Most organisation charts are the fossil record of past hires. Someone was promoted here. Someone was protected there. A senior joiner was given a team because that was the offer. The shape of the organisation tells you the history — not the strategy. A good org design rewinds that.
The three lenses
We use three lenses, in sequence, to evaluate any org design:
- Span of control — how many direct reports each manager has. Too few and you have bloat. Too many and you have neglect.
- Layers — how many rungs between the CEO and the most junior customer-facing role. Every layer adds a week of delay and a month of dilution.
- Decision rights — who gets to say yes, who gets to say no, who has to be consulted, who is merely informed.
Get all three right and the org works. Get any one wrong and you'll see it in the culture survey within a year.
Span — the uncomfortable truth
A healthy span varies by role. Operational teams: 8 to 12 is normal. Professional-services teams: 5 to 8. Executive teams: 5 to 7. Anything outside these bands is a flag. Managers with 3 direct reports are usually doing the wrong job. Managers with 15 are usually not managing.
“Layers are the silent tax on speed. Cut them first.”
Layers — start with the CEO's line of sight
Count the layers between the CEO and the frontline employee. Five is efficient. Six is tolerable. Seven is a problem. Eight or more is almost always the symptom of management-for-the-sake-of-management.
Decision rights — the RACI upgrade
Most decision-right disputes aren't really about authority. They're about the absence of a written agreement. Use a simple four-column matrix: decide, recommend, consulted, informed. Name the decision (not the topic) and fill the columns. Review quarterly.
The redesign sequence
- Document the current state honestly. Not the org chart — the actual one.
- Set strategic priorities for the next 18 months.
- Design the future state from the top team down, not the bottom up.
- Identify role changes, then people changes.
- Communicate in three waves: top team, managers, whole firm.
- Evaluate span, layers and decision rights — in that order.
- Seven or more layers is almost always a problem.
- Decision rights are written or they don't exist.
- Design roles first, then fit people to roles.
Org design done well is one of the highest-leverage interventions a company can make. Done badly, it's expensive theatre. The difference is patience and sequence.