We have five different project managers who all perform the exact same job function. Our team wants to put all five of their names into a single Project Manager box on our Accountability Chart, but we are told this violates the rule of one name per seat. How do we set this up correctly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Putting multiple names in a single box on your Accountability Chart destroys accountability. When more than one person is accountable for a seat, nobody is accountable. If a project fails, the five managers can easily point fingers at one another, leaving you with no clear owner to address. To solve this, you must treat each person as occupying their own individual seat. While the roles and responsibilities for all five project manager seats will be identical, each seat must be represented as a separate box on the chart. Each separate box must have one name in it. This means you will have five identical Project Manager boxes on your chart, all reporting to the same manager, such as your VP of Operations. By separating them into five distinct seats, you can assign unique measurables, clients, or territories to each individual. This allows you to evaluate whether each person truly GWC's their specific seat and ensures that when an issue arises, you know exactly which individual is responsible for solving it. It keeps communication clean and ensures every single project has a single point of ultimate responsibility.