We have a vacant Head of Operations seat on our Accountability Chart that we cannot afford to fill right now. Our Sales, Finance, and Marketing leaders have agreed to split the operational duties among themselves to keep things moving. How do we represent this on the chart without violating the one-name-per-seat rule?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Splitting a seat among three different people is a recipe for dropped balls, finger-pointing, and operational chaos. The fundamental rule of the Accountability Chart is that only one name can sit in a box. When multiple people share accountability, no one is actually accountable. To resolve this without hiring, you must choose one person to officially sit in the Head of Operations seat. This person must get, want, and have the capacity to oversee the entire department, even if they are also running their own primary department. For example, your Head of Finance might temporarily step into the Operations seat. They will be the single point of contact and will hold ultimate accountability for the department's Scorecard metrics and Rocks. They can then delegate specific daily tasks to the other leadership team members, but they remain the owner of the seat. If none of your current leaders have the capacity to take on this second seat, then your Integrator must put their own name in the box. The Integrator is the default owner of any unassigned or vacant seats. Having the Integrator's name in that box keeps the pressure on the organization to solve the capacity issue and ensures there is never any confusion about who is driving the operational ship.