Does this sound familiar? At one time, decisions were made quickly; everyone was on the same page, and there was a quick move to action. Then something happened. Despite a growing number of meetings designed to build consensus, decision-making became onerous and painful. Where there was once momentum and growth, suddenly there is inertia and frustration.

This story is exceptionally common in growing organizations – and there is a solution: RACI. RACI (Responsible/Accountable/Consulted/Informed) is a decision-making framework that recognizes that each person connected to a decision has a different role: “Responsible” is who is doing the job; “Accountable” is the person who is ultimately answerable for the deliverable. “Consulted” is someone who has input that is important to the decision or deliverable. And “Informed” is a person who simply needs to be kept up-to-date, but need not be consulted.

While this seems simple enough, in practice, it is sometimes very confusing. What’s the real difference between Responsible and Accountable? What about people who are part of the execution team, or who partly have responsibility for the decision? And really, does EVERYONE have a role in the decision? Are there not some people who just don’t care about the decision – people who are not impacted in any way?

There is a more effective decision-making model that addresses these, and other issues: enter RACIO. While the two models sound the same, there are several important differences:

• Responsible: The buck stops here. They are both accountable and responsible for the decision and outcome.
• Assists: These people are the arms-and-legs, and support the person responsible. Since they are actively involved, they have a big stake in the decision.
• Consulted: These people have input that is important to the decision or deliverable. But they have no authority to make the decision, and they have no “veto”.
• Informed: These people just simply need to be kept up-to-date – their perspective is not critical to the decision, tasks, or outcome.
• Omitted: These are the people who do not need to know about the issue, or the decision, and the outcome is irrelevant to them.

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