Main idea

When a developer can explore a need, a PM can build and a salesperson can prototype, two opposite reactions threaten a team. The first is to retreat behind your profession: "that's not my job," to refuse a contribution or a responsibility that crosses the boundary. The second is to conclude that you can decide alone: "since I can do it, I can decide."

Both mishandle the same thing. The first defends a territory that AI has made porous; the second forgets that the capacity to act does not confer responsibility for the domain. Neither defending territories nor dissolving them is enough to organize work.

Why it matters

It gives a test for judging an organizational rule: it must avoid both drifts at once. A rule that only prevents the first falls back into systematic validation; a rule that only prevents the second lets responsibility dissolve.

Nuances and limits

The two drifts are not always faults: retreating can come from justified caution, and deciding alone can be the right choice in a domain without risk. They become a problem when they stand in for a rule, spoken or not.

Open questions

• How do you tell, in a team, that it is sliding from one drift to the other?