The One Pattern We See Everywhere: A Lack of RACI Clarity

There’s one thing we’ve seen over and over again across every agency, every team, every client situation: no one knows who’s really responsible.

Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it's loud. But it's always there: the gray zone. And that gray zone is the enemy of operational clarity.

Whether it's a strategic decision or a day-to-day fire, we consistently see teams stuck in indecision, rework, or quiet frustration because no one is sure who has the authority, who should be consulted, or who simply needs to be informed.

This is a RACI problem. A responsibilities problem. A decision-making clarity problem.

And the hard truth? It's everywhere.

We’ve seen situations where five people thought they were responsible or none did. Where people with no direct connection to a project were jumping in, derailing decisions. Where leaders “reserved the right” to override anything, at any time, with no warning.

It’s not sustainable. It’s not scalable. And it’s definitely not fair to the people trying to do great work.

The gray zone is what happens when:

• There’s no defined owner of a deliverable.

• Roles change project to project without communication.

• Leaders stay vague to avoid tough conversations.

• There’s fear of stepping on toes, so no one steps up.

We’ve learned that even a lightweight RACI, something that defines who’s Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed, can solve more problems than most tools ever will.

It doesn’t need to be documented for every task. But it should be embedded in how the team works. Who owns what type of decisions? Who signs off? Who contributes? Who doesn’t need to be in the room?

The biggest myth? That COOs or founders can override anything, anytime. Sure, they can but when they do it too often, they erode trust, ownership, and the reason people were hired in the first place. If your team can’t make real decisions, then you’re not leading, you’re bottlenecking.

If you want a high-performing team, you need clarity. You need structure. You need a shared understanding of who owns what.

And that clarity doesn’t come from a fancy chart. It comes from leadership sitting down, talking it out, being honest, and putting stakes in the ground:

• Who’s truly accountable?

• Who must be consulted?

• Where do we need to back off and let others lead?

Then, once you have that alignment, communicate it. And hold to it. That’s the part people forget. You can’t just set it, you have to stick to it.

Because if leadership isn’t aligned, no one else can be.

And when roles are unclear at the top, the rest of the team is left swimming in ambiguity, second-guessing their judgment, or disengaging altogether.

In every agency we work with, this is one of the first things we look at.

Because once you remove the gray, things get faster, smoother, and a lot less political. People feel safer. They take ownership. They know where they stand.

And that’s when real operational health starts to show up.

 Richard