This is Part 3 of our From Alignment to Action series:
The team thought they had clear accountability.
After all, they’d walked out of their last leadership meeting with a whiteboard full of “next steps.”
But weeks later, deadlines slipped. Priorities shifted. Emails bounced back and forth like hot potatoes.
Nobody was trying to drop the ball.
But the ball still got dropped.
🧠 The Root Problem: No One Owned the "A" and the "R"
In every strategic initiative, there are two critical roles:
When teams blur these roles—or skip assigning them altogether—follow-through dies in the gray space.
🔍 What We Saw in the Session
In a recent client engagement, we facilitated a Responsibility Alignment Exercise.
We asked a simple question:
“Who has the 'A' on this?”
Silence.
Everyone thought someone else did.
Or worse—everyone assumed they shared it equally.
That’s not accountability. That’s diffusion.
🔧 What We Did
Using Predictive Index and leadership mapping, we:
✅ Clarified who should own the “A” based on decision-making style and role fit
✅ Defined the “R” list to remove ambiguity for the team
✅ Built a shared agreement on how to escalate, delegate, and communicate status
The result wasn’t just clarity—it was momentum.
📈 What Changed
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Projects accelerated because decisions got made faster
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No more "looping in" the whole leadership team for small moves
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Team members felt empowered to act—because they knew who to go to
💬 The Lesson
If everyone owns it, no one owns it.
Clarity isn’t just about strategy—it’s about follow-through.
And leadership alignment isn’t real until the "A" and "R" are explicitly assigned.
💡 Need to Realign Ownership?
We help leadership teams get clear on strategy, roles, and responsibilities—so the next step actually gets done.
📅 [Book a Strategy Alignment Session]
