Optimal Org Chart Design
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The Power of Clarity
Few things offer more clarity for your construction business than having an up-to-date organizational chart that truly reflects the roles and responsibilities of everyone on your team. Few things create more confusion and chaos than a lack of clarity in this same area.
If you’re lacking this today, consider every function in your business and determine who owns what. To simplify the effort, break down the business into three main buckets: getting work, doing work, and supporting work. From there, outline the core functions performed in each of those areas. I find that working chronologically helps. For example:
Get Work
Marketing
Public relations
Business development
Budgeting
Estimating
Sales
Depending on the size of your company, taking things to this layer of detail may suffice. Small companies are unlikely to have multiple aspects of Marketing and PR handled by different people, for instance. For larger companies, you’ll need to go a layer or two deeper into the supporting functions under these core functions to capture the division of labor you want in each of the three main buckets of get, do, and support work. Resist the temptation to apply names to the chart initially. The idea should be to build the machine as it should be built, rather than bending organizational design to your staff. Once built, place your staff where they belong and assess each for their fit. You may need to train or replace individuals to fit your optimal design.
With a clear current organizational chart in place, you can begin to reap the rewards of actual positional ownership and accountability. When everyone knows what they own, you can identify and eliminate gaps through better management, training, or staff upgrades.
Division of Labor
Nobody is good at everything, and the more you heap on a single person, the greater the likelihood that they’re going to be bad at one or more of their assignments. Therefore, as soon as growth allows, begin creating a division of labor in your roles to allow people to specialize and excel in their greatest strengths. Your PMs should likely not also be your entire Estimating staff, your Business Developer shouldn’t be doing the Marketing role, and so on. It’s scary to add payroll, but with the right people in place, division of labor often drives significant improvements and growth naturally. It can be a force multiplier.
The Spark Notes:
A clear, accurate organizational chart brings order and accountability to your construction business—while a lack of clarity breeds confusion and inefficiency.
Start by mapping every function into three key buckets—getting work, doing work, and supporting work—and define the roles under each before assigning names.
Build the structure around the business’s ideal design, then align people to it, addressing any gaps through training or replacements as needed.
As the company grows, divide labor so people can focus on their strengths—specialization boosts performance, growth, and clarity across the organization.
