---
name: org-chart
description: Use when asked to build or update an org chart — a diagram of reporting lines and how roles or teams relate — including deciding what to name (roles vs. individuals), how to handle matrix or dotted-line relationships, and who owns keeping it current.
---

# Org Chart

An org chart is a diagram showing how an organization's roles or teams
relate to one another, most commonly who reports to whom. It's meant to
give anyone looking at it a fast, accurate read on the reporting
structure — which only works if the chart is kept current and doesn't
oversimplify relationships that are genuinely more complex than a
single line.

## Key components

- **Accurate reporting lines** — solid lines for direct, single-line
  reporting; dotted or matrix lines shown explicitly where a person
  genuinely reports into more than one line (e.g. a functional lead and
  a project lead), rather than forcing every relationship into one line.
- **Names or roles, depending on purpose** — a structural chart can show
  role titles only, useful for reasoning about the shape of the
  organization independent of who currently holds each role; a
  directory-style chart names individuals, useful for knowing who to
  contact.
- **A defined owner** — one person or team responsible for keeping the
  chart current, since without a named owner, updates after a reorg
  become nobody's job.
- **An update cadence** — a set trigger or schedule (after every reorg,
  or reviewed on a recurring schedule) for revising the chart, rather
  than relying on someone noticing it's wrong.
- **A stated scope** — whether the chart covers the whole organization,
  one department, or one project, so viewers don't mistake a partial
  chart for the complete picture.

## Simplicity vs. actual complexity

An org chart's value comes largely from being simple enough to read at
a glance, but real organizations often have relationships a strict
single-line hierarchy can't represent accurately — matrix reporting,
temporary project structures, or a person split across two teams.
Simplifying is the right call when the detail being dropped doesn't
change how someone would act on the chart (e.g. omitting a purely
administrative dotted line that nobody actually relies on). It becomes
misleading when the dropped detail is exactly the information someone
needs — for example, a person's real day-to-day manager is the dotted
line, not the solid one, and a chart that hides that sends people to
the wrong person for the wrong kind of decision.

## Common pitfalls

- **Drifts out of date within weeks of a reorg** — without a named
  owner responsible for updating it, the chart quietly becomes wrong
  and people keep relying on it anyway, since nothing marks it as
  stale.
- **Matrix relationships flattened into a single line** — collapsing a
  genuine dual-reporting relationship into one solid line misrepresents
  who someone actually reports to for what, and misdirects anyone using
  the chart to route a question or a decision.
- **Too detailed to be readable at scale** — a chart that tries to show
  every individual and every dotted line across a large organization
  becomes unreadable, defeating the "fast, accurate read" purpose an
  org chart exists for.
- **No stated scope** — a chart covering one department gets mistaken
  for the whole organization, or vice versa, when it isn't labeled.
- **Named individuals used where roles were needed** — a chart built to
  reason about organizational structure gets constantly invalidated by
  ordinary personnel turnover when it names individuals instead of
  roles.

## Learn more

- [[raci-matrix]] and [[responsibility-assignment-matrix]] for
  clarifying who's accountable for what work, which an org chart's
  reporting lines don't by themselves capture.
- [[job-description]] for the detail behind each role or box shown on
  the chart.
- [[succession-planning]] for a practice that depends on the same
  accurate, current picture of critical roles an org chart aims to show.
- [[organizational-development]] for the broader practice of designing
  the structures an org chart depicts.