Run a Role Clarity and Decision Rights Working Session
A practical, bounded session for resolving one costly overlap, handoff, or decision delay. The output is a tested working agreement—not a complete reorganization or a generic responsibility chart.
The problem to solve
Role and decision-right discussions often become broad debates about titles, personalities, or every issue in the organization. That produces more language without a working agreement people can use tomorrow.
A bounded working session focuses on one visible point of friction, gathers the minimum useful evidence, and produces a clear agreement that can be tested in the next operating cycle.
Prepare the evidence
Bring a recent example rather than a hypothetical concern.
- The outcome, customer promise, or operating result affected.
- A short map of the current handoff or decision sequence.
- The roles currently involved and the information each role holds.
- Examples of delay, rework, escalation, or conflicting instructions.
- Any existing policy, metric, or authority statement that must be respected.
Run the 90-minute session
Spend the first 20 minutes naming the decision or handoff and the evidence. Use the next 35 minutes to distinguish required input from accountable authority. Spend 20 minutes writing the working agreement; reserve the final 15 minutes for implementation owner, communication, and review date.
The session output should name the decision or handoff, accountable role, contributors, evidence required, escalation boundary, affected interfaces, and the first test date.
Cautions
Do not use a session to retroactively assign blame or to settle unrelated performance concerns. If the evidence shows a larger structural issue, record that hypothesis and choose a separate design process rather than forcing a local agreement to carry more than it can.
Related artifact and pathway
Use the Role Clarity and Decision Rights path for the 30-day sequence and the authenticated Performance Conversation workspace when an unclear role is also creating a performance concern.
Continue the work
Related resources
Design / Guide
Role Clarity Is a Work Design Question
When a role is unclear, a better title or longer job description rarely resolves the problem. Start with the work, outcomes, authority, and interfaces the organization needs the role to hold.
Read resourceDesign / Brief
Decision Rights at the Cross-Functional Interface
Slow cross-functional work is rarely solved by telling people to collaborate harder. Make the decision, accountable role, required input, and escalation boundary explicit at the interface where work is stalling.
Read resourcePractice / Tool
Leadership-Team Accountability Conversation Guide
A practical conversation guide for resolving a recurring accountability problem without turning it into a debate about personalities.
Read resource