Confirming roles instead of assigning them

Commitment

An assignment is not a confirmation

In most programmes a slide says: Thomas Müller – Stream Lead Manufacturing. That does not prove Thomas Müller knows about it – and certainly not that he has accepted the responsibility.

In the model these are three separate things, and each of them is on the record.

Assignment

What someone intended

Thomas Müller
Stream Lead Manufacturing
A · accountable
valid from 01.09.2026
assigned by · assigned on

Confirmation

What the person said themselves

e-mail sent
opened and answered
confirmed · time recorded
or declined – and then it becomes visible

History

What someone has to prove later

valid from and until
who assigned it
who changed it
when it was confirmed
what replaced it

Until confirmation the responsibility counts as open – and is shown as such. Queries still go to the named person, because otherwise they would simply sit there.

When a person is replaced

This is where the difference shows most clearly. On a slide a name is overwritten – and afterwards nobody knows who was responsible in May.

What endsThe previous assignment gets an end date. It does not disappear, it stops applying.

What beginsThe new person is written to and confirms themselves. Until then the position is visibly unconfirmed – not silently filled.

The record then holds a sentence an auditor can read: “Nora Lindqvist (Stream Lead) was replaced by Farid Haddad (Stream Lead) – Traniva.” With the time, and with the name of whoever made the change.

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