One of the great early management theorists and practitioners, Henri Fayol (1841-1925), emphasized the importance of well-defined organizational structures. His ideas led to the organogram, which we might now call the org chart.
The typical org chart’s hierarchical boxes and lines of management control have endured over the last century. Many company adaptations are merely realignments of the org chart. Yet what the classic org chart only vaguely does is to show communication flow – which is omnidirectional – and things like innovation opportunities, or which people have social connectivity with others.
What if there were a different way to represent the complexities of the
21st-century organization? Enter nested circles. Common in self-managed, agile and holacratic organizations, such a representation can show the information flows – and the individual and collective accountabilities – that the org chart fails to capture.
As the name suggests, nested circles uses circular forms, nestling within each other. They are a much more effective way to represent an organizational construct of delineated responsibilities (think sales, finance, legal), while showing that people are also present in non-hierarchical entities like projects, initiatives and experiments.
Tools such as Maptio use the principles of nested circles and make them dynamic and easily updateable to create a real-time snapshot of our affiliations and connectivity with others. This allows us to show how we, as individuals, intersect across work silos when we need to solve problems and get things done differently.
From King Arthur’s round table to the seating arrangements of the politicians who negotiated Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago, there is powerful symbolism in people being on the same level. The all-for-one, one-for-all ethos is more evident when we’re more naturally arced together, not mechanically separated. Breaking down silos? Take a look at nested circles.
Perry Timms is founder and chief energy officer of PTHR, a consultancy aiming to create better business for a better world. He is a TEDx speaker, top-selling author, and number one on HR Magazine’s 2022 Most Influential Thinkers list.