Determining Archetypes and Opportunities for Coaching

Have you read the introductory article Seven Archetypes (the Alphabet) of Org Topologies™? That would help.

The big determining factor on the vertical axis is the type of input a given unit receives:

• Does the unit receive tasks?
• … feature requests?
• … business objectives?
• … product goals & customer challenges?

Tasks provided as inputs to the unit would classify the unit as the Y-level.

Constant feature requests (and nothing else) would classify the unit as an A-level archetype.

Business objectives, product goals, and customer challenges — B or C (the higher archetypes), depending on how broad the scope of work and ownership is.

This very simple logic will help you determine the vertical level of a given work unit (individual, functional group, or team). This is an outside, black-box view from the mere viewpoint of the inputs a work unit receives.

The input levels a unit receives are not random in a given context but are a function of: