State of the Art
Accountability Chart Software
Supercharge your EOS® Accountability Chart
OGraph® and the OCog® Deepen your Accountability Chart Work
Visualizations create understanding
Visualize your entire structure with OGraph®.
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OGraph® and EOS® Client Testimonial “Dear Fellow CEOs of Companies Running on EOS®, One day you might reach a point in your EOS journey where you feel the need for software that captures and links your Accountability Chart work to the rest of your EOS tools. You will be looking for a software solution to visualize your hard work, tying all of your decisions, tools and accountabilities together. OGraph is that software. The symptom will be frustration and a feeling of being cross-wired. Departmental L10s have become stale. IDS effectiveness has dropped. It is normally a couple of years in, when the early implementation glow has faded and the accountability connections that used to be clear in the mind’s eye of your people are now dull. The cool thing is this, you have the foundation, you have done the Seat and ROLE work, now you just need to refresh it and run it through the 14 pt matrix. The next step is easy, the folks at OGraph have supplied you with everything you need.” Lee, Millennial CEO – 745 Employee Company running on EOS®. |
Fully understanding your Accountability Chart: Advanced lessons from Walt
First, we are not practicing on you. EOS® Accountability Charts, Restructures, Reorganizations and Recalibrations have been my focus, my world for the last 14 years with over 220 clients served and over 1,400 structure session days with teams teaching them how to do this gutsy work. Yes, that is two full day sessions with Sr. Leadership teams on average per week.
To share our insights, we wrote a book on the subject – Death of the Org Chart – Rise of the Organizational Graph, developed a state-of-the-art Org Graph software solution to capture and visualize the work https://ograph.io and created an online training platform https://ogranizationalcognizance.university.
Roles are where the magic happens!
Key learning share from Walt – Expert EOS® Implementor since 2008, over 180 clients graduated, over 1100 session days:
What sets an EOS® Accountability Chart apart from an Org Chart is the identification and definition of the Roles your people are playing as part of their Seats.
Lot’s of companies running on EOS® never fully grasp that the magic of their Accountability Chart is in the Roles. They fall into the trap of seeing the Accountability Chart as an Org Chart and they use it the same way, becoming myopic on Seats, which is a shame, because in reality, unclear Roles are where Issues grow, disengagement flourishes, and all evil resides.
The backbone of a properly completed Accountability Chart is formed by Roles. Work gets done in Roles. Roles are accountable for Thinking and responsible for Doing.
Most importantly, it is really Roles that link to the EOS Model, Six Key Components and Tools. Think about it, it is your Roles that follow the SOPs, work instructions, procedures and policies that you document. —>> SOPS are the links in your chain that form your Core Processes. Roles own and report Scorecard numbers. Seats join Level 10 Meetings representing Roles. Role owners are the ones who execute IDS “solves”. Right People are subject matter experts at the Role level. These Role subject matter experts can coach others who share the same Role as part of LMA. Have you ever thought about running GWC™ at the Role level and not just the Seat level? How about in your 5x5x5™, is it clear what Roles you are asking the individual about GWCing? Have you considered how easy it can be to “restructure” if you could just move Roles between Seats? The list and examples go on and on.
OGraph will help you capture and visualize your Seats and Roles and how they connect to the EOS Model and tools making your hard work come alive for your employees.
“The Domed Topped Table.”
Above is our drawing that captures what you are feeling.
Let’s imagine a team gathered around a table, a table with a domed top. Around that table are Seats filled by team members. An issue / problem / opportunity that is shaped like a ball-bearing lands on the table.
Question: What is the ball going to do?
Answer: Well, it is going to roll of course, and what it can not do is roll to the edge and slip between all of the Roles of each Seat and hit the floor, it can not get caught between Roles of Seats getting hot potatoed back and forth and it can not land in a Seat and then into a Role that has no capacity, because then it just spills over and hits the floor.
No, what we want is so much clarity in Seats and Roles that our ball always goes to the right place, with clear ownership, domain and authority. This is what we are solving, it is the goal.
A solid Accountability Chart makes sure nothing slips through the cracks, nothing gets hot-potaoted and nothing gets dropped due to capacity overload. This is the drawing we use to describe where it can all go wrong, and the gaps we are correcting. OGraph captures this work.
From Real World Experiance Solving the Domed Topped Table Scenario
The Organizational Cognizance® model was born from the real world experience of our founder Walt Brown and his team. Since selling his 4 companies in 2006 he and the team have worked with over 300 companies across 1,600 full-day retreats doing the gutsy work of getting organized. At around client number 80, 400 days in, the pattern for OCog – the 14 Pt Checklist – surfaced.
“All organizational fear, anxiety and dysfunction resides in unclear structure, unclear accountability and responsibility, in other words, being disorganized.” WB
Getting organized means understanding and documenting who is doing what, why and how espcecially at the Role level.
OGraph® grew out of the Organizational Cognizance work the team was doing with clients as they looked for a better way to capture, document and visualize this breakthrough solution.
the 14 Point Checklist™ – Hot Potatoes and Gaps
Every employee wants to know the answers to these 14 things. When they have the answers to these 14 questions, the Gaps close and the Hot Potatoes get eaten.
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- What is the Purpose of my Seat?
- What Roles do I fill as part of my Seat? What is the Purpose of each Role?
- Who do I Report to?
- Who is my Mentor?
- Who do I turn to for Coaching in each of my Roles?
- What Teams am I part of?
- What Meetings will I attend?
- What Entities (clients, projects, contracts, etc.) will I interact with?
- What Core Processes do I participate in?
- What Procedures, Work Instructions, Policies will I follow and/or maintain?
- What Systems do I interface with and need to master?
- What are my Objectives?
- What are my Key Results?
- What Skills or Competencies do I need now and in the future?
We have a saying, The Org Chart is Dead – this does not mean it is actually “dead”, it is just that an Org Chart no longer satisfies the needs of modern day employees. Read Walt Brown’s article here. https://ograph.io/the-org-chart-is-dead
“Having a well built Accountability Chart was certainly job one. As we continued on our EOS journey we discovered we had the building blocks to do a lot more! OGraph gave us a way to link our Accountability Chart™ Seats and Roles with our Processes, our Meetings, our Scorecards, Rocks, our Customers and Vendors etc. Now we can visualize how everything fits together for the first time ever. Key Bonus, we started storing all of our Process documentation inside our Accountability Chart using OGraph. It is Amazing.”
With OGraph your A Chart becomes your on-boarding and training platform
On board, train and develop straight from your Accountability Chart –
ONE SINGLE POINT OF TRUTH – ONE ORACLE
With a right click, you can Document, Link, Store, Share everything an employee needs to be successful! As files, rich texts, links, videos you name it OGraph gives you instant contextual access.
All of your information as videos, images, links, documents, rich text… right inside your OGraph enabled Accountability Chart
Your employee asks, “Boss, how do I do this?” or “Who do I go to for coaching?”
You say: “Have you checked the OGraph Accountability Chart ?- I think the answer is in there.”
What better place to share the things people need to know to do their work than inside their EOS® Accountability Chart? For example; store your Work Instructions, your SOPs, Processes, your Workflow diagrams inside your A-Chart as part of a Process Element. All Seats and Roles have Purpose Statements / Descriptions right there, part of the Seat or Role elements. Via a simple right click, every object in your OGraph enabled A-Chart has rich text capabilities along with file storage and linking. Simple, straightforward, easy and in one place, one point of truth.
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR SEAT REPORTING STRUCTURE
OGraph clearly shows your reporting structure through the connection “Reports To” – Remember: Structure first, People second.
If you want to see who “Owns” the seat you would just click on the Person Element in filtes and the people who own each Seat will show in the visualization.
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR ROLES
People Component: Roles of the Seat
By now you understand our fixation on Roles. Not having Roles well defined and Visualized and then supported with proper Documentation and Training is where you will suffer in the future. Get going now.
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR MEETINGS
Traction Component: Most clents start by extending their A-Chart by using OGraph’s Elements: Meetings, Teams and Entities.
It normally starts with “Meeting Pulse” being added to the Issues List and then the team IDSs by taking a full inventory of all of the meetings that are going on in the organization, L10s and others. From this work they can add meetings to OGraph and connect the seats that attend them creating visual clarity. Above is an example of linking Seats with the Meeting Node. If you wanted to see the People just turn on the Person Node and they would show up in the visualization. Remember the goal is Structure (Seats and Roles) First, People second. We want the right Seats at the Meeting table that are representing the right Roles.
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR TEAMS
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR PROCEDURES, CORE PROCESS
Process Component: Where OGraph really pays is capturing and then linking Roles to the Work Instructions, Procedures, Policies, Checklists that are followed and used by Roles.
EXAMPLE VISUALIZATION – YOUR PROCEDURES to CORE PROCESS
Once you have your WiPPs (Work Instructions, Procedures, Policies) documented you can link them to your Core Processes.
Below are worksheets teams reference to create the inventory of connections from their Accountability Chart work.
WORKSHEETS
Opinion: Modern Companies running on EOS® demand more from their Accountability Chart software.
Companies that truly master EOS reach a tipping point where granddaddy’s hierarchical representation of the Accountability Chart will no longer do the job. They find their great Accountability Chart work around seats and roles needs to be connected more closely with the tools of the 6 Key Components. They have reached a point that has outgrown the ability of their current software to keep up.
Are you at that point? Are you sensing the pattern? Do you feel there is power lying dormant in your A Chart and Six Key Component work?
You are not alone. For most companies, the normal symptom is your IDSing becomes stale, not as sharp. One of the great things about an EOS implementation is it helps Sr. teams get things out in the open, making things more transparent. Companies find over time that this clarity fades, it is not remembered, and it cannot be recalled in the mind’s eye of the team that created it.
A common problem is the structure work (Seats, Roles and Process) that was done during implementation gets lost in three ways.
The first way is it gets lost is in the shared files, behind too many clicks, it is “down below”, no one can remember how to access it and it is certainly not visual.
The second way is the people who created the transparency have moved on.
And third, the image, the visualization they used to have in their mind’s eye is no longer sharp, it has become fuzzy. The team can no longer see the solutions and connections they discovered during the early days.
There is a modern technology solution in Graph databases and Graph visualizations that enables us to capture, document and visualize how it all fits together. This easy visualization makes it accessible, so it does not get lost “down below”. Technology makes it so we do not rely on fuzzy human brains to maintain the image.
Hopefully your company will reach a sophistication and mastery point in your EOS journey that requires a better solution to capture, visualize and interact with the Accountability Chart™ and your 6 Key Component™ work. When this happens, you will need a solution to get your work out in the open, to make the work come alive. You will need a modern Graph approach. OGraph® is state of the art Org Graph software for your EOS Accountability Chart.
Feel free to reach out with questions to Walt Brown – Walt@7q7p.com
Above is an overview of how OGraph does not replace your Accountability Chart – it extends it.
Well defined Seats and Roles are the backbone of ograph. So, if you have a good start on your a chart, you are ready to roll.
shared by all™ – followed by all™
simple to build – simple to access
One accountability chart that links the 6 key components of eos together
The usefulness and accessability of your EOS Accountability Chart is ready to enter the 21st Century with a Graph database capture and visualization solution.
build and capture your accountability chart’s Seats, Roles, People.
Building out the Seats and Roles of an EOS® Accountability Chart™ is important, hard and meaningful work. Keeping it up to date needs to be simple and accessible to everyone. OGraph gives you a simple User Interface that is click, drop, drag- to-link easy.
see your meeting pulse™ and teams with your OGraph enabled Accountability Chart
As a best practice, in almost every EOS Quarterly offsite an Issue is added to the Issues List called “Meeting Pulse”. When IDSing, this issue will remind us to look at our meeting inventory to determine if it is still correct. With your OGraph enabled A-Chart you will be able to see quickly who is in what meetings, no guessing, and can make improvements right on the spot.
document and link your SOPs and core processes to seats and roles with your OGraph enabled accountability chart.
Year 2 in a normal EOS journey is when companies typically get serious about the Process Component. People follow Work Instructions, Procedures, Policy, (WiPPs) as part of their Seats and Roles. OGraph allows you to link your Seats and Roles to your Work Instructions, Procedures, Policies and see how these tie to Core Processes right from your Accountability Chart. Using the visualization options you will be able to see what other Seats and Roles tie to your WiPPs and Processes too.
see your data component linked to your your ograph enabled acountability chart
KPIs, Measurables, Scorecards. With your OGraph A-Chart you can link and see which Seats and Roles are involved in hitting your VTO™ numbers and departmental goals. OGraph supports stacking and nesting of Objectives; i.e. one objective can be a support objective of another. You can tie your scorecard numbers to your objectives and goals too. People can see how the things they achieve tie to the overall.
Document, Link and store all sorts of corporate documentation, core processes etc. inside your OGraph enabled EOS accountability chart
What better place to save, store and access the things people need to know to do their work than inside your EOS® Accountability Chart? For example, store your Work Instructions, your Processes, your Workflow diagrams inside your A-Chart as part of a Process. All Seat and Role descriptions are part of the Seats and Roles. Via a simple right click, every object in your OG A-Chart has rich text capabilities along with and file storage and linking.
What am I Doing and Why? Your individual contributors and teams will be able to IDS and Break through Ceilings faster with your OGraph Enabled Accountability Chart
Bringing the 5 Leadership Abilities™ to bear on an issue will come alive with your OG A-Chart. Simplify: you can see where Complexity happens. Delegate: you can see Capacity problems. Predict: you can see where Indecision might happen. Systemize: you will see where the Inefficiencies and the root of Errors lay. Structure: you will be able to see where there is unclear Accountability or Responsibility. All in one place, all out in the open revealing your hard Accountability Chart and your EOS Tools work.
See “WHo is who” with your ograph enabled accountability chart
Your A-Chart becomes your company directory. See the faces of who is on what team, in which office, on what project. Dig beneath their photo to see contact details and background, it can function like an internal linked-in. . All in one place.
LMA™ with your ograph accountability chart. Report to, Mentored by, Coached by
Leading + Managing and Creating Accountability comes alive with your OG A-Chart. For those you are leading, OGraph will paint a visual vision that creates the opening, helping you lead, think and work on the business. For those you are managing, expectations will be visual, out in the open, clear, and your communication will be more precise. They will see what they are to do to work in the business.
Rosetta Stone: Org Graph to Accountability Chart Language
Seat = Jobs. | Roles = Roles
OGraph is built to serve the world first and companies running on EOS® second. So, the language we use in the software is more what you would hear from HR professionals.
Hope you enjoy it.
free test drive – immediate access
Free Sandbox Access. What better place to start than seeing how easy it is to build your interactive Accountability Chart than by playing with the technology in real time in our Sandbox.
Click here for easy free Sandbox access.
You can also access by dropping down the “more” menu in the header.
Hope you enjoy it, our compliments. Walt
deepen your understanding of organizational structure and design by reading the book that Introduces the Organizational Graph. Death of the Org Chart.
