Who is in charge of what?

I frequently get questions about what our Communications Department "controls". People want to see how our boxes and lines are drawn. It's a question that's hard to answer because we don't have hard lines and boxes.

We didn’t get there overnight, but the team culture here is all about shared ownership. We’re not segregated departments, but we're not all morphed into ONE department with ONE person in charge of it all either. There is constant contact between key stakeholders who are intentional about collaboration and cross-training. Although it might be easier if everyone stayed in their own area, it just wouldn’t be as effective.

It rolls a little something like this:

• As Communications Director, I’m the coach responsible for anything you read, touch or click off the platform. My direct reports act like quarterbacks to help carry the vision and keep the ball moving down the field. The rest of my team has specific positions to play in the game but can be moved around depending on the situational landscape.
• As Pastor of Creative Arts, Butch Whitmire and his creative arts teams are responsible for executing the plays on the auditorium platform.
• As Pastor of Connections, Mark Waltz and his teams are responsible for executing the plays for the best environments.
• etc.

There’s a lot of overlap between us, but we’re all protecting the same mission, vision and values so it works well. We all work off same "big idea" worksheet for creative direction. We aren’t responsible for “defining” individual messages…we’re responsible for protecting and extending one.

So what about the people on my team? Here's today's 'playas'.

 

Solid lines indicate direct reports. Dotted lines indicate intentional collaboration. Grey boxes are volunteer teams.

More...you don't get there overnight.

Comments

[J]

Kem,

I love this chart, did you guys draw it in house or is it a software package?

[Ted]

Our church's Vice President of Communications, Visual Arts, and All Things Snazzy would love this! I'll share it with him. Quite spanky!

[Rod Pearcy]

This is the first org chart that I dont mind looking at...because it seems to accurately describe how people work.
What tool did you use to create it?

[Rod Pearcy]

This is the first org chart that I dont mind looking at...because it seems to accurately describe how people work.
What tool did you use to create it?

[John]

oooo. i like the pretty picture. are those flowers or flesh eating bacteria? homer

[David Russell]

I like that the Help Desk Associate is the one at the top of the org chart. Way to go, Kyle!

[Roland Thomas Gilbert]

What a coincidence! Bob Bickford [Springcreek Community Church] and I were just talking about this very thing over lunch yesterday ... How as Comm. Dir. of my church, the lines between "administrative" and "pastoral" seem to have become much more sharp and crisp than I prefer. I blogged about it last week myself.

Thank you for sharing. RG

[Rick Suttles]

WOW! Very OCD...but has it's need. I wish I wasn't most of the circles on that chart. Lol. But it's better than what it was when I started 4 years ago. Thanks for all of your ideas and thoughts...I really enjoy posts like this!

[Michelle Pratt]

Now this is the stuff I love to see you on your site!!! Thanks a ton for sharing this!

[Heather Palacios]

I am SO glad my eyes landed on this post. I already sent it to our comm. dir. From a church who's gone before us and done well (GCC), this is a huge help! Thanks!

[Jeremy]

fascinating.

so what does your information analyst do....

wait a second! at my church, I'm all the big circles and most of the little circles... something's not right here.

[Clayton Bell]

That's either the most awesome or terrifiying org chart I've ever seen...maybe both!

Great to see that it takes some cross-departmenting and sharing of responsibility to create innovation...