Universally, one of the first issues I will be asked to address at a new client is “how do we increase accountability?” In some ways this question ranks up there with “how do we create a culture” or “can we do a teambuilding to create trust” in the list of phrases most likely to make me shudder — NOT because increasing accountability isn’t a worthwhile goal (in fact, usually I too believe we need to increase accountability) but more because people use it as code for “can you make everyone do what I tell them to?”

To me, the process of creating accountability is simple…but if that were true, why do so many smart people seem to struggle with it? Not being the type of person who believes I know everything, I did a search on what other people see as the path to accountability. I found two answers — hire people who are accountable as part of their character, or take this wonderful workshop and magically become accountable. Since I can’t really see myself saying this to my clients (or I can’t see them feeling very good about my services if that is what I said) I guess I will go ahead and state my “formula for creating accountability”.

The first step in creating accountability in a group is to make sure that everyone is ALIGNED on what you are trying to accomplish. I am not a fan of elegant vision statements, but I do believe it is important that everyone in the group that will work together is clear and aligned on where they are trying to go — on what “done” looks like and how it will be different/better than today. This can be a challenging process — some groups avoid achieving that level of clarity or forcing that level of alignment because they are afraid of losing people who don’t truly buy into the goal. But the loss of effectiveness that comes from people pulling in different directions is deadly — and in reality people are ok as long as they see a way that they can achieve what they need to feel “successful” if the company achieves the vision.

Once everyone is in agreement about the goal of the process, the next step is to achieve CLARITY on actions and priorities. Inevitably when I sit in on a meeting with a group who is struggling with accountability, I find that
- no one is taking (and then distributing) notes
- the leader is not driving to a level of specificity on “who will do what by when”
- the team does not review and affirm “next steps” at the end of the meeting
Even in the best of groups, people can leave a meeting with different understandings of who is going to do what unless the group documents and affirms their agreements in writing.

Of course, a key element of ensuring accountability is establishing OWNERSHIP. I do not define ownership as “I get to do it my way”, but rather as “I assume responsibility for actively managing the designating stakeholders to get the result desired”. This goes beyond putting your name on a chart and sending out a few emails — it involved continuing to shepherd the process along, identifying and resolving issues that might impede delivery. In general, placing ownership of a task in the hands of one individual is best, as it avoids the “finger-pointing” phenomenon.

Most of the organizations I work with cringe whenever I suggest they set up a STRUCTURE of regularly occurring meetings, saying the LAST thing they need is more meetings to clutter up their calendar and keep them from doing meaningful work. However, when it comes to a group project, the meetings ARE the work. I find it is better for teams to set up a structure of regular meetings, then to use these meetings as the places where they visit progress against the key projects, rather than try to set up ad hoc meetings to move the projects along. It is just too hard to find a time on the calendars of multiple people, so teams either end up taking too long to move the project along or trying to make progress without key decision-makers.

Finally, creating accountability depends on engaging in active, direct COMMUNICATION. Accountability does not come from every single person getting every single action item done on time — it arises as groups actively manage the process of “making progress”, raising and resolving issues, actively negotiating commitments, providing direct feedback to team members whose behavior is impeding the team.

Ultimately, this process provides a framework for increasing accountability, but ultimate success does come from each person being willing to honestly engage in the process, believing that the improved probability of success outweighs any momentary discomfort from occasionally having to admit to not having gotten something done.