Make Everyone Responsible and No One Is
Everyone owns the standard. One name owns the action.
I hate the word "everyone." Everyone do this, everyone do that. When everyone is responsible for getting things done, often it doesn't get done.
One example I have is a leader who ran their weekly Monday morning meeting with no accountability. There was no action item list stating who does what by when.
One situation that needed to be addressed was area B being modified by Wednesday. There was new equipment coming in on Thursday, and area B needed to be prepared for that equipment by Wednesday. The leader said, "Everyone make sure it happens."
What actually happened is no one took responsibility, and it fell on the last person standing Wednesday morning to get it done. If it didn't get done, that person was held accountable. Even if area B wasn't their responsibility.
This built up tension and resentment among employees. They felt they were being held accountable for things outside their control, and it took them away from what they needed to focus on. Making matters worse, if the task didn't get done, they were "written up" for poor performance.
The leader felt the best way to handle this was to praise "the team" for getting the work done, when in actuality it was one person who worked extra hard to get it done. When the leader did this, everyone in the meeting looked down and rolled their eyes.
When I was consulting there, I worked with the leader to create and use a simple action item list. I have written about this before. A list with columns headed "Who," "Does What," "By When." Simple, direct and easy to follow.
When shown the list, the leader said, "What happened to teamwork? What happened to everyone having the same goal?"
I explained that everyone owns the standard; one person owns each action.
An example of this is safety. It's clear with safety that everyone is responsible for safety. But an individual, let's call him "Phil," is responsible to fix the broken gate in area D by end of day. Phil will do it for at least two reasons. First, it's the cultural standard. Safety is the right thing to do. Second, it's his personal action. He will take pride in getting it done. Proud that it will prevent injuries.
The leader still wasn't sold. As is often the case, I got the leader to try it once at a meeting and see how it goes. You can always blame it on bad consultant advice if it fails, I said.
The leader tried it, their reports liked it, and it was adopted. Simple.
You're probably thinking your Monday meeting already ends with "everyone knows what to do." Ask yourself: if area B isn't ready Wednesday, whose name is on it?
In your next operations meeting, create a simple action item list. Keep it simple. Only one action per person. The important thing is every action item gets one name and a date.
Then read the list back before anyone leaves the room. If an item has two names on it, it has none. If it has no date, it isn't an action, it's a wish.
Praise the name, not "the team." The person who fixed the gate knows who did it. So does everyone else in the room.
There was an added benefit. Employees could see over time what they had done. They looked back at the actions they completed. There was satisfaction in this. At the end of a year they could look back at 50 weeks, 50 actions they had done to help improve the company. That felt good!
Everyone owns the standard. One name owns the action.
One next step: At your next Monday meeting, put three columns on the whiteboard: Who, Does What, By When. Don't let anyone leave until every row has one name and one date.
Further reading:
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team — Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, 2002). Dysfunction four, avoidance of accountability: you can't hold people to something that was never made clear.
- Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (St. Martin's Press, 2015). Decentralized Command: every leader knows the left and right limits of what they own.
- "How to Debug a Team That Isn't Working: The Waterline Model" — Molly Graham (Lenny's Newsletter, March 2026). When roles are unclear, conflict is "a structural problem wearing a human face."