In November 1981 George T. Doran published an article in the journal Management Review on how to write management goals. He proposed the acronym S.M.A.R.T. Each letter names a quality of a good objective.
In Doran’s original, the A stood for “Assignable.” He explained it in four words: “specify who will do it.”
Sometimes two unions both claim the same work. Under Section 10(k) of the National Labor Relations Act, the National Labor Relations Board “is empowered and directed to hear and determine the dispute.” The unfair labor practice charge against the union is “held in abeyance” while the Board decides.
The Board weighs the collective-bargaining agreements, the employer’s current assignment and preference, industry practice, skills and efficiency. If the parties comply with the award, the charge is dismissed.
Many American job descriptions end with the line “other duties as assigned.” For civilian jobs in the US Army, “the phrase is required for all Army position descriptions.” It “allows supervisors flexibility in assignment of duties.”
The Army also sets limits. The phrase covers “insignificant and non-recurring duties that change frequently,” about 10 percent of a 40-hour week. The duties must relate to the scope of the job. Mission-essential and critical duties belong in the written description itself.
The US Army gives an operation order in five paragraphs: situation, mission, execution, sustainment (formerly service support), and command and signal. The mission paragraph “includes all mission-essential tasks and a task and purpose.”
Under execution, the order states what each unit is to do. An Army training text describes the sequence: “Tasks to subordinate units follow, and then tasks which apply to one or more unit-coordinating instructions.”
The Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland describes Scrum, a method used by software teams. It defines in writing when a piece of work is finished. “The DoD is a formal description of the state of the Increment when it meets the quality measures required for the product.”
The rule is strict. “If a Product Backlog item does not meet the DoD, it cannot be released or even presented at the Sprint Review.”
A RACI chart lists, for each task, who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. It is a standard tool in the guidance of the Project Management Institute, based in Pennsylvania. Many people may do the work. “There should only be one ‘A’ for each activity.”
The A is “the person who will sign off on the work and judging its completion and how it meets quality standards.”
Who owns this? This is the first question about any task. The answer is a name.
Point person. This is the one named person who handles an issue.
Go-to person. This is the person everyone turns to for a certain kind of problem.
On the hook. A person on the hook is personally responsible for a result. If it fails, the blame is theirs.
The ball is in your court. The next move is yours, and nobody else can make it.
That’s on me. The speaker takes personal responsibility for a mistake.
Too many cooks spoil the broth. Work with too many people in charge goes badly.
“Do Your Job” was the New England Patriots’ slogan in the 2014 season. Coach Bill Belichick shouted it often on the sidelines. He explained it this way: “each of us has a job to do, and the only thing that we can do is do the best that we can.” The receiver Danny Amendola said: “everybody has a role on this team, no matter what it is.”
The Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks, 28 to 24, on February 1, 2015. In September 2015 NFL Network scheduled a documentary with the title “Do Your Job: Bill Belichick and the 2014 Patriots.”
The American meeting produces action items, and a meeting that produces none is described as having gone nowhere. Not conclusions, not understandings, not positions. Items — countable, assigned, with a name next to each.
On The Big Bang Theory, an American television show about a group of physicists and the girl next door, two of the main characters share an apartment together. In order to ensure that things run smoothly from the beginning one of the roommates drafts a roommate agreement that outlines all of the rules by which the two characters will abide.
Additionally, anytime there is a change in the characters’ status (for example, if one of them starts dating), this roommate will write a modified version of the agreement to accommodate the new arrangement.
However, the second roommate hates having a fixed list of rules, and rather than being a way to solve disputes, the roommate agreement actually becomes the source of many arguments.