The cc line

Friday tell. Before I read a company's org chart, I read the cc line on one of its approvals.

The chart says who reports to whom. It was drawn once, for a purpose, and it was out of date by the time it was printed. The cc line was written this week, by someone who needed a yes and was under a little pressure. It is the more honest document.

There are three kinds of names on it.

The first is the person who can stop the thing. They are rarely the person being asked. The email goes to a manager and copies a finance lead, a country head, the founder's chief of staff, and the sender knows that one reply from any of them ends the conversation, whatever the manager says.

The second is cover. The sender's own boss, copied so that nobody can later say they were not told. A peer from another team, copied so the decision is shared before it is made. Nothing is expected of these names. They are there in case.

The third is the person being told after the fact. Copied, not asked. Usually the one the chart says owns the area. That name is the most interesting on the line, because it marks the exact place where the chart and the building disagree.

Read enough approvals and a second chart appears, drawn in cc, and it is the one the work actually runs on. It has no boxes and no lines. It has who can stop, who needs cover, and who finds out later.

People report where the chart puts them. They hide where the cc line puts them.