Problem

Sometimes, the most frustrating part of a project is tracking down who is responsible for what, because accountability grows smaller the larger the group gets. And that group will get quite large if they are trying to make decisions without knowing who or where to go to. Worse yet, they will come up with patchwork solutions that will cause even more work to recover from.

Solution

I came up with this idea to solve the need for who to go to when you’re not even sure what the problem is.

Project

Have your managers list out their team members using a dynamic list builder like one built in SharePoint or developed by a web developer. Make fields, such as areas of responsibility (e.g., decision makers, technical/strategic), department, location, skills, expertise.

When the list is complete, you will have a dynamic way to search in a uniform behavior.

For example, let’s say you thought of a way to automate the completion of a project so that all of the redundant steps are reduced to one. You can either talk to your manager to begin a long process of networking to find the right contact or you can search through IT’s contact list to immediately see who is in charge of the strategy behind the ticketing system.