Set Your Team Up for Success with the ARCI Matrix
Teamwork - that majestic unicorn!
Teams that work well together often produce results that far exceed the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, the opposite is just as true and far too common: teams that are out of sync will almost always come up short.
While there’s a wide range of factors that contribute to a team’s failure to deliver the desired results, one of the more common ones is a lack of clarity in goals, roles and responsibilities.
I’m sure we’ve all worked on projects where we weren’t exactly sure what was expected from us, or weren’t aware of who else was working on different parts of it, or weren’t kept in loop when the goals changed, as they often do. Such projects are almost destined to fall short of their desired outcomes, and the people involved in such projects are likely to feel entirely disengaged and unfulfilled. When this happens over and over again, your best talent will leave you for good.
You can mitigate this risk by combining two simple project management techniques.
The first is to break the project down into a hierarchy of action items using the SMART goals framework. This takes care of the what, why, how and when of your project.
The second is to define the who of your project. This is where the ARCI matrix comes in.
What is the ARCI matrix?
ARCI - which is an acronym for Accountable, Responsible, Consulted and Informed - is a responsibility assignment framework designed to bring structure and clarity to the roles people play on a project and its individual goals.
Let’s take a look at each element of the ARCI matrix.
Accountable
First up, there should be one and only one person accountable for the outcome of the task. This person is the owner of this task; they would typically need to sign off on any changes, and would have the final say in any disagreements over approach or outcomes. This is where the buck stops, and this person is singularly answerable to the powers that be for this particular task.
Responsible
These are the people who actually work on completing the task; the operators. You can have any number of people responsible on a task, and the person who is accountable may or may not be a part of the responsible team depending on the context.
Consulted
These are the people you would get in touch with for their added knowledge or expertise; your consultants. These people don’t directly work on the task itself but act as external subject matter experts. For instance, a person might be responsible for a task which requires expertise in Microsoft Excel that they currently do not possess. In such a case, they may consult with the Excel guru from another team for guidance.
Informed
These are the stakeholders who are affected by the outcome of the task and need to be kept in the loop at all times.
Making it all work
An organizational hierarchy becomes stable when accountability flows smoothly from top to bottom. The ARCI matrix is essentially an organized hierarchy of accountability which only works when every level sets up their own ARCI.
Let’s take, for instance, an individual unit of work such as delivering a product or service to a customer that has landed on a CEO’s desk. The CEO is accountable for delivering the said product or service, but in all likelihood, they aren’t going to do it all by themselves.
They should begin by setting up an ARCI matrix where, let’s assume, they appoint the global head of operations as accountable.
The global head of operations, in turn, should set up their own ARCI where, let’s say they make the regional manager accountable.
You probably know where this is going…
The regional manager should set up an ARCI where they delegate accountability to their teams leads
The team leads, in turn, should develop their own ARCI where they delegate accountability for specific tasks to individual contributors within their respective teams.
When this happens, you’ve essentially set up a series of concentric rings of accountability, where task ownership flows inside-out seamlessly.
While all of this may sound a bit high-level as you read it, ARCI is, in fact, one of the most practical and elegant project management systems. Pair it up with SMART goals, and you have a winning formula on your hands with limitless applications, including…
managing your team’s daily deliverables (short-term)
organizing action items from a meeting (short- to mid-term)
setting up a project charter (mid-term)
developing a department’s strategic plan (mid- to long-term)
…and much, much more.
Note that ARCI is also sometimes referred to the RACI model. These two models are exactly the same in every aspect. The only only difference is a philosophical one; ARCI puts the ‘accountable’ party front and center to help drive accountability and ownership.
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