I recently came across this little gem over at Signal vs. Noise:

A dissatisfied Basecamper wrote to us that “Real project management requires the determination of the critical path.” I thought that sounded zen…but I had no idea what it meant. Ryan said it reminded him of a bit from Tufte’s latest book: “it’s about how sentences like the above numb you to responsibility…”project management” doesn’t require things…people require things…so who requires it?…and the “critical path” to where? etc…or “a decision was reached between parties.” — who made the decision? who’s responsible? etc.”

Hang around any business with more than about 10 people and you hear responsibility-numbing senetences like this all the time. One of my favorites is “Safety is everyone’s responsibility”. Really? More often than not, the effect of a statement like this is to absolve individuals of any real culpability. The responsibility is spread so thin that no one individual feels bound by it.

Tags: management, responsibility