The four addresses of a decision

English is sharper than French on a point that matters: it separates words that French blurs into one. We say someone is “responsible” for four different things, and that blur feeds the very problem it hides.

For any decision that matters, four questions have an answer — whether you know it or not.

Four questions, four names

Responsibility: who does the work? The person who executes, who produces the output.

Accountability: who answers for it? The one who will have to explain, justify, account for the results.

Exposure: who bears the consequences when it goes wrong? Exposure is the residue — what cannot be handed to anyone else, whatever the contracts say. It is the person who gets the CEO’s 10 p.m. call.

Ownership: who decides? The one with the authority to choose, change course, stop.

In a healthy organization, these four roles share the same address. The same person, or the same small team, decides, executes, answers, and bears the consequences. The loop is closed.

When the addresses diverge

In most organizations, the four roles have four different addresses. Someone decides without carrying. Someone carries without deciding. Someone answers for a choice they did not make. And that is exactly where — at the point where the addresses diverge — trust begins to be consumed.

The test is simple and uncomfortable. Take a recent decision. For each of the four questions, write a name. Not a role, not a department: a name. If the four names are not aligned, you have just identified the precise place where your governance breaks down.

Why by name

Writing a role protects the organization from clarity. “The steering committee” does not get a 10 p.m. phone call. A person does. Naming makes exposure visible — and visible exposure is the first condition of a trust infrastructure that holds.

Repeat the exercise on five decisions and the pattern appears. Repeat it every quarter and so does the change.