Project managing within teams can be incredibly difficult if roles and responsibilities are unclear. An effective way to ensure that everyone understands what he or she needs to do is to use Responsibility Charting. This tool enables you to address any issues within task delegation, and allows you to clarify who should be doing what, and how they should be doing it.
Here are three steps to developing a Responsibility Chart:
- List the tasks – This list will make up the headings for each row in the chart.
- List the people involved – This list will make up the headings for each column in the chart.
- Discuss and delegate the tasks – Addressing each row at a time, discuss and identify a person for each role and responsibility.
A useful format for assigning roles is to use letters that denote the level of involvement in a certain task. Richard Beckhard and Reuben Harris (1977) have recognised four specific roles:
- Responsible (R): This person’s job to make sure that everything associated with this task has been performed.
- Approval required or the right to veto (A-V): This person is given the responsibility to decide whether certain items are relevant and necessary within the course of the task.
- Support (S): This person’s just is to be of assistance of the person who is responsible for the tasks’ completion, using any information they can provide.
- Informed (I): This person understands the process of the task, but does not necessarily influence or make any contribution.
Here are some tips for assigning roles:
- For each task, there should online be one person who is responsible for it. This makes them accountable for the entire process of the task’s completion.
- The person whose role is to aid, should be clearly outlined. This ensures that they have the resources to contribute.
- Within each individual task, only one or two people should be able to approve or veto any decisions. You should also have a limit of how many tasks a person can perform this role for. This will enable the tasks to be completed more efficiently.
- If the members of the team have any disagreements of who should undertake which tasks, it is important to discuss your options and resolve any issues.
Summary
Using this method gives the entire team the chance to be involved in the planning process as well as have an input in how the tasks are executed. Clarifying the roles of the team members is sure to optimise the efficiency of the entire team.
