We have a metric on our Scorecard for "time from signed contract to project kickoff" that is constantly red. Sales blames Operations for slow scheduling, and Operations blames Sales for incomplete handoffs. Since this spans both departments, how do we assign a single owner on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic breakdown in accountability. On a healthy EOS Company Scorecard, every single metric must have exactly one owner. When a metric is shared or spans multiple departments, it means nobody actually owns it, which leads to the finger-pointing you are experiencing.

To resolve this, you must look at your Accountability Chart and determine who owns the process handoff itself. The owner of the metric should be the person who has the authority to solve the bottleneck, not necessarily the person doing all the work.

In this case, the handoff process usually belongs to either the Sales seat or the Operations seat, depending on where the formal transition occurs. If Sales is responsible for gathering all client onboarding data before kickoff, then the Sales leader should own the kickoff metric. If they hand over a completed packet and Operations stalls, the Operations leader must own it.

If the friction persists and the two leaders cannot agree on a clean handoff process, the issue must be taken to the Level 10 Meeting to be solved. If necessary, the Integrator must step in, define the exact line of demarcation on the Accountability Chart, and assign the metric to a single seat. Single ownership forces collaboration because the owner must work with their peer to keep their number green.