Your Organization is Made of Functions Not Jobs
When you think of your company structure, you probably think of people with jobs and job titles. Thinking of people performing functions is a better model. That's because in most companies, many people perform multiple functions. They wear many hats. Think of each hat as a function they perform.
Every function has four parts.
THE TRIGGER
The first part is the trigger. It's what sets the function in motion. It could be a date. For example, the payroll function is triggered every other Wednesday. Or it could be an event. The proposal function is triggered when an RFQ arrives. Or it could be a status. The re-order function is triggered when inventory gets to a certain level.
THE INPUT
Input is what is needed to perform the function. Using payroll as an example, we need people's salary or hourly pay rates, their hours worked, tax deduction rates etc. Or we can't run payroll.
THE TRANSFORMATION
This is where the work gets done. For payroll that means formatting the data to send to the payroll company and then they perform additional transformation work to that data.
THE OUTPUT
This is why you perform the function. The outputs from payroll are paychecks, taxes withheld, and payroll entries in the accounting system and reports.
Benefits of Functional Thinking
Have you ever known of a person leaving a company and they needed to hire 2 or 3 people to replace them? That's because that person was performing multiple functions, even if they only had one job title.
- By understanding the outputs of the different functions your people perform you'll be better able to know when additional personnel are needed, and you'll be able to monitor production better.
- By knowing how the transformation works, you'll find it easier to to train people.
- By knowing about triggers and inputs for each function, you'll be able to design more efficient workflows.
Here's a short (9min) video about building your org chart around functions. There are more videos at my YouTube Channel.
