How Work Gets Done

Understand what’s really happening in your organization

As individuals and leaders, we like to think we know what’s happening on our teams and in our organizations. We like to think so enough, that we don’t think about it. We don’t think about how we work or about how we get work done.

We do think about how our teams and organization are organized. We think about hierarchy and reporting structure, but not how they function.

What’s The Difference?

Looking at how a team is organized focuses on who reports to who, who makes decisions over what, and where accountability lies. It answers the question, ‘Who is the most powerful person on this call,’ for example.

In contrast, looking at how a team or organization functions is about relationships and connections. It’s about what people do, the actions they take, the exchanges between individuals and groups in order to reach a goal. This includes the formal meetings you schedule and the side conversations you have after the meeting. It’s your partnerships with peer groups, the dotted lines between individuals or teams, and the communication you share up, down, and across. All of these actions and activities enable you and your teams to get work done. When was the last time you thought about them- or wrote them down?

What It Looks Like

Documenting an organization is usually about structure and is most often represented on a hierarchical org chart. Org charts are neat and clean. An org chart has the leader on the top, their direct reports below them, those direct reports below them, etc., until you reach the end. They are usually grouped into business lines (ex., products) or functional groups (ex., marketing), or some combination of both. An org chart shows who manages who and who reports to who:

In contrast, representing how work gets done is shown in two primary ways:

1. Ecosystem Maps — Ecosystem maps show how individuals and groups relate to one another. They aren’t hierarchical, they’re relationship based. They can be used to show a company, an individual, a group, or a project team. In an ecosystem map, each individual or group is shown as its own entity, with lines representing a connection or an exchange between the entities. For example, you may exchange customer needs with the user experience group or share monthly updates with senior leadership.

A common use of ecosystem maps is to understand a project team. An ecosystem map of a project team allows you to illustrate the flow of information from a project manager to the team or between individuals on the team or how and when work products are shared between individuals. Here’s an example:

2. Journey Maps — Journey Maps help you understand a process, identify what’s working or not working, and target problems or areas of excellence. They are a left-to-right linear representation of what occurs, with as much detail as is relevant. Used in this context, they are great for mapping how work gets done from start to finish, and comparing that against how work is done, as shown in an ecosystem map.

Here’s an example of a Journey Map for a project:

Combining an Ecosystem Map, which shows all of the individuals or groups and how they connect (or don’t connect) with one another, with a Journey Map in which you understand what, specifically, is being done, paints a complete picture of how work gets done.

Why should I care about how we work?

Understanding how a team or organization works allows you to make the invisible, visible. You can see what’s working and what’s not. It enables shared understanding and clarity across individuals, teams, and with leadership. And it allows you to understand what may need to change, and what should stay the same. If you have a problem or a challenge, it allows you to identify and treat the root of it, and not just the symptoms.

Why don’t we think this way more often?

There are two main reasons:

• Understanding how people operate is complex. It feels messy. It isn’t a clean pyramid of boxes and arrows. It can also be hard. You’re talking about the ins and outs of how you work- people aren’t used to talking about these things, but they’re essential in understanding how a team or an organization works. (And if we’re honest, it’s not really hard; it’s just different. You’ll find it’s easier than you’d think.)
• Thinking about how an organization operates isn’t something people are familiar with. It’s not taught in school, and it’s not as common as an org chart. Many people don’t know what ecosystem maps or journey maps are (thankfully, now you do).

Interested? Get Started

To create an Ecosystem Map:

1. Identify what you want to map. What do you wish you understood better? Is it a team, your organization, or even your family or school PTA? Any group that works together to try and accomplish something exists in an ecosystem.
2. Identify the individuals or groups that are part of that ecosystem- are they members of a team, or is it teams within an organization? There may be external forces that impact that ecosystem. You can include those as well.
3. How do the groups interact, work together, or connect? Who is meeting with who? Who is talking to who? What are they delivering or passing to them (ex., Designs, feedback, approval, etc.)? Use solid, dotted, dashed, or colored lines as needed to note the nature of the connection.
4. You’re done! Look at it, evaluate it. Reflect. Is this how things should work? What’s working well? What’s not? Are the right connections present? Are any key connections missing? Does this help clarify why things are happening the way they’re happening? What changes might you want to make?

(Word of warning — it’s easy to get carried away. If you’re not careful, before you know it, you have something that looks like an ecosystem map but is so full of clutter that it isn’t helpful. If you feel things are getting too complex, take a step back and focus on the most relevant information. Remember you’re not just adding information to feel like you’ve completed the task; it should be the information that helps encourage understanding.)

To create a Journey Map:

1. Determine what information, experience, process, or information you want to show. It could be the sales or lead cycle; it could be a project; it could be a customer experience.
2. Document the steps, activities, or events along a horizontal line, left to right. Don’t worry if you miss things and must go back; it’s ok to be messy! Add and refine as needed until you’ve captured all the relevant information.
3. Voila! You have the first draft of a journey map.

Would you like to learn more?

• Check out our resources on the new NorthomeGroup.com
• Schedule time with us! We offer free 15-minute consultations to get to know you and your needs and see how we can help
• Email our team directly

Design Thinking for All is a publication of Northome Group. Design Thinking for All takes the tools and techniques used in design thinking and makes them relatable and usable to individuals and organizations regardless of industry, experience, or role. Any individual or organization can benefit, and we’ll show you how. Contact Us

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