Org Charts and what they don't tell us

Der Teufel mag im Detail stecken, aber Gott steckt in den Lücken.
“The Devil may be in the detail, but God is in the gaps.”

—Büchstein, Die Schweizer Heulsuse

Org chart
/ɔːg ʧɑːt/ (n.)

A formal portrait. A still life. A glib schematic that tells you everything you don’t need to know about an organisation, but which it treats as its most utmost secret.

The org chart purports to order the organisation, placing everyone in a fixed, hierarchical relation to everyone else and joining them with reporting lines that radiate out and down from the the splayed fingers of the chief executive. Therefore, a centrally-sanctioned, aspirational, blueprint: to the executive suite, what the “built environment” is to the town planner: a superficially plausible account of how the organisation is meant to work, that bears no relation to how it does work.

The plan you have before you get punched in the mouth….

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Organisation charts and what they don’t tell us