Scientific Definition
Diffused responsibility means nothing happens.
Plain-English Definition
Diffused responsibility means nothing happens.
Feynman Explanation
Everyone agreed it was urgent. No one agreed it was theirs.
Core Principle
Diffused responsibility means nothing happens.
Mechanisms
Diffused responsibility means nothing happens.
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Everyone agreed it was urgent. No one agreed it was theirs.
Examples
- An obvious risk visible to the entire leadership team and owned by no one.
- Cross-functional decisions die in 'someone else's' inbox.
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Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Single accountable owner per risk. In writing.
Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Single accountable owner per risk. In writing.
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Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Adopting beliefs because the room already did.
Assuming everyone secretly agrees with us.
Low expectations produce low performance.
One strong trait colors judgment of unrelated traits.
High expectations produce higher performance.
We overweight whoever has the bigger title in the room.
Spending disproportionate energy on trivial decisions.
Once we say it publicly, we'll defend it past the data.
Forgetting what it's like not to know what you know.
Their failure: character. Our failure: situation.
We extend more trust, benefit of the doubt, and rope to 'our people.'
We're more persuaded by people we like.