Before departing for a three-month sabbatical, a close friend of mine had to temporarily shed his responsibilities. He used a simple process for enumerating the various roles he assumed on our team. The framework below provides a general form of his process for defining the roles and responsibilities that an individual carries for a team. Aptly named the “Reindel Method,” this process captures how someone spends their time on a weekly basis.

It provides an implementation of the “one minute goal,” proposed by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson in the One Minute Manager. Using this method, an individual should be able to read, understand, and internalize the defined goals in under a minute [1]. The Reindel method is simple, and it should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

The Reindel Method

Phase 1: Document

  1. List the titles of any roles or projects you carry for your team.

  2. Enumerate any recurring tasks, responsibilities, or special deliverables for each role or project.

  3. Assign an approximate percentage of time spent each week on each role or project.

  4. Highlight any concerns or time conflicts which need to be addressed.


Phase 2: Reflect
Consider these questions as you review your list and perform step 4 above:

  1. Are priorities clear across these roles and tasks?

  2. Do some of your roles specify less than 20% of your time?
    1. If so, are you trying to juggle too many things?
    2. Have you established clear boundaries of what you will and will not do?
    3. Have you considered both essential commitments and stretch goals?
       

  3. Do you have more than three major roles or projects defined?
    If so, then see question #2.

  4. Have you included dedicated time to “sharpen the saw?”
    Make sure to allocate time to improve your development processes [2]!


Framework Template

A simple document can capture this information and this Microsoft Word template file contains the following content, which can be used as a starting point.

Roles and Responsibilities for YYYY

[NAME] – last updated: [date]


A [Role, Project, or Topic Name] (X%) – [Optional brief one-line description]

  • A [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]

  • B [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]

  • C [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]


B [Role, Project, or Topic Name] (Y%) – [Optional brief one-line description]

  • A [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]

  • B [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]

  • C [Responsibility, Major Deliverable, Special Topic, or Recurring Task]


How to use this template

Everyone’s individual roles and responsibilities are unique to their job. This template is intended to help someone define and enumerate the most important roles and responsibilities they work on when contributing to their team.

The responsibilities, tasks, and duties an individual performs may widely vary based on the expectations of the role they fulfill. This template provides a framework for how to enumerate these responsibilities. An individual may have any number of roles, responsibilities, or recurring tasks.



Works cited

  1. K. Blanchard and S. Johnson, New One Minute Manager, Harper Collins, 1983 (revised: 2015).
  2. S. Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Free Press, 1989.

written by: R. Taggart, H. Reindel