Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

In government, we loved the org chart. We loved it so much that we often forgot that the org chart was not the people.

The org chart is a representation of how we organize persons. The org chart is just a picture, not the reality.

Often, in soft matters, we confuse the picture with the reality.

Accompanying the org chart is a job description of what every person shown in the org chart is supposed to do. Here is a little (not so) secret:

If I don’t want to do what the job description says, I can not do it (and get away with this malfeasance).

I can stay in my job and ignore the org chart and the job description.

In some organizations, the persons behave like adults. They understand that org charts and job descriptions show ideal situations. They understand that the ideal exists now and then, but not often.

They understand that the persons sitting in the chairs accomplish the work.

In my experience, it is much better to work with adults.