For these teams, success depends on everyone stepping into the gaps and pushing towards a shared goal.

But as the team grows, collaboration becomes far more complex. Eventually, leaders can find themselves feeling as though they are standing in a riverbed, single-handedly holding up a dam when they would far rather be checking to see if the dam is even in the right place. The difference between the dam about to fall apart when the leader steps away and the dam that stands on its own is a well defined and clearly communicated Operating Model.

Operating Models center around an org chart but contain so much more. Org charts alone assume that everyone knows what it means to be a “manager” and how that is different from being a “director”. Org charts alone assume that each team is clear on when and how to collaborate with other functions.

A fully defined Operating Model looks beyond the boxes and lines of a typical org chart. With clearly defined roles and explicit expectations around the interdependencies across teams, the Operating Model allows the team to stand strong and deliver while the leaders focus on pointing the way.