When Everybody Is Accountable, Nobody Is
Maybe you’ve heard this condensed version of Charles Osgood’s poem: "There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody couldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have."
One mistake we make when leading a team project is confusing shared goals with shared ownership. With shared goals, everyone understands the desired outcome and has a stake in the team's success. (Yay!) But where a lot of team leaders fall down is not taking it a step further from shared ownership to individual ownership (and accountability), where a specific person is responsible for moving a particular deliverable forward, coordinating inputs, and communicating progress.
I see this mistake a lot – managers assuming that having multiple eyes on the project will create multiple accountability partners, or that someone will step up to drive the project forward. But in reality, agreement about the destination doesn't necessarily establish who is driving. And research backs this up: a study of virtual agile teams found that when people were clear on who owned what, they were more productive.
When responsibility is spread across a group, people may feel less personally accountable for taking action. As in the story, each person believes another person is handling the handoff, decision, or follow-up. So people contribute enthusiastically, but no one integrates the pieces or ensures the final outcome is delivered.
I remember once leading a group of volunteer parents in an effort to fundraise for our school, and one guy came up with a great idea. When I told him, “Great! You run that one!” he demurred and said that he was more of an idea guy. I came across the term “social loafing” to describe this phenomenon and can’t stop thinking about it.
The more you make ownership clear and create a healthy expectation of follow-through, the less time you have to spend monitoring everyone. That’s where a RACI comes in handy:
Responsible: The responsible person handles a task that has been delegated or assigned by the accountable person and must complete that task within agreed-upon parameters and timeline. A task may have more than one responsible individual.
Accountable: The accountable person ensures that all the responsibles complete their tasks. It is best to assign ownership to a single individual who can serve as the decision-maker and guide.
Consulted: The consulted person is the team's SME or knowledge-holder. They’re available for help, extra context, and advice on the task.
Informed: The informed person (or persons) is typically a stakeholder, leadership team, or approver who wants and needs information about the team’s project. Looping in the informed person promotes internal transparency, team alignment, and accurate project timelines.
If you’re not using a RACI, it’s easy to assume that people aren’t taking action because they’re lazy or poor performers rather than not acting because they don’t know they’re responsible. Accountability is often a system problem more than an employee-attitude problem.
But you can get even clearer than just using a RACI. The framework below helps each Responsible understand the scope and involved parties:
Outcome: What specifically needs to be accomplished? Paint “done.”
Owner: Who is responsible for moving this deliverable forward and ensuring it gets completed?
Contributors: Who needs to provide input, resources, approvals, or support? Who else is impacted by the task? Collaboration remains essential.
Deadline and checkpoints: When is it due, and when should progress or obstacles be discussed?
Escalation and communication: What should the owner do if they're blocked, a deadline is at risk, or a decision is needed?
One clear owner does not mean one person does all the work. It means one person coordinates the contributors and ensures that progress, decisions, and gaps don't disappear between team members.
What this looks like in practice can be fairly simple:
1) When adding follow-up items on your meeting notes, make sure that each task has someone assigned to it. And if the task is big (e.g., more than one step), make sure that person has the authority to coordinate all the other contributors to get the work done.
2) Before your team leaves its next meeting, look at every deliverable and ask, “If this task falls through the cracks, will we know exactly who was supposed to move it forward?” If the answer is no, the team doesn't yet have a complete accountability structure.
My challenge for you this week: review one active project. Identify any deliverables with multiple contributors but no clear owner, and clarify ownership before the next deadline slips.
Need help? Call me! I’ll walk you through it.
Does your team need help? Download the overview of Creating a Culture of Accountability below.
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