Communication and responsibility
Communication ensures the exchange of information in the course of any activity. It can take any form, but it will always be the glue for your control system. On your way, you will always cross paths with people or work in a team. You are responsible for your goal, so you are the sole driver of all related processes to achieve the goal. Accordingly, the organization of communication is also on you. In red_mad_robot, you can often hear the expression: “to organize communication.” Such a process affects everything, from the formulation of the task to the presentation of the result.
In it, the task of the project manager is to organize communication between all stakeholders and participants so that it is clear what is being done, how it is being done, when the key milestones are, and what responsibility each participant has. In your management system, you are a project manager and a stakeholder at the same time. You organize communication with yourself. Reviews, analysis of results, monitoring — all this is part of the organization of communication. Communication is a very voluminous and important skill, but here I’m not talking about the communication skill.
“And communication is one of the most difficult things in the world. It needs to be studied, and studied, and studied again”
Franz Wertfollen
I want to show you that the communication process affects your productivity. Many times, I have observed a situation when a project starts, but the plan collapses due to uncontrolled communication. For example, not all participants maintain the pace of communication, which affects the timing. It happens that each participant uses his own communication channel, and it is unclear which is the main one.
Informing the participants does not work, and the manager is not happy with their actions. On a household scale, the problems are much smaller, as is the number of participants, but communication management is still an important layer that should be taken into account. To do this, I want to show you the RACI responsibility distribution model, so that you look through it at the organization of any process where there are other people. They understood their role, defined the roles of others, coordinated the process and set up communication.
The RACI model is a tool for defining roles and responsibilities, which helps to avoid confusion in the execution of tasks, projects or processes. It is usually used in projects when you need to organize the work of a team. It is assumed that there are 4 key roles in each project:
● «R» (Responsible), The Executor is the person who is responsible for completing the task;
● «A» (Accountable), The approver is the person who is responsible for the task at a higher level. The Performer reports to the Approver about the interim results. He can accept, reject or correct them;
● «С» (Consulted), The consultant — a person with whom you can or should consult before making decisions or taking actions;
● «I» (Informed), The informed person is the person who needs to be informed about what is happening and what the result is.
A good manager immediately presents an approximate model of responsibility distribution in any project when he gets to know all the participants. After clarifications, he organizes communication, coordinates roles and channels with the team. For example, a new art director came to us, who had a new super expertise, and we decided to launch a new service in the design department.
As the head of the unit, I am responsible for the project to take place as a whole, and for the service to be given. Here my role is the Approver (Accountable). I will assign the task to the project manager, who will be the Executor (Responsible). The project manager will consult with the new art director, who acts as the Consultant (Consulted). The CEO of the company, marketing and other departments will be the Informed, as they should be aware of the changes. In this example, the project manager should organize communication so that it is clear to everyone what is going on, what plan, roles, expectations are, how communication and information go so far.
I have to make sure that the project organization system is configured by the manager so that I can see the risks or deviations from the plan in advance. In case of the deadlines shifting, problems appearing, other resources being needed, etc. The word Responsible can confuse you if you turn to its meaning. R stands for as responsible, although in RACI this word denotes the Executor. In fact, the Approver (Accountable) is responsible for everything entirely. In fact, the Executor (Responsible) and the Approver (Accountable) are responsible, but each for their own layer. To avoid confusion, we often use the words “Project Holder” and “Performer”. An analogue of the words Approver (Accountable) and Executor (Responsible). The project holder is responsible for the project to take place, and various tasks within the project can be performed by Performers.
I know many companies that lack such elementary processes. Tasks can have several responsible ones, extra unmotivated consultants, demotivated performers. Why go into business? Look at any household example. How difficult it is to gather a group of friends for a hike? Usually there are only consultants there, whom no one even asks anything. They exchange messages in the messenger, and then nothing happens. It is lucky if there is an organized person in the company, and he can act as an Approver and Executor at the same time. Take control of everything and help the hike happen.
Collect information from all consultants, recruit a team of performers, organize a collection of money and inform about further actions. Then everything will actually happen. Appreciate such friends, usually they are a minority, and with age they will get tired of it. Life examples can be more complicated than digital projects, and the roles in life are not so obvious. In any situation, you need to try to see the RACI model. This will significantly improve the quality of the organization of any project.
Let’s imagine that you married Angelina Jolie, and you had a baby. You live in a one-bedroom apartment in Moscow, but you want to sell it in order to take out a three-bedroom mortgage. At the same time, you arrange a meeting with your child’s godmother’s family. The child’s godmother Larisa from Angelina’s side lives in Saratov and is planning a vacation for a trip to Moscow, but you can’t tell her the dates yet, since you have a mortgage and a relocation to fulfill. This is your own type of Santa Barbara. You hire a realtor to sell your apartment and find a new one. You and Angelina need to take documents at work, negotiate with the bank, choose an insurance company, apply for a mortgage and plan the date of signing the documents.
All documents have an expiration date, the mortgage requires a lot of documents, buyers want to come in faster, sellers do not want to move out, there is an emergency at work, and I do not want to go to the signing with a child. It would be nice to also warn the boss that he will be called from the bank, and that he must say that you are the employee of the year. Larisa also attacks you with her questions when to plan her arrival. Such a situation is a project in which there are many participants, processes and relationships. Most people in a similar situation will run like a wolf in that game where it catches eggs.
Constantly extinguish fires and respond to problems. If you, as in detective films, do not write everything down on a board with threads, do not take into account all the participants, do not conduct interconnections, do not build communication and do not plan actions, then you will also be like a wolf from the game. Using RACI with a project approach, you can not only organize the project, but also optimize the time for communication without making extra efforts. Of course, it is not necessary to create a general chat with the realtor, Angelina, the boss, Larisa and the rest of the participants.
When you distribute the roles, you will understand from whom what result to expect and in what sequence to deliver the information. Decide how, when and where to communicate, when important deadlines are, and who can be brought together directly without your mediation. This way it will be easier to ensure control and look further beyond the horizon. And finally answer Larisa that she should plan a trip for the summer. If you do not organize interaction, then an uncontrolled flow of communication will have a very bad effect on your productivity. Therefore, always pay attention to planning and managing communication and responsibility.
