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Ed Hurst – Senior Consultant<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a leader in pretty much any large organization today, then chances are you are no stranger to dealing with public relations issues, compliance breaches, and the occasional brand-and-reputation-shriveling legal or ethical challenge.\u00a0 How often do you find yourself thinking or saying something like this?\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI admit we did some unfortunate things.\u00a0 But we\u2019re working at improving and most of what we do is awesome.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard, when you\u2019re as busy as we are, to control what everyone is doing.\u00a0 But we\u2019re listening, and we\u2019ll get better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, your plan to address the issue can be summed up as\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll carry on pretty much as we always have, just do it with more accountability!<\/strong>\u00a0 Then everything will be alright.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n OK, so the phrasing is a little tongue-in-cheek, but doesn\u2019t it sound rather familiar?\u00a0 However sincerely we regret our company\u2019s mistakes, we\u2019re flat out operating the business.\u00a0 We\u2019re investing massive amounts of time and money to grow in line with our values.\u00a0 Sometimes, a few of our people go off-piste.\u00a0 We take it seriously but nobody\u2019s perfect\u2026<\/p>\n Fair enough.\u00a0 But think for a moment about what the quote above implies \u2013 that the solution is to keep working, keep trying, and keep listening with a liberal dash of \u2018more accountability\u2019 <\/em>thrown in.\u00a0 <\/em>Conventional wisdom has it that this is what it takes to deal with significant, usually long-standing, systemic patterns of behavior and decision-making that lead to potentially brand-destroying consequences.<\/p>\n In my experience, the approach most organizations take when they want to develop a culture of accountability is to do a bunch of thinking and surveying, let a good amount of time pass while the data is being analyzed, then cascade initiatives top-to-bottom through the organization, aimed at defining\/clarifying values and making people behave more in line with them.\u00a0 Logically, the initiatives \u2018should\u2019 work because they are typically data-backed and robust.\u00a0 The logic goes\u2026 If we define our values, that should help people to know how we want them to behave \u2013 especially if we appraise and reward everyone against those values, right?\u00a0 Telling people that we want them to speak up \u2013 that should help too, because openness can only make people more accountable.\u00a0 Training our leaders to create a positive risk culture \u2013 that surely has to make a difference?\u00a0 It all sounds great except for one thing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n The very organizations pouring millions of dollars (not to mention massive buckets of their people\u2019s time and energy) into these initiatives are often the same ones who keep suffering scandals and committing ethical faux pas.\u00a0 And, worse still, because leaders keep \u2018talking a good game\u2019 about accountability, without succeeding in enabling tangible change (either in organizational culture or outcomes), people have become cynical, desensitized and alienated from the whole thing.\u00a0 Not only is it not working, nobody really takes any of it seriously any more.\u00a0 So, we\u2019re worse off than we would have been if we\u2019d never spent all that time and money pushing accountability in the first place!<\/p>\n The problem with the approaches dictated by conventional wisdom is that accountability can\u2019t be solved through top-down, mechanistic, analytical approaches \u2013 no matter how smart leadership is.\u00a0 And here\u2019s why \u2013 have you ever looked up the dictionary definition of \u2018accountable\u2019?\u00a0 Here it is:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Accountable<\/em><\/strong> (adj.)\u00a0 required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible.\u00a0 Synonyms include: responsible,\u00a0liable,\u00a0answerable,\u00a0chargeable,\u00a0to blame<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a real toe-curler isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Who would want any part of that?!!<\/p>\n Simply put, accountability only happens if people feel genuinely empowered and personally committed to their part in achieving shared priorities.\u00a0 And we\u2019re trying to make that happen by imposing it?\u00a0 Did we have our brains switched on when we came up with that idea?<\/p>\n It\u2019s basically impossible to hold people accountable by force to anything but the lowest\u2011common\u2011denominator of performance.\u00a0 Organizations only achieve a functional culture of accountability if their people want<\/em> to hold themselves accountable to high standards and results.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tough thing to engender from a leader\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to do something different.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not a matter of coming up with the next smart, logical process.\u00a0 Accountability that leads to materially different (better) decisions and business results depends on engaging the organization fully – \u2018heads, hearts and hands\u2019.\u00a0 In addition to the usual performance-target-oriented solutions, we need to connect with how our people feel and what drives their decisions.\u00a0 As leaders, we need to design and enable implementation of new ways of working that shift the daily rhythms of business on the ground.\u00a0 And each person needs to feel like they are all doing it for their own reasons because we believe individually \u2013 and together \u2013 in what our organization is there to do.<\/p>\n So, what might help?\u00a0 In the next instalment of this multi-part blog, I’ll share some of the approaches that we’ve found can truly advance accountability…<\/strong>\u00a0 They all depend on one important theme \u2013 true accountability is not owned or controlled by us as leaders.\u00a0 Our role is to inspire, challenge and support everyone to do it for themselves \u2013 in a variety of highly practical ways, in line with what our organizations exist to do in the first place.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelimegroup.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Image-for-Ed-Blog--300x197.jpg\")
I am not a fan of conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n