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O P I N I O N
Who, me?
O n my parents’ otherwise unadorned coffee table lay two items: a tasteful, albeit unused, ashtray, and a large, red book. The book contained a cartoon collection from the famous British humor magazine, Punch . We spent hours giggling through its many pages of droll English humor. When working on a project, there are various human roadblocks that consistently clog the path to project execution.
Julie Benezet
They included such gems as the butler standing at his lord’s breakfast table, holding a silver tray and saying, as he served tea, “Sir, the west wing burned down last night.” Or, the image of another breakfast table at which the husband sat at one end with his head buried behind a newspaper and his wife at the other end aiming a toaster at him. One cartoon sticks in my memory because of its enduring relevance. It showed a windowless, doorless house. At the bottom of the center front wall appears a saw protruding from its interior, cutting an opening for the two people stuck inside. The caption reads, “Confound it! I thought YOU were building the door!” To me, the image captures the impact of undefined roles and responsibilities, an affliction in virtually
every organization I’ve encountered. They create good project ideas, but when it comes to who does what, the initiative founders. “Every project needs a roadmap with a decision-maker, subject matter experts, and doers. The absence of agreed upon roles and responsibilities inevitably leads to confusion.” CREATING THE ROADMAP. Every project needs a roadmap with a decision-maker, subject matter experts, and
See JULIE BENEZET, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER June 10, 2019, ISSUE 1300
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