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Working on Teams: How and Why to Use a Responsibility Chart

How and Why to Use a Responsibility Chart

How to use this tool:

A Responsibility Chart helps you determine who-does-what-and-who-helps. This an beuse!ul as teams are !orming" or as new work emerges as part o! a team#s responsibilities. AResponsibility Chart an be used to lari!y understandings" impro$e the distribution o! work" andbuild agreements that in$ol$e all and there!ore an last.

This hart may be ompleted in se$eral di!!erent ways: %y the team as a group &this method may be somewhat time-onsuming but will result in

a high degree o! ommitment and understanding'. %y a sub-group o! the team &this may be a bit more e!!iient. A re$iew by the !ull team

and agreement on the hart ontent would be an important seond step'. %y eah team member &the team would then need to on!irm areas o! agreement and

disuss areas o! di!!erene to reah agreement'.

%y the team leader &while probably the most e!!iient method in terms o! time" disussionby the whole team is needed to ensure lear understanding and aountability'.

A. Setting Up the Responsibility Chart

The main parts o! the hart are shown in the partial illustration below. These parts must benamed to set up the hart !or use. They are:

(. )urpose. *e!ining e+atly what pro,et or work you want to understand is a $ital !irst step inemploying the hart. The purpose appears at the top o! the hart.

. Aross the olumns" list the peoplein$ol$ed.

. /e+t" list the tasksto be done. 0ist these at the le$el o! detail that seems right to you. 1ouan inrease or derease that le$el as needed" and e$ery task does not need be listed at thesame le$el o! detail. 0ook !or the amount o! detail that will ensure understanding and gooddistribution o! responsibility.

SAMPLE RESPONSIBILITY CART

)urpose:Responsibility Chart !or determining distribution o! !inanial responsibilities in ourdepartment.

2ind this tool and other organi3ation de$elopment resoures online:http:44hrweb.mit.edu4learning-de$elopment

)age ( o!


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Ill!stration "partially #o$plete%

Person or

Role Admin Asst. 5anager2isal6!!ier

2aulty5ember

Tas& )repare budget A R A

6btain budget appro$al R

7ubmit tra$el reeipts R

Complete tra$el reports R

Reonile aounts R A

)urhases 8 9;; R < C

)urhases = 9;; A R A C

B. Ma&ing Responsibility Assign$ents

6ne you ha$e ompleted the initial setup o! the hart" assign letters in eah o! the bo+es.R -- This person is responsible!or arrying out the task" or aountable to see that the task isdone. Every task must have an R.

Then assign letters A" C" and4or < as needed:

C-- This person #ons!ltsto the R person !or the task. Consulting means that the two workollaborati$ely" with both ha$ing significant responsibility!or doing the work.

A -- This person assiststhe R person with the task. Assisting means this person helps arry

out the work but is not as in$ol$ed in making deisions about what is to be done or how.

I-- This person is in!ormed about the status o! the work" inluding when it is done" but is notdiretly in$ol$ed in planning or doing the work.

Groundrules for guiding these assignments

(. There must be an R !or e$ery task.. There is only one letter per person per task.. A task may ha$e ,ust an R or may ha$e an R and other letters in as many other bo+es as

needed.

C. Tips

(. %uilding the harts in >+el or another spreadsheet allows !or easy editing a!ter themeeting.

. As new tasks emerge" you an add them to the e+isting Responsibility Chart to makesure the new responsibilities are lear.


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'. Blan& Responsibility Chart

Person or

Role Tas&


)age o!

R? primarily responsible !or ensuring task gets doneC? onsults in planning and doing taskA? assists by doing some o! the taskI? is in!ormed o! progress on task and when task is omplete

Adapted from an article by Jim Dezieck, OED Team.

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