How a Responsibility Matrix Can Help You Manage Projects
When a project is hampered by duplicated work, poor lines of communication, and the right hand not knowing what the left is up to, a responsibility matrix can be the key to untangling the mess. Get-It-Done Guy explains.
It’s getting to be fall and at Bernice’s Green Growing Things plant store, it’s time to start this year’s renovation projects. Unfortunately, the action resembles a French farce more than a well-run project.
Bernice decided that the Audrey 2s aren’t selling fast enough. Customers are apprehensive about plants that actually demand food on a regular basis. So she told the team last month, “We need a price promotion and window display for the Audrey 2s.” Europa, Melvin, and Thomas jumped into action!
Unfortunately, action isn’t what gets things done. Coordinated action gets things done. Europa arrived at the window display with a hose connected to the back room sink, ready to water the plants. But Melvin was already there with a pulley and aqueduct solution he rigged up out of his Lego™ Engineering collection. Europa wants to use her hose. Melvin wants to use his Legos. This is not going to go well.
Fortunately, it isn’t going to have the opportunity. Because as Thomas was carrying an Audrey 2 from the holding pens to the window, he left his skateboard right where Europa was about to … [Sound of a skateboard crashing into shelves.]
Oops! This chaos must be stopped, pronto!
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“Need to Know” Matters
The problem is that Bernice simply issued a broad desire and everyone leapt into action without taking the time to figure out what needed to be done, and who needed to do what.
This happens often. A new product is launched and the sales people are promising one thing to customers, the engineers are building something else, marketing’s input is getting to the design team after critical decisions are being made, and everyone gets very disgruntled. “Why didn’t you keep me in the loop?” says everybody, to everybody. The answer, of course, is “Because I didn’t know you needed to be.”
Sometimes there’s another answer, which nobody says out loud. “Because keeping you in the loop would slow down my part of the project immensely.” If you sometimes think that, you’re not alone – but you’re probably wrong. Keeping someone in the loop may slow down initial decision-making, but cutting them out of it might cause bigger problems later that reduce buy-in to the program. They may even result in outright sabotage and rebellion later.
Make Responsibilities Explicit
Instead of jumping right into action when a new initiative affects different people and/or departments, get everyone together and create a responsibility matrix. It’s quite simple. First, you create a matrix. I like to use a spreadsheet. Each row is labeled with a project step, decision, or issue. For example, “Find outsourcing vendor” or “Choose advertising color scheme.” Each colunmn is labeled with the name of a person or department.
For every row, put an X in the columns of the people who need to be involved in that project step. Once you’ve filled in all the Xs that make sense, in one compact sheet, you have a complete overview of who needs to be involved in each aspect of the project.
Identify Kinds of Responsibility
Not all involvement is created equal, however. There’s a special form of Responsibility Matrix called a RACI Matrix. In a RACI Matrix, instead of just putting an X in the intersection of a person and project area, you put the letter R, A, C, or I. These correspond to different kinds of involvement.
Responsible. R is for Responsible. For a given project step, the person labeled R is responsible for doing the work. For the task Prepare Marketing Report, the marketing manager writing the report would be the responsible person. In Bernice’s store, both Melvin and Europa thought they were responsible for watering the Audrey 2s, and no one was responsible for clearing the path for transporting Audrey 2s.
Accountable. A is for Accountable. The accountable person is the one who approves the responsible person’s work. Bernice is the one who has to be satisfied with the window display, even though everyone else is doing the work, so she’s the one everyone is accountable to.
Consulted. C is for Consulted. People who provide necessary information and must be consulted on a project are labeled with Cs. They’re often experts whose knowledge is needed, even though they aren’t doing the work themselves. A marketing report might rely on sales figures to identify key trends, so the Sales Department would be listed as a C consultant to the marketing report.
Informed. I is for Informed. People or departments that will be affected by the action and need to be kept in the loop are labeled I. If Thomas was developing a rocket-powered skateboard, the legal department might want to be kept informed so they can identify potential liabilities the product might bring about. They would also need to make sure their customer terms of service trick the customers into signing away their rights when they buy the product.
The Conversation Is Key
The value of a RACI Matrix is only partially in knowing who must be involved in a project. Creating one means getting everyone together in one room, at least once, and understanding how everyone is involved in making the project a success. Thomas, though he’s an inventor, learns about the legal needs of the company. Melvin learns about transporting Audrey 2s, and Europa learns what consideration designers need to take into account when designing window displays.
Next time you are blindsided at work, sit down with everyone in the room and create a RACI Responsibility Matrix. Once it’s done, everyone will be included in just the things that matter to them, in just the ways that are appropriate. With all the time and money you save from eliminating the bickering and the duplicate work, you’ll be able to afford all kinds of nice things for the office. Like plants. I hear the Audrey 2s are on sale – and they’re a bloody great bargain.
I’m Stever Robbins. I help high achievers accelerate or change careers by creating powerful resumes and online presence. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
