Directly Responsible Individual

Apple's organizational principle that every project, task, or decision has ONE specific person who is the Directly Responsible Individual (DRI)—not a committee, not a team, but a single named person who owns the outcome. The DRI doesn't do everything alone but is the single point of accountability: when something goes wrong, there's one person who can't point elsewhere. As a mental model: DRI solves the DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY problem (where shared responsibility means no one feels personally accountable). When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. DRI forces clarity about who owns what.

When to use it

When diffusion of responsibility is causing accountability gaps; when projects need clear ownership that prevents 'everyone and no one' accountability; when organizational clarity requires single-point responsibility; when authority needs to match responsibility for effective DRI assignment.

How it can help

Assign a DRI for every significant project, decision, and deliverable. The practices: (1) Every meeting output has a DRI assigned before the meeting ends. (2) Every project has a DRI who is personally accountable for delivery. (3) The DRI is explicitly named and publicly known. (4) The DRI has the AUTHORITY commensurate with their RESPONSIBILITY (accountability without authority is toxic). (5) The DRI can delegate tasks but not responsibility. For entrepreneurs: in early-stage companies, founders are the DRI for everything—the first organizational challenge is transferring DRI assignments to new hires without losing accountability.