Published cartoon ·
Who is the single accountable owner?
One name on the target. Four hands on the controls.
Why this one bites
The central employee wears a target while several people pull them in different directions. A request for a single owner gives the organisation a clear name to record, without giving that person equivalent control over the decisions that determine the outcome.
The satire separates a useful point of coordination from a convenient point of blame. Several decision-makers can retain their influence while one employee inherits the whole explanation. The target makes the purpose of that arrangement uncomfortably explicit.
Accessible summary
- Four figures pull ropes attached around a worried employee carrying a declining chart. A red target sits over the employee's torso.
- The caption calls for one name to attach to a decision controlled by several other people.
Reading notes
A named owner can make coordination easier when that person can make decisions, secure resources and resolve conflicting instructions. Without those powers, the label may only simplify the eventual explanation of failure. The organization gets a single name while preserving multiple sources of control. The person in the middle must reconcile demands that nobody above them has agreed to reconcile with each other.
The ropes show why effort alone cannot fix this arrangement. Pulling harder in one direction may satisfy one stakeholder and disappoint another. Working longer does not make incompatible priorities compatible. The missing task belongs to the people holding the ropes: decide which outcome matters, which constraint can move and whose instruction takes precedence when the two collide.
This is also why a responsibility chart can look clear while the work remains impossible. A box containing one person's name records an assignment, not a grant of authority. The practical test is what happens when the owner needs to say no, change scope or request help. If every meaningful decision must be approved by someone else, accountability is being concentrated faster than control. The target on the employee makes the likely destination of that imbalance visible before the project has even finished.