When a growing team loses sight of who owns what

When familiar ways of working stop being clear

This is an illustrative, everyday team situation rather than a client story: as an organisation grows, new roles and more handoffs can make it harder to see who is carrying the next step. Work may be duplicated or stall while people wait for a decision or assume someone else has it.

That can be a useful signal to look at how work is moving, not a reason to blame an individual. The aim is not to impose one universal process. It is to find enough shared clarity for people to do good work and maintain a healthy team culture as responsibilities evolve.

Trace one recent handoff

Choose one recent task that stalled or was duplicated. Follow it from the original request through each handoff to completion. Keep the conversation curious: what did each person understand, and what information would have helped at the time?

• What does “done” mean? What would let the next person know the task is ready to move on?
• Who owns the next action? Is there one clear person to move it forward, even when several people contribute?
• Which decisions can each role make? Where can someone act independently, and when should they involve others?
• Where is handoff status visible? How can the people involved see what is waiting, underway or complete?

Agree one small reset

Capture just enough to make the next handoff easier. For the next similar task, write down together:

1. Who owns it now.
2. The next action and when it should happen.
3. The decision boundary, or the cue that makes the handoff clear.

Try that reset on the next similar piece of work. At the next team check-in, ask what helped, what still felt unclear and what the team would like to adjust. A small shared experiment can build clarity without adding process for its own sake.