Org charts for consultants
The client hands you a PDF from two reorgs ago and needs the current state by Thursday. Then three options. Then a deliverable that still works after you have left. The chart is a third of any organisation design engagement, and most of the tools that draw one were built for something else.
Current state, as received
The current state in a day, not a week
The chart you build first is the one every finding will be argued against, so it has to be right before it is clever. The sources, in the order to ask for them.
The HR export
Best by a distance: one row per person, a manager column, current as of last payroll. Ask for it on the first call; it arrives on the third.
The finance headcount list
Often more current than HR, because it is what the money is paid against. Usually missing managers, which the interviews fill in.
The last org chart
A PDF or a slide, two reorgs old. Still useful: it is what the leadership team thinks the structure is, and the gap between it and the export is your first finding.
Screenshots and emails
A photo of the chart on the wall, a "here is my team" email. A picture or a PDF can be read into a chart, with every guess listed; check each name against a source before it goes in a deliverable.
Whatever arrives, import it rather than redraw it. The list of decisions the importer made — the manager it matched by surname, the two rows it merged — is your first set of questions for the client.
What to read from it
Before a single interview. Six things a current-state chart shows on its own, and each is a page of the report.
Spans over ten and under two
The operations director with eight supervisors and a scheduler; the head of sales with one report. Both are findings before you have interviewed anyone.
Layers against headcount
Count the levels from chief executive to the front line and set it against the size of the company. Too few layers and the executive is the bottleneck; too many and nothing is decided below the top.
"Head of" one
Titles inflate faster than teams grow. Every head of department with a single report is a question about what the company actually needs that function to be.
Dotted lines nobody can explain
A health and safety officer employed by finance and directed by operations is normal; a client who cannot say why is the point. Ask about every dotted line, and note who answers.
Vacancies, and how long open
An open post is a decision that was made and not acted on. Six months open is a decision that was quietly reversed.
Functions in two places
A finance director who is also the HR department; quality reporting to the chief executive while safety reports to finance. The chart shows the seams; the interviews explain them.
Drawing the options
One chart per option, named for what it is — "Option B, regional" — with the same people and the same department colours in each, so the client compares structures rather than drawings. Keep the current state untouched as the baseline. Compare the options on the things the chart can measure: spans, layers, open roles, and who moves. The things it cannot measure are what the interviews are for.
Export all of them at the same size with the same settings. A recommended option that happens to be drawn larger recommends itself.
The deliverable, and the handover
PowerPoint, with every card an editable shape, for the deck. PDF or SVG for the report. A view link for the steering committee so they are looking at the current version rather than the one attached to an email three weeks ago.
Then hand it over properly. Build the chart in the client's own account if they have one, or share an edit link so they take it on. Leave them the spreadsheet as well. The engagement ends; the chart should not.
Confidentiality
One chart per client, named for the client and the date. Never a public page for client data — public pages exist for companies publishing their own leadership, and a client's structure is not yours to publish. Share by link to named people, and revoke the link when the engagement closes; an export is a file, and is treated like any other client file. If the client's data is subject to a non-disclosure agreement or sits in a regulated sector, build in their account rather than yours from the start.
Questions people ask
- Can I put the client's chart in my own slides?
- Yes. Export to PowerPoint and each card arrives as an editable shape, so the chart drops into your template and the client can change a name later without coming back to you. On the free plan the export is a PNG with a small footer line; clean and editable formats come with a plan or a three-day pass.
- How do I show the current and proposed structures side by side?
- As two charts with the same people, exported at the same size, on facing slides — or on one slide if both are small. Keep the current-state chart untouched as the baseline and make each option a separate chart, so a comparison is a comparison and not a diff of edits.
- Is the client's data safe?
- Charts are private to the account that made them. A share link shows a chart to anyone who has it and can be revoked; a public page is a separate, deliberate step with a consent checklist, and is not something to use for client data. The privacy policy has the detail, and it is written to be read.
- What if the client's structure only exists in a PDF or a screenshot?
- Import it. A PDF or an image is read into a chart, and every decision made in the reading — a merged duplicate, a guessed manager, a name that might be a title — is listed for you to check. It is a starting point and it saves the afternoon; it is not a record until you have checked it against the client.
- How large a chart will it handle?
- Building is free at any size. Past about a hundred and twenty visible people the chart folds its lower levels automatically so it stays readable, and you open the branch you need. A whole company of several hundred is fine; the question is what the reader needs to see, not what the tool can draw.
One engagement, one pass
Building is free, and a three-day pass unlocks clean, editable exports for the week the deliverable is due. Build in the client's account if they have one, or share an edit link when you hand over — a chart that lives on a consultant's laptop expires the day the invoice is paid.