By Cassie Solomon, RACI Solutions
Tip #1: Understand when and how to use RACI.
RACI is a flexible tool, a language, that helps you define how people, teams, and departments should interact.
RACI is a project management method to:
- Plan key activities
- Define key decisions
- Define accountability and authority
- Define sponsorship
The RACI Matrix clarifies the responsibilities and authority in a project.
Tip #2: Learn the RACI codes, and designate an “R Prime” if there is more than one “R” role.
If more than person has the “R” for a task or decision, be sure to designate one of them as the “R Prime” (“RP” or “R1”). This will enhance accountability.
The “C” role ALWAYS comes before a decision is made; the “I” role usually comes afterwards.
Tip #3: RACI is used to streamline and speed decision-making in organizations.
When can you use a RACI chart to clarify project work and accountability? You can:
- Clarify who will be responsible for what on a project team
- Add a new staff member to a team or department
- Eliminate a position and determine how the work will still get done by the people who remain
- Create a new policy
- Determine who is involved in changing staffing assignments
- Define the role of a new System Council
- Combine two or three departments into one department
Tip #4: The steps to develop a RACI chart are simple.
Step 1: Choose a focal activity or decision for your chart.
Step 2: Determine the activities or steps involved.
Step 3: Determine who will be involved (stakeholders).
Step 4: Decide if you want to chart the “as is” or the “will be.”
Step 5: Fill in the RACI chart with roles of participation codes.
Step 6: Negotiate how you see the roles and how others see them.
Tip #5: Use RACI to clarify cross-functional team roles.
We live in two different worlds inside our organizations. One is the formal hierarchy, where we report to a boss and others report to us. In this world, planning, evaluation, and budgeting take place; this vertical structure is primary. But we also live in a second world that we create because we need project teams that can CUT ACROSS THE SILOS of roles and departments. This is the world of our cross-functional task forces and steering committees. This is the horizontal structure, and most of us live in both places at once.
Sometimes our project teams, and their leaders and sponsors, are not clear about how much authority they have. Is the team going to make a recommendation? Does it have the power to make any decisions? Is the team just coming together to give advice or to share information? It matters because when there is CONFUSION AND AMBIGUITY, we can waste a lot of time, energy and talent.
Tip #6: Use RACI to empower roles and teams.
RACI is a simple tool that can help you have concrete conversations about what it means to “empower” an individual or a group. After all, the dictionary definition of “empower” means “to give power and authority to.” You can ask yourself, “If I want to empower that group, what decisions will I allow them to make?” In RACI terms, you would ask, “What can they have the ‘A’ for?”
Tip #7: Use RACI language to define the team’s role, and it will hold more effective meetings.
To create an effective team, clarify the role of the group.
Meetings that are perceived as boring are most often the “I” meetings where all that happens is the sharing of information.
Tip #8: RACI is a tool that is most useful if you use it.
To be really useful, like all tools, RACI will help you the most if you use it frequently. When a department or a work group uses the RACI “code language” often, thinking and talking about ROLE becomes a natural part of its conversation. This means that confusion is much less likely to develop on that work unit.
Tip #9: Do I always need to develop a formal RACI chart?
No, it can be useful simply to use the RACI language to clarify delegation. For example, you can say, “I am giving you the ‘R’ for this, Herman, but I still have the ‘A,’ so bring your work back to me for approval.”
Tip #10: Persist.
If you want your team to develop the “RACI Habit,” then remember that you will need to use the tool steadily for 3–4 weeks until it is firmly established in the culture. Block off time after another four weeks have gone by to “check back in” on the use of the tool, then check back again after six months.
For free RACI resources and to get information about workshops and training materials to use in training yourself and your team on how to use RACI, visit www.RACISolutions.com or contact info@RACISolutions.com.
