Most org charts are corporate fiction. Boxes connected by lines showing who reports to whom, telling you nothing about who does what. When something goes wrong, finger-pointing begins. When something needs doing, everyone assumes someone else owns it. The org chart creates more confusion than clarity.
EOS replaces this fiction with the Accountability Chart—a living document that defines not just structure but ownership. It answers the critical question: Who is accountable for what? Get this right, and accountability becomes automatic. Get it wrong, and no amount of management can compensate.
Structure Follows Strategy, Not Seniority
Traditional org charts start with people and build around them. “Bob’s been here forever, so we need a box for Bob.” This creates Frankenstein structures that preserve positions instead of driving performance.
Accountability Charts start with functions. What needs to happen for the business to succeed? Sales, operations, finance—these functions exist regardless of who fills them. Design the structure your business needs, then find people to fit.
This approach feels ruthless but creates clarity. When you define seats based on business needs, not tenure, everyone understands their purpose. No make-work positions. No unclear responsibilities. Every seat drives specific outcomes.
Use EOS One to build your Accountability Chart function-first. Define major functions, then break into specific accountabilities. Only after structure is clear do you add names. This sequence prevents politics from polluting design.
Five Roles, No More, No Less
Every seat needs exactly five major roles—no more, no less. Fewer and the seat lacks substance. More and focus fragments. This constraint forces clarity about what really matters for each position.
Bad example: “Manage stuff” or “Help out where needed.” Good example: “Own customer retention above 90%” or “Deliver projects on time and budget.” Specific, measurable, essential. If you can’t define five critical roles, the seat shouldn’t exist.
Document these roles in EOS One with crystal clarity. When someone new fills the seat, they know exactly what success looks like. No interpretation needed. No gradual discovery. Day one clarity about day 100 expectations.
Review roles quarterly. Do they still reflect business needs? Has growth created new requirements? Have efficiency gains eliminated others? Accountability Charts must evolve with your business or they become as useless as traditional org charts.
LMA: The Clarity Creator
Every seat needs clear LMA—Leadership, Management, and Accountability. Who provides vision and direction? Who manages day-to-day execution? Who owns the outcomes? Sometimes it’s the same person. Often it’s not.
A sales seat might have leadership from the VP of Sales, management from a regional director, and accountability sitting with the individual rep. This clarity prevents the “I thought you were handling that” disasters that plague unclear structures.
Use your Accountability Chart to visualize LMA. Draw different line types for different relationships. Solid for accountability. Dotted for leadership. Dashed for management. Visual clarity reinforces mental clarity.
When LMA gets fuzzy, performance suffers. Issues arise in Level 10s like “unclear who makes this decision” or “conflicting direction from multiple people.” These aren’t personality conflicts—they’re structure problems. Fix the chart, fix the issue.
One Person, One Seat (Mostly)
Accountability dies when shared. “We’re all responsible” means no one is. The Accountability Chart demands single ownership. One person per seat. Clear ownership of outcomes.
This creates discomfort. “But we’re a team!” Yes, teams collaborate. But someone must own each outcome. When customer satisfaction drops, who’s accountable? When projects run late, whose seat needs examining? Clarity enables improvement.
Small companies require exceptions. One person might fill multiple seats temporarily. Document this in EOS One but plan for separation. “John owns Sales and Operations until we reach $5M revenue” creates clarity about current state and future evolution.
Track seat overload on your Scorecard. How many people fill multiple seats? What’s the impact on performance? When someone struggles, is it capability or capacity? Data guides decisions about when to split seats.
GWC: The Seat-Filling Filter
Right person, wrong seat destroys performance and people. The GWC filter prevents this tragedy. Does the person Get it? Want it? and have Capacity to do it? All three must be yes, or the fit fails.
“Gets it” means intuitive understanding. Some people naturally grasp sales. Others get operations. This isn’t trainable—it’s inherent. Fighting someone’s natural wiring wastes everyone’s energy.
“Wants it” reflects motivation. A brilliant analyst who hates spreadsheets won’t succeed in a finance seat. Desire drives performance more than capability. The Accountability Chart clarifies what each seat requires so people can honestly assess their want.
“Capacity to do it” covers skills, experience, and bandwidth. Can they actually deliver what the seat demands? Not potentially, not with development—right now. Hope isn’t a strategy for seat filling.
Use quarterly conversations to assess GWC. Be honest about gaps. Create development Rocks where possible, but accept when someone’s in the wrong seat. The Accountability Chart makes these conversations objective, not personal.
Cascading Accountability Through Levels
Company-level Accountability Charts show major functions. But accountability must cascade through every level. Each major function needs its own chart showing how accountability flows down.
The Sales function might break into regions, then territories, then specific account ownership. Each level has its own Accountability Chart showing who owns what. This creates clear ownership from top to bottom.
Use EOS One to link these cascading charts. Click through from company to department to team level. See how accountability flows and where it might gap. Visual cascading prevents accountability from getting lost between levels.
Review cascade integrity quarterly. Does every company-level accountability flow down to specific ownership? Are there orphaned responsibilities nobody claims? Are some seats overloaded while others coast? The cascade reveals imbalances.
The Integrator’s Special Role
The Integrator seat differs from all others. While other seats own specific functions, the Integrator owns integration. They ensure all functions work together harmoniously. They’re the tie-breaker, the prioritizer, the keeper of the vision.
This seat often gets misunderstood. It’s not super-manager or chief of staff. It’s the person who ensures sales promises align with operations capability. Who makes sure finance supports growth plans. Who keeps the whole greater than its parts.
Document Integrator accountabilities carefully in EOS One. “Own P&L responsibility” differs from “Manage department heads.” Clarity here prevents the Integrator from becoming either uninvolved or micromanaging.
Many companies skip this seat, leaving integration to hope. Then wonder why departments work at cross-purposes. Why initiatives fail between functions. Why growth stalls despite individual excellence. The Integrator seat solves these systemic issues.
Quarterly Chart Reviews
Accountability Charts aren’t monuments—they’re living documents. Quarterly reviews keep them relevant. Has business evolution created new needs? Have efficiency gains eliminated requirements? Has growth demanded new functions?
Use your quarterly planning pulse for chart reviews. Before setting Rocks, ensure the structure supports the strategy. New market expansion might require new seats. Technology advancement might eliminate others. Structure enables strategy.
Track structural changes in EOS One. Version control shows evolution. “Version 3.2: Added Customer Success function” or “Version 4.0: Split Operations into Manufacturing and Logistics.” This history helps future decisions.
Create “Structure Optimization” Rocks when needed. “Design Customer Success function with clear accountabilities” or “Merge redundant finance seats post-automation.” These Rocks ensure structure serves strategy, not constrains it.
Making Accountability Visible
Hidden accountability is no accountability. Print Accountability Charts. Post them prominently. Reference them in meetings. Make structure visible to make accountability unavoidable.
Use Level 10s to reinforce chart clarity. When issues arise, ask “Whose seat owns this?” When initiatives launch, identify the accountable seat. This consistent reference builds accountability muscle memory.
Share charts in State of the Company meetings. Show how individual roles connect to company success. Help everyone see their place in the bigger picture. Visibility creates both clarity and motivation.
Build accountability language into culture. “That’s a marketing seat issue” or “Operations owns that outcome.” This isn’t buck-passing—it’s clarity. When everyone knows who owns what, collaboration improves.
The Performance Multiplier
Clear accountability multiplies performance. People stop wondering what they should do. Stop waiting for someone else to act. Stop avoiding ownership. Energy previously wasted on confusion flows into execution.
Track the correlation between chart clarity and performance. Departments with clear accountability hit their numbers more often. Seats with fuzzy roles consistently underperform. Use this data to prioritize structure clarification.
Your Accountability Chart becomes competitive advantage. While competitors stumble through matrix organizations and dotted-line relationships, you execute with clarity. Everyone knows their role. Everyone owns their outcomes.
Building Your Accountability Engine
Stop letting org charts create confusion. Start using Accountability Charts to create clarity. Define functions before filling them. Demand single ownership. Make structure visible.
Begin with your leadership team. Define each seat’s five roles. Assess GWC honestly. Create Rocks to address gaps. Then cascade through your organization. Watch accountability transform from hope to habit.
Great Accountability Charts do more than show structure—they create it. They transform vague responsibilities into clear ownership. They turn organizational confusion into operational clarity. Build yours right, and accountability becomes automatic, not enforced.
