Assign RACI roles explicitly — every task needs exactly…
For each agent-task pair in collaborative work, assign an explicit role type (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) and verify that every task has exactly one Accountable party.
When This Fires
- At the start of any collaborative project or initiative
- When assigning tasks in a team context
- After discovering that a task fell through the cracks because "everyone thought someone else was doing it"
- During any planning session where multiple people will contribute to outcomes
Common Failure Mode
Assigning two people as Accountable: "Sarah and Jay are both accountable for the launch." This violates the single-A constraint and guarantees coordination friction: each assumes the other is tracking the critical path, both defer on decisions, and disagreements have no tiebreaker. One A, always.
The Protocol
For collaborative work: (1) List every task or deliverable. (2) For each task, assign each involved person a role: R, A, C, or I. (3) Verify the constraint: every task has exactly one A. If any task has zero A's → assign one. If any task has two A's → choose one and move the other to R or C. (4) Make the RACI visible to all parties. The assignment takes 10 minutes for a typical project and prevents weeks of ambiguous accountability.