One and two degrees of separation up and down are the most critical for understanding the organization both globally and locally.
Globally, from the CEO perspective, the business model of the organization is inherent in the categories of the major components (1°) that interrelate to produce the organization’s output. Two levels down from the top (2°) contains the strategic operating model of how the work is going to get done.
Locally, from the relative staff membership perspective, the first degree of separation is to a team leader, a role that represents the team as a whole, as a unit of analysis. Two levels up is the executive sponsor that authorizes the team and provides the mission. “Bottoms-up” might better be called “edge-in” as line teams of working staff with no reports and no whole/part leadership roles can be found at all levels, e.g., a small legal team reporting to the top position.
Top-down Perspective
The top-level executive team represents the major component functions and carries the basic work process model of the whole organization
Executive teams coordinate line teams, developing and communicating strategy that connects up to the global level guides tactical teams at the local level
The function teams at the component level carry the strategic design of the work process.
Most of the organization is in tactical line teams, the working “leafs” at the end of executive “branches,” often known as: operations teams; front line teams; “tip of the spear”; and “where the rubber hits the road.”
