RACI: A Tool for Clarity or Control?

Show me your RACI, and I’ll tell you all about your company culture!

RACI can feel like a framework focusing on ‘who's to blame’ or, as some beautifully put it, ‘finding a throat to choke’ rather than fostering shared ownership. It gets to the point that we could say:

Recently, I have been working with this framework in my mentoring sessions and thought it could be an interesting topic for discussion:

is there still a place for a RACI in our ultra modern, AI-driven organizations?

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You can book a mentoring session with me here.

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What is RACI or RASCI

The RACI framework defines roles in decision-making: Responsible (does the work), Accountable (owns the outcome), Consulted (provides input), and Informed (kept updated).

RASCI builds on RACI by adding Support. It was added for more complex scenarios, to make explicit the roles who assist the Responsible party.

Now, what was supposed to help ensure clarity in tasks and reduce conflicts, when applied rigidly can prevent collaboration and increase competition.

Sorry for the word-violence. I am all for non-violent communication. However, keeping the previous ugly metaphor, RACI sometimes feels like this:

The RACI framework defines roles in decision-making: Responsible (does the work, a throat to choke by A), Accountable (owns the outcome, the ultimate throat to choke), Consulted (provides input, can help prevent the choking), and Informed (kept updated, no choking hazard).

Yes, it might feel quite violent if we take this framework too seriously.

Why was it used in the first place?

In today’s organizations, leadership and management roles come in many forms. It’s not just about a manager and a department director anymore—people with "manager" titles often work together within the same team.

Additionally, leadership roles span across titles like Product Manager, Engineering Manager, Agile Coach, Technical Project Manager, Project Manager, and more.

So, how do we ensure these roles don't step on each other's toes? And how do we communicate to the team and the broader company who to approach for which topic?

It gets complicated. And RACI provides a quick fix for it. By creating a matrix with roles in the columns and tasks in the rows, RACI helps define who owns which letter from the choking mechanism:

Accountable vs Responsible

There is often confusion about the difference between being accountable and being responsible.

To put it simply, ‘the responsible’ is the one who does the work. They are task-oriented and focused on generating and delivering value.

‘The accountable’ person, on the other hand, is outcome-oriented. Typically, a senior individual who tasks the R for responsible with a task to achieve the desirable outcome. While they rely on others to do the actual work, they are ultimately accountable if the project goes sideways.

There is just one accountable person for each task.

Show me your RACI and I’ll tell you all about your company culture