Define: "Carry the Can" in Business
Catastrophic fiscal burn
"When ordered to execute a reckless plan, reply with 'Confirming your directive to proceed despite the documented outage risk' and BCC your personal email."
To accept full responsibility and accountability for a project outcome or operational failure.
What does "Carry the Can" actually mean?
"Being designated as the sacrificial mid-level scapegoat so an incompetent VP keeps their annual bonus after a catastrophic outage."
"Establishing clear single-threaded ownership ensures one project lead doesn't unfairly carry the can when cross-functional dependencies slip."
"The vendor migration was the CTO's pet project, but when the database corrupted, the lead sysadmin was left to carry the can."
By The Chief Waste Officer
18 years in the corporate trenches quantifying waste so you don't have to.
Related Terminology
Tired of hearing this?
Next time someone says "Carry the Can" in a meeting, track exactly how much company money they just wasted. Play Buzzword Bingo, generate a waste invoice, and stop the bleeding.
