Have you ever found a really cool use for something which wasn’t its initial or original intended purpose. It might not become world breaking news but it makes your life that little bit better, easier, more productive?
If you know me you know we have two dogs: Missie and Rambo:
(Any excuse to show off my fur babies)
These are the first pets we’ve had as adults and so one of the big things I had forgotten from my childhood days of pets is the hair! Oh My Giddy Aunt, the HAIR!
We have clothes brushes and we have a constant bulk supply of the sticky remover roll things which are great while I’m home. I don’t want to waste valuable room when I travel, and I travel lot. All hail the humble roll of sticky tape! I told you it wasn’t earth shattering but it is a small, light weight, solution for when I travel!
What do you use now that has not much, if anything, to do with its intended use?
Introducing RACI – The RACI Matrix was introduced into the field of project management in the 1950’s. It stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. The matrix is valuable for understanding who needs to be held responsible, accountable and who needs to be consulted or simply informed through the step / actions of a project. RACI is very popular in project management and you can see it in onboarding programs and customer journey mapping, to name just two.
A basic example of using RACI would be:
Team End of Year Celebration:
While the RACI matrix provides detail and gives certainty as to who is responsible and accountable, it helps to ensure the right stakeholders are consulted and informed.
Therefore it can provide a solid check and balance when working through your delegation plan. At the very least you can use the acronym RACI to ensure you have given consideration to who needs to be ultimately responsible (this will most likely be you most of the time), accountable (most likely the delegate), consulted and informed.
As a manager who delegates, RACI offers an effective way to ensure those who need to know are in the loop. RACI will help avoid bottlenecking caused by others not going directly to the delegate. In your delegation conversation you can use RACI with the delegate to identify all the people who need to be considered. It will make the delegation planning process more thorough so once the delegation begins it can be more productive because the delegate (and you) don’t need to stop, re-trace your steps, recount the journey with anyone because they weren’t identified earlier in the planning process.
As Abraham Lincoln was quoted for saying, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” RACI helps you deal with the responsibility today (and the accountability, consultation and informing) efficiently and productively.
I’d love to know your thoughts…
