Clarify responsibilities when work falls between teams

Unclear responsibilities often appear as small delays: two people wait for the same approval, nobody responds to a request or several colleagues repeat a task. A new organisation chart may not resolve these everyday gaps. Start with one piece of work that recently became stuck and trace how it was supposed to move.

Follow the work, not the job titles

Choose a recurring process with a clear beginning and end. Write down what triggers it, which inputs are needed and what the next person expects to receive. Ask those doing the work to describe the actual sequence, including informal checks that never appeared in a procedure.

For example, a fictional customer request might pass from sales to delivery with an unanswered technical question. Calling both teams “responsible for customers” does not identify who must resolve that question. Locate the specific handover where ownership becomes uncertain.

Separate different kinds of involvement

For each step, distinguish who performs the work, who decides, who supplies input and who only needs an update. One person may hold several roles, but the distinction prevents a long recipient list from becoming a substitute for an actual owner.

Check whether the owner has the information and authority to act. If several people can overrule the result, define how disagreements are resolved. Do not label someone accountable for a decision that is effectively controlled elsewhere.

Discuss conflicting expectations

The Health and Safety Executive’s Role standard stresses clear responsibilities, compatible requirements and ways to raise uncertainty. Use that principle to examine competing demands. A colleague asked to respond immediately and obtain several prior approvals needs a workable rule, not criticism for whichever expectation loses.

Agree what happens when the usual owner is absent or a request falls outside the normal process. Record an escalation route that ends with someone able to decide. Copying more people into an email is not an escalation method by itself.

Test the revised agreement

Run a representative example through the new arrangement. Ask each participant what they would do next and which information they need. Differences reveal ambiguity before another customer request exposes it.

Keep the final description short enough to use: step, owner, decision maker, required input and fallback contact. Set a review after the next few real handovers. Responsibilities should be updated when the work changes, rather than preserved because a diagram once received approval.

Sources: Health and Safety Executive: Management Standards – Role.