Clarifying roles and goals: who decides what
A large share of friction in teams appears without any argument. Two people believe they are responsible, or nobody does. Either way it only surfaces when a decision is left hanging.
How you notice it
- Tasks travel back to the manager although they were handed over
- Duplicate work in places where nobody meant to duplicate anything
- The question who is doing this now comes up in every second meeting
- Goals are written down and every person still reads them differently
A role is more than a job description
A job description says what someone is paid for. A role says what the team expects from this person, what they may decide and where they should involve others. The team assumes that second layer every day, usually without writing it down.
That is why it pays to say it out loud together once. The exercise takes half a day and saves a surprising number of follow-up questions over the months that follow.
What a role clarification covers
- What this role exists for in the team, in one sentence
- Which decisions it makes on its own
- For which decisions it brings others in, and whom
- What the team expects from the role and what the role expects from the team
- How everyone will notice that the role is well filled
Goals that arrive in everyday work
A goal has arrived in the team when two people can independently name the same example of how they would recognise it being met. Until then it is a headline.
The way there runs through concrete observations: what will be different in six months, who will notice first, and how? Those questions are uncomfortable, and their answers make the goal checkable.
How we work on this
Role clarification is a standard building block in team development. Each person first describes their own role, then the team describes the same role. The differences between the two descriptions are the real material of the day. At the end there is an overview that stays with the team and still applies next quarter.
Does that sound like your situation?
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