Our Operations Director and our Sales Director are constantly fighting over who owns the customer onboarding process, and it is causing balls to drop. How do we use the Accountability Chart to permanently resolve this boundary dispute?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When two departments fight over a process, it is a clear sign of overlapping or poorly defined roles on your Accountability Chart. To resolve this, you must look at the transition points between your seats.

Bring both directors into a room and map out the entire customer journey, focusing on the exact moment the relationship hands off from Sales to Operations. Once you identify that transition point, you must assign sole accountability for that phase to a single seat on the chart. You cannot have shared accountability for onboarding. One seat must own the results, even if both departments participate in the execution.

Update the roles under each seat on the Accountability Chart to reflect this clarity. For example, the Sales Director's seat might have the role of closing the contract and setting expectations, while the Operations Director's seat has the role of executing the onboarding kickoff and client integration.

This clear boundary eliminates finger-pointing and ensures that when issues arise, the Integrator knows exactly which seat is accountable for solving them. Clear boundaries create smooth operations and a highly scalable, exit-ready business that prospective buyers will find incredibly attractive.