Org Charts and Maps

A few weeks ago, my son took on a 24-hour orienteering challenge in the hills of New Zealand. Map, compass, torchlight — and three teammates by his side. No phones. No shortcuts.

The map gave them boundaries. But the real route? That had to be discovered in real time, shaped by terrain, trust, tiredness, and instinct. What mattered most wasn’t the plan. It was the connection between teammates and between insight and action. It reminded me of something we often forget in high performance:

Structure sets the scene.

But the play is in the communication.

I once worked in a high-performing team that restructured constantly. Org charts redrawn. Desks moved. Departments renamed. Reporting lines shifted. One year: no department heads. The next: new reporting groups. But the same problems kept returning, misalignment, confusion, decisions circling endlessly. They weren’t structure problems. They were communication problems.

Eventually, a leader saw it. She dropped the restructure plans and focused on how people communicated instead. She created small cross-role huddles, short, sharp, useful. She made it easy for the right people to be in the room, raise real issues, and move forward fast. No fanfare. Just flow.

The feel of the system changed. People got closer. And performance lifted. I asked her, “What made the difference?” She said, “I stopped asking who was in charge. I started asking, who do people talk to when it matters?” Because when something goes wrong, people don’t pull out the org chart (or the strategy and vision). They turn to someone they trust, not necessarily their manager, but the person who listens, who notices, who helps.

Org chart challenges happen in sport too. A young athlete once opened up to the team’s travel coordinator about something critical. Not because it was her job, but because she was nearby. She cared. And in that moment, she was the performance leader.

So the real question isn’t: “Who’s in the right box?” It’s: “Who’s close enough to lead when it matters?” If you’re reflecting on your own team this week, try this:

• When something important breaks or stalls, who do people naturally go to first, and why?

• Who in your team is consistently close to the real work, regardless of their role or title?

• What’s one conversation you’re not currently having across teams, but should be?

Because structure sets the stage, But communication is the performance. And when leadership is shared, by trust, not title, the system breathes again. And performance moves faster, not just higher.

Look around you. Where can you flatten the chart and shift the rhythm?