Everyone involved in key projects, processes, and communications must know their roles. It’s essential to have a clear sense of who is responsible for what when it comes to projects, processes, and communications. The handoffs between teams are often where breakdowns happen as people are unsure of who is even supposed to do what. An essential tool to help improve collaboration is a RACI Matrix.
What is a RACI Matrix?
A RACI matrix is a chart that illustrates who is assigned certain levels of responsibility with delivering and completing specific tasks for a project, process, or communication. The RACI Matrix clarifies responsibilities, ensuring that everything that needs to be accomplished is assigned to someone to do it. Each letter of the word RACI stands for a particular role with such a project, process, or communication.
- Responsible: those who do the work
- Accountable: the person who delegates the work and signs off as delivered
- Consulted: those subject matter experts whose opinions are sought
- Informed: those who are kept up to date on the progress
Creating a RACI Matrix
The act of creating a RACI Matrix is straightforward. Follow these guidelines, and you will be on your way to better projects, processes, and communications in your organization.
- Identify all the tasks required as part of the project, process, or communication. List these on the left-hand side of the chart.
- Determine whom all the key stakeholders are within the project, process, or communication, listing them along the top of the chart. Sometimes you are going to be listing specific people, whereas other times, it might be job titles or teams.
- Note who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. For simplicity’s sake, use the first initial. For example, I = Informed.
- Before implementing the RACI Matrix, be sure to share it cross-functionally with key stakeholders to ensure alignment. Doing so will proactively ensure you have success.
Implementing a RACI Matrix
When used effectively, a RACI Matrix can provide structure to projects, processes, and communication efforts. Successfully implementing a RACI Matrix is a group effort and something that a leader shouldn’t do independently. I’ve seen this happen in isolation, resulting in no one following the proposed plan. Don’t let someone put this together by themselves either, as the RACI matrix won’t be useful, and often, will fail to be used. Map out roles and responsibilities together with your allies and refine improvements. Define together with stakeholders for any key or shared processes and communication.
Best Practices When Creating a RACI Matrix
Some best practices need to be remembered when creating a RACI matrix.
- Every task that you have noted on the left-hand side should have someone Responsible for doing it.
- Don’t create a RACI Matrix in isolation. Build it alongside key stakeholders early on to build alignment.
- Balance out how many R’s a stakeholder may have assigned to them. Sometimes, some stakeholders might serve a better role as being Consulted instead.
- Only one person should be considered Accountable for a task. If you have more than one person accountable, no one is genuinely accountable then.
- Be careful not to have too many cooks in the kitchen. You can’t, nor should you consult everyone either. Sometimes people just need to be Informed.
Using a RACI Matrix Improves Shared Understanding
In far too many projects and processes, participants fail to understand their role and the responsibilities of others. Unfortunately, there is usually a gap in that there isn’t clear documentation on who should do what. Using a RACI Matrix, participants will have better visibility into what their roles are with each task. Instead of duplicating efforts all trying to sign off on completion of specific tasks, the agreed-upon approach upfront will provide clarity, saving everyone time.
The key to successfully implementing a project, process, or communication is having a solid strategy. Armed with a RACI Matrix, you stand a better chance of success. For more on ways to successfully implement change and drive ongoing continuous improvement, connect with me. For a regular dose of advice, tips, and tricks from Evolving Management, follow us on our company LinkedIn page. You can also follow me or my podcast, The Chris Hanna Show on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn or visit chrishanna.ca for more solutions. Let’s connect.
