Example Reflection – Visualization 

 1 . Challenge 

 In my company , I play a role akin to an internal management consultant , working between the CEO ,   COO , Head of IT , Head of HR , and all of the business unit heads .   In 2014 , the company was approaching   an organization restructure which would involve looking at some fundamental elements of organisation   design , including management span of control , and the number of organizational layers .   I had attended   a few senior leadership meetings leading up to this point and could tell there were a number of looming   problems , most notably that each senior executive had a slightly different view of the problem and of   the definition of spans and layers .   For example , many thought that an organizational “ layer ” was the   same as a job grade – ie . that if we had a grade structure from Grade 1 to Grade 8 to which each   employee was allocated , that we therefore had eight organizational layers . They did not understand the   distinction of reporting layers . 

 The company was on a path of business decline and this reorganization project was critical to ensuring ,   in the short term , that the organization was at least “ right sized ” and cost effective before an upward   transformation could begin .   A major consulting firm had produced a report the year before with lots of   data , statistics and charts , but it was clear most executives had either not read it in detail , or did not   understand what it was saying . 

 2 . Selection 

 Based on the above situation , I needed a way to rapidly visualize the problem for the senior executive   team .   Until they understood the fundamentals or organization design ( spans , layers , reporting   relationships etc ) , we would not be able to advance the discussion on where we stood now ( ie . we   would not be able to accurately define “ what is ” ) .   The easiest way to do this I felt was to show the   executive team an organization chart .   But no ordinary org chart .   If you have ever had to draw an org   chart , you will know it ’s tedious and , once you get beyond , say , 50 employees , it does not even fit on a   page .   We would likely have to produce org charts for more than 30 business units , and more than 10   countries !   So , to address both the issue of drawing org charts and presenting them , I purchased some   org chart software , and a large - format printer that would allow us to print on paper that was 30 ” wide   and as long as was needed ( it came off a roll ) . 

 The org chart software was excellent .   It allowed us to merge our HR system data in excel with the   software ’s org chart builder .   Furthermore , it allowed us to clearly colour code each role based on any   criteria we chose .   The criteria we selected was firstly by job grade , and then by country . 

 3 . Application 

 We started to print our first org charts – some were 20 - 30 ft long !   We arranged a few in a workshop to   take the senior executives through , sticking the large charts to a wall for easy review .   I was nervous that   this would be overwhelming , but when the day came , the results were excellent . 

 As the senior executive team wondered along the lengthy org chart , they started to notice a few things .    “ Wow , look how many Grade 2 VPs we have ! ” one said .   “ And look how many of those VPs have few or   no direct reports ! ” another followed up .   These were typical of the observations .   It also became clear to 

 all present what the definition of a “ layer ” was , as the org chart diagrams clearly stratified employees by   reporting lines , showing the layers below the CEO . 

 After this we continued to roll - out more workshops and more org charts .   Over a period of two months ,   we covered all business units and all countries . 

 Exhibit A : Example output form org chart software – shows name , job type , location and grade ( the coloured circles clearly show the grades –   red / orange G1 / G2 , green / dark green G3 / G4 , and Blue / Dark Blue G5 / G6 

 Exhibit B : Example of one of the main workshops I conducted , showing a 20 ft long org chart , with executives able to see in one picture the   scope and scale of their organisation , make notes , discuss etc 

 4 . Insights 

 Besides the overall number of executives and managers the current organization had , and the small   spans of control ( we averaged around 1 manager for every 2.3 employees , whereas we had in mind a   leaner organization with a ratio of 1:7 ! ) , the charts also revealed a few things we had not expected .    Firstly , we noticed how many times senior roles appeared down at layers 5 and 6 ( orange dots clearly   visible down in lower layers on our charts ) .   This implied that some people had been promoted but not   given higher responsibilities that come with the grade .   So , as a result , their grade was senior , but they   appeared five or even six layers below the CEO , doing more routine work .   Our company had a   promotion path problem ! 

 Secondly , the charts also revealed how often reporting lines came back to our headquarters from other   countries , and not just for senior roles , but even for very junior roles .   This illustrated how the company   was imbalanced and how headquarters teams had always commanded that control came from the   centre .   Our headquarters was a very high cost country .   Work was being done here that could be done   in other countries .   It also left less - senior people in other countries unsupervised as their team lead was   in our headquarters ’ country and on another time zone .   Okay for senior leadership roles , but not for   regular team roles . 

 Thirdly , charts revealed that , on average , we were operating on around eight layers .   From a hierarchy   point of view , this was not as bad as the perception that we had 12 or more layers before we started   this project .   In fact , external benchmarks suggested that eight layers for an organization of more than   15,000 people was not bad , and that our biggest issue was our “ fat ” management layers ( ie . too many   managers ) . 

 Same - grade reporting ( where one person reports to another person with the same grade ) , and our   Assistant Manager role ( first promotion to manager but almost 96 % had no direct reports ) were other   issues identified from the visualization analysis . 

 Overall , the visualization and related analysis showed us that while we did have a problem of too many   managers , it also showed us we had issues with our promotion philosophy and the role of our   headquarters . 

 5 . Approach 

 If I had to run this analysis again , I would expand its demonstration to lower level managers .   I think the   senior executives bought in but , as we subsequently experienced when implementing change later that   year , lower levels of management were very protective of the status quo and we had to spend time   backtracking to convince them .   It seems we also needed to illustrate to these people the problem and   how bad the current situation was . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Example Reflection – Visualization 

 1 . Challenge 

 In my company , I play a role akin to an internal management consultant , working between the CEO ,   COO , Head of IT , Head of HR , and all of the business unit heads .   In 2014 , the company was approaching   an organization restructure which would involve looking at some fundamental elements of organisation   design , including management span of control , and the number of organizational layers .   I had attended   a few senior leadership meetings leading up to this point and could tell there were a number of looming   problems , most notably that each senior executive had a slightly different view of the problem and of   the definition of spans and layers .   For example , many thought that an organizational “ layer ” was the   same as a job grade – ie . that if we had a grade structure from Grade 1 to Grade 8 to which each   employee was allocated , that we therefore had eight organizational layers . They did not understand the   distinction of reporting layers . 

 The company was on a path of business decline and this reorganization project was critical to ensuring ,   in the short term , that the organization was at least “ right sized ” and cost effective before an upward   transformation could begin .   A major consulting firm had produced a report the year before with lots of   data , statistics and charts , but it was clear most executives had either not read it in detail , or did not   understand what it was saying . 

 2 . Selection 

 Based on the above situation , I needed a way to rapidly visualize the problem for the senior executive   team .   Until they understood the fundamentals or organization design ( spans , layers , reporting   relationships etc ) , we would not be able to advance the discussion on where we stood now ( ie . we   would not be able to accurately define “ what is ” ) .   The easiest way to do this I felt was to show the   executive team an organization chart .   But no ordinary org chart .   If you have ever had to draw an org   chart , you will know it ’s tedious and , once you get beyond , say , 50 employees , it does not even fit on a   page .   We would likely have to produce org charts for more than 30 business units , and more than 10   countries !   So , to address both the issue of drawing org charts and presenting them , I purchased some   org chart software , and a large - format printer that would allow us to print on paper that was 30 ” wide   and as long as was needed ( it came off a roll ) . 

 The org chart software was excellent .   It allowed us to merge our HR system data in excel with the   software ’s org chart builder .   Furthermore , it allowed us to clearly colour code each role based on any   criteria we chose .   The criteria we selected was firstly by job grade , and then by country . 

 3 . Application 

 We started to print our first org charts – some were 20 - 30 ft long !   We arranged a few in a workshop to   take the senior executives through , sticking the large charts to a wall for easy review .   I was nervous that   this would be overwhelming , but when the day came , the results were excellent . 

 As the senior executive team wondered along the lengthy org chart , they started to notice a few things .    “ Wow , look how many Grade 2 VPs we have ! ” one said .   “ And look how many of those VPs have few or   no direct reports ! ” another followed up .   These were typical of the observations .   It also became clear to 

 all present what the definition of a “ layer ” was , as the org chart diagrams clearly stratified employees by   reporting lines , showing the layers below the CEO . 

 After this we continued to roll - out more workshops and more org charts .   Over a period of two months ,   we covered all business units and all countries . 

 Exhibit A : Example output form org chart software – shows name , job type , location and grade ( the coloured circles clearly show the grades –   red / orange G1 / G2 , green / dark green G3 / G4 , and Blue / Dark Blue G5 / G6 

 Exhibit B : Example of one of the main workshops I conducted , showing a 20 ft long org chart , with executives able to see in one picture the   scope and scale of their organisation , make notes , discuss etc 

 4 . Insights 

 Besides the overall number of executives and managers the current organization had , and the small   spans of control ( we averaged around 1 manager for every 2.3 employees , whereas we had in mind a   leaner organization with a ratio of 1:7 ! ) , the charts also revealed a few things we had not expected .    Firstly , we noticed how many times senior roles appeared down at layers 5 and 6 ( orange dots clearly   visible down in lower layers on our charts ) .   This implied that some people had been promoted but not   given higher responsibilities that come with the grade .   So , as a result , their grade was senior , but they   appeared five or even six layers below the CEO , doing more routine work .   Our company had a   promotion path problem ! 

 Secondly , the charts also revealed how often reporting lines came back to our headquarters from other   countries , and not just for senior roles , but even for very junior roles .   This illustrated how the company   was imbalanced and how headquarters teams had always commanded that control came from the   centre .   Our headquarters was a very high cost country .   Work was being done here that could be done   in other countries .   It also left less - senior people in other countries unsupervised as their team lead was   in our headquarters ’ country and on another time zone .   Okay for senior leadership roles , but not for   regular team roles . 

 Thirdly , charts revealed that , on average , we were operating on around eight layers .   From a hierarchy   point of view , this was not as bad as the perception that we had 12 or more layers before we started   this project .   In fact , external benchmarks suggested that eight layers for an organization of more than   15,000 people was not bad , and that our biggest issue was our “ fat ” management layers ( ie . too many   managers ) . 

 Same - grade reporting ( where one person reports to another person with the same grade ) , and our   Assistant Manager role ( first promotion to manager but almost 96 % had no direct reports ) were other   issues identified from the visualization analysis . 

 Overall , the visualization and related analysis showed us that while we did have a problem of too many   managers , it also showed us we had issues with our promotion philosophy and the role of our   headquarters . 

 5 . Approach 

 If I had to run this analysis again , I would expand its demonstration to lower level managers .   I think the   senior executives bought in but , as we subsequently experienced when implementing change later that   year , lower levels of management were very protective of the status quo and we had to spend time   backtracking to convince them .   It seems we also needed to illustrate to these people the problem and   how bad the current situation was .
### Output: 