Most people can describe what they do at work.
But they may find it rather more difficult to answer a different question:
What is your role uniquely responsible for?
Not you personally. The role.
What responsibility exists because that role exists — and where would that responsibility sit if the role disappeared tomorrow?
It sounds a simple distinction, but it could reveal a great deal about how effectively an organisation uses its Human Agency.
Human Agency is the ability of people to make helpful conscious choices and to act upon them.
Every organisation already has this resource. Every day, people throughout it are making choices, solving problems, responding to pressure and deciding what deserves their attention.
But those choices are being made within a structure.
And when responsibility within that structure is unclear, Human Agency can be expended simply compensating for the lack of clarity.
People duplicate work.
Important things fall between roles.
Someone quietly takes responsibility for something because nobody else appears to own it.
Training may focus on improving someone’s general capability without identifying the particular responsibility their role requires them to fulfil.
And sometimes a perfectly capable person may simply be in a role that doesn’t make the best use of what they can contribute — the familiar square peg in a round hole.
So perhaps organisational development could start with a surprisingly simple exercise.
Beginning with the roles closest to the work, ask:
“What do you believe this role is uniquely responsible for?”
Then work upwards.
The purpose isn’t to produce better job descriptions.
It is to create clarity.
As each level becomes clearer, gaps and overlaps can become visible. Responsibilities being carried informally by helpful individuals can be recognised. Development needs may become easier to identify.
And when something goes wrong, there is a clearer place from which to begin learning.
Eventually the question reaches the top of the organisation.
Once everything that can properly be the responsibility of another role has been identified, what remains that can only belong to the CEO?
That may be one of the most important questions in organisational design.
Because Human Agency doesn’t operate independently of structure.
People exercise it within the structure we create.
Perhaps, therefore, before asking people to take more responsibility, organisations should first become much clearer about what they are asking each role to be responsible for.
How clearly could every role in your organisation answer that question today?
Related Articles:
Responsibility Grows Where Agency Exists: Why Accountability Begins with Human Agency
Human Agency in Organisations: The Hidden Resource Beneath Leadership, Culture and Performance