The RACI Trap
The RACITrap Why Clear Roles Still Cause Confusion RACI charts clarify roles, but not authority. Learn the five tests boards and CEOs should use to turn responsibility into real accountability. I have sat in steering meetings where every workstream had a neat RACI chart, every box had a name in it, and nobody could answer the most important question: who can actually make the decision? The project was not suffering from unclear roles. It was suffering from something more dangerous: the illusion of accountability. That distinction matters. For years, conventional management wisdom has told us that when a programme becomes messy, clarify the roles. Define who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Put it on a page. Socialise it. Get everyone to agree. I have used RACI matrices. They are useful. But I have also seen organisations spend weeks perfecting them while the underlying decisions remain just as slow, political and ambiguous as before. My view is simple: RACI is a res...