members are dependent on each other to map out the best timeline towards completion. In Dell's case, the company has globally distributed design centers, with multiple original design manufacturers across various geographic regions and industry sectors. This naturally means they have countless remote team members that all contribute to the design and development of projects that range from personal PCs to industrial cloud storage services. To visualize all of this, the PM could use this slide to show which teams or team members will be involved across all of the company's key regions to facilitate remote collaboration.

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Conclusion

If you need new org chart visualizations to manage your team, you need this presentation. Download the Organizational Charts (Part 2) presentation template for more slides with additional org chart visualizations, an effectiveness assessment, team charter canvas, the competing values framework, day in the life of visualizations, and many more to save time and hours of work.

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