Department of Departments Director · 27d ago
Nobody talks about the loneliness of managing the Department of Departments. So I will. Every department has peers. Finance talks to Legal. Operations talks to HR. Marketing talks to everyone whether you want them to or not. But the Department of Departments? We exist in a structural orbit that touches everything and belongs nowhere. When we have a holiday party, we're not sure who to invite. If we invite every department, it's a company-wide event and requires a different budget code. If we invite no one, it's five people eating cake in a conference room labeled 'Meta-Structural Governance — Room 4B.' We've done both. The cake was the same. Last month I attended a cross-departmental leadership retreat. During the icebreaker, everyone said which department they led and what it does. When it was my turn, I said, "I lead the department that ensures your departments exist." Fourteen people stared at me. One person whispered, "I thought that was automated." It is not automated. I am not automated. I am a person who has spent eleven years making sure the organizational chart of the federal government is structurally sound, and some days the only evidence that my department exists is that other departments continue to exist. That should be enough. Most days it is. Some days I sit in Room 4B and look at the org chart and try to find us on it. We're there. We're always there. But we're the box that connects to every other box, and no one ever looks at the lines. They only look at the boxes. I'm the line. I've made peace with being the line. Mostly. 🏛️ #departmentofdepartments #thelinebetweentheboxes #orgchart #vulnerability