RACIng to Clarity for Team Tasks
Everybody Thought Anybody Could Do It; Nobody Realized That Everybody Wouldn’t Do It
In every group, there comes a moment when these words slip out, “I thought you were going to do that?” It’s the classic story of everybody, somebody, anybody and nobody. You see, everybody was sure that somebody would do the job—anybody could have done the job, but nobody did. Somebody got angry because it was everybody’s job in the first place. Everybody blames somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done!
It’s this kind of confusion that makes group work impossible at times. Diffusion of responsibility is the technical term for the group behavior of assuming someone else will take or already has taken action. RACI charts are designed to address this very issue.
RACI (pronounced “RACEY”) stands for:
Responsible
Accountable
Consulted
Informed
At its core, the RACI chart provides clarity for each member on the team as to what their exact role is for each group task.
Each letter represents a different role in the group for a given task. Those who are Responsible actually do the task or a specified portion of the task. Every task has to have at least one responsible party. The person Accountable for the task approves when it is done. The Accountable party is the one with the authority to delegate the work out to those who are Responsible. Every task must have exactly one Accountable party. Consulted are people who provide information based on their expertise, while Informed are people who need to be kept in the loop about the task and progress. There is no limit to the number of people listed as a Consulted party or Informed party.
To better understand how RACI is broken down, let’s look at an example borrowed from The Digital Project Manager using The Lord of the Rings.
In the story Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn, and Elrond are bound together in a Fellowship to carry out the task of destroying the Ring of Power, but there are several of them, and different tasks they must all carry out. The RACI chart brings clarity for what everyone will do. First, we make a table, with the team members as columns of the table, and tasks along the rows. Then, we proceed to evaluate each task by asking who has each role for each task. I find, that asking who is accountable first is the most helpful approach. In this case, Gandalf is the Accountable party because he ultimately decides what to do with the Ring—he is accountable for whether this is a good or bad decision in the end. Also, he is the one who assigns out tasks to Elrond who has to hand the Ring over to somebody. In the counsel meeting, Frodo and Aragorn were Consulted for it, while Sam was Informed of the decision afterward. Similarly, there is clarity for the additional roles for Creating the Fellowship, Getting the Ring to Mount Doom, and distracting and defeating enemies.
For a more concrete example, let’s look at using a RACI chart in the health care setting. In a dental department that is a part of a larger organization, our team might consist of:
Office Manager
Dentist
Dental Director
COO
CFO
CEO
Compliance
Human Resources
And other departments
We make those the columns in our chart. Then, we begin to list tasks as rows. As you do this exercise, you will find there is a balance between being overly detailed and too vague. To address this tension, usually the question, “What tasks require multiple of us where there needs to be clarity?” can guide you to which rows to include. In this example, we start by listing personnel functions for different team members – namely hiring and evaluations for front desk, assistants, hygienists and dentists.
Then, we would assemble the key decision makers and walk through each row asking first, “Who is ultimately accountable for this task being completed correctly?" That is who we assign as an “A” or Accountable party. Then, we ask “Who has a role to play in this task? Who is actually doing the work?”. This person(s) become(s) the “R” or Responsible party. Note, some team members will have multiple roles and some team members may not be involved in that task at all.
Thirdly, we ask, “Who needs to be consulted about this decision? Who has valuable insight that would make us better?” These are your “C” or Consulted parties. Finally, we ask, “Who needs to know the outcome of this decision or action?” That identifies the “I” or Informed parties. For any tasks where there is some nuance, this can be captured in the “notes” column. Remember, this is a healthy conversation that helps us provide clarity in a matrix of responsibilities to let everyone know what they are supposed to be doing for each different type of task.
As you consider standardizing this process in your organization and move to deploy the use of the RACI chart, you first need to think about who are the people involved? Those are going to be the names that go across the top—the people that are involved in your project. Then, you need to think about what kinds of tasks can you envision that will be done to complete this project? The answer to this question will make up your rows.
Tools like this are only helpful to the degree that they are actually used. The exercise itself can be helpful, but its value is as a living document to help provide a framework for your team to understand their assigned role for each type of task. RACIng for clarity will help you function better as a team and avoid that agonizing feeling that hits you too late and says, “I thought you were going to do that!”