Authority...continued (3)

Total Cost of Ownership...

Photo by Hassan Pasha on Unsplash

Authority carries a price whether it is given to us, whether we assume it, or whether we are subject to it. I have been thinking about it in a way my finance friends think about “externalities”. Those elements of the project affected in the total scheme of things but not included in the accounting because either they are hard to measure or often, just inconvenient.

Delegated authority carries a burden of notional responsibility, but rarely, in fact, accountability. Bucks have a way of never stopping, being assigned to circumstances or inquiries, or carried to someone else on the wings of blame, despite the fact that we know, that they know, that we know where accountability lies. It can be so easy to sidestep the consequences of our own authority, but if we delegate responsibility, we are accountable, whatever the circumstances. If we delegate, we’re all in.

Received authority has the other side of the problem. We are tasked, but often within constrain…