Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

Colleges can benefit from assigning a single person from the improvement team to assume responsibility for overseeing each activity and reporting back to the team on progress, though that accountable team member may receive support from others on the team. After assigning team leads who hold ultimate accountability for seeing the activities through, improvement teams should identify all of the individuals who must be involved with each activity (including those outside of the core improvement team), and clearly lay out the specific responsibilities for each individual or group of individuals.

These expectations for roles and responsibilities should be clearly communicated to these individuals, and the improvement team should provide room for dialogue about whether these roles and responsibilities can be effectively carried out with the time and resources available. Once there is common agreement among all of those involved in improvement regarding roles and responsibilities, periodic reminders about responsibilities from those overseeing each activity and opportunities for feedback on concerns can help provide support.

How to

  1. Identify the detailed set of activities for each stage of the cycle.
  2. Assign a core improvement team member to lead each activity.
  3. Identify others who will be involved in the activity and define their roles and responsibilities in participation.
See the following chart for an example.

Example

Stage:

PLAN

Activity:

Refine alignment strategy through discussions with faculty reps

Who:

Faculty chair

What:

Create plan to get feedback, identify faculty to give feedback, refine strategy, report back

Who:

N/A

What:

Who:

Six Faculty representatives

What:

Give feedback, approve refinements to strategy

Who:

Information retrieval representative

What:

Consult on plan to get feedback

Who:

N/A

What: