{"id":2573,"date":"2018-03-26T17:58:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T07:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelimegroup.com\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2024-06-27T16:05:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T06:05:33","slug":"accountability-what-can-we-learn-from-australias-sporting-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelimegroup.com\/wordpress\/accountability-what-can-we-learn-from-australias-sporting-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability \u2013 what can we learn from Australia\u2019s sporting shame?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you live in Australia, or any other cricket-loving nation, you\u2019d have to be living in a cave not to have noticed recent scandalous events.\u00a0For everyone else – stay with me!\u00a0I promise, it\u2019s interesting even if you don\u2019t care a jot about cricket.<\/p>\n

After a particularly fractious and ill-tempered series, the Australian cricket team has been caught cheating in an international match.\u00a0Not just minor cheating but tampering with the ball in a manner that\u2019s strictly outlawed and widely seen as shocking.\u00a0Even worse \u2013 the team\u2019s captain, who occupies a revered position of trust and admiration across the nation, was directly involved in planning it.\u00a0It was premeditated, carried out in full view of the cameras and seems to have been delegated by the senior players to the team\u2019s most junior member (in an act referred to by many as \u201cthrowing him under a bus\u201d).<\/p>\n

The expression \u2018it\u2019s just not cricket\u2019 has never been more apt.\u00a0The nation feels let down and is looking for swift, decisive action to be taken on the guilty.\u00a0People want to see \u2018justice done\u2019 and the guilty held accountable for their actions.\u00a0In the current febrile atmosphere of shock and anger, the sort of accountability expected seems to be pretty harsh.<\/p>\n

As regular readers of this blog will know, the subject of accountability is dear to my heart.\u00a0But what have events on the cricket field got to do with accountability in the workplace?\u00a0What can we, as leaders, learn from this sorry tale?<\/p>\n

Well, in my view, quite a lot\u2026<\/p>\n

Accountability is vital if we are to build organizations where our people perform and work together passionately to deliver our vision. \u2018Accountability\u2019 is basically another way of saying \u201ceveryone cares and understands enough about what we\u2019re trying to achieve to be motivated to do everything they can to succeed.\u201d\u00a0And certainly not engage in bad behavior that undermines our values.<\/p>\n

When looked at this way, what\u2019s happened in cricket isn\u2019t really so very different from the ongoing scandals in banks, airlines, social media companies, tech start-up, big pharma\u2026\u00a0When scandals break, for a moment we see all too clearly the shameful gap between what we set out to do and what has actually been allowed to take place.\u00a0The trick is to make sure that everyone consistently chooses to do the right thing \u2013 both to perform and to avoid transgressions out of a misguided sense of what \u2018great performance\u2019 looks like.\u00a0In sport, that might be winning by cheating.\u00a0In business, that might consist of getting results by bullying people, exploiting customers or anti-competitive practice.<\/p>\n

In the previous instalment of this blog series*, I pointed out that accountability can\u2019t be attacked head-on, because all that achieves is forcing people to comply (at best) rather than truly and passionately do their best.\u00a0Instead, we need to focus on the underlying factors that cause people to\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look closely at what we need to get right and what the currently unfolding cricketing scandal can teach us:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Inspiration<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 people do the right thing because they feel personally inspired by our vision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the facts are still emerging, it\u2019s already clear that numerous members of the Australian cricket team were involved in the recent unsporting activities.\u00a0Where an advantage can be gained by doing the wrong thing, people have to ardently\u00a0want<\/u>to do the right thing, especially when they\u2019re under pressure.\u00a0That depends absolutely on inspiration.\u00a0If they believe to their cores in the vision and values, about why they are part of the company\/team in the first place, it becomes unthinkable to do the wrong thing.\u00a0In this light, the rich history and traditions of Australian cricket \u2013 to which we want every player to aspire \u2013 are not really very different from our mission and vision as organizations.\u00a0These visions need to act as beacons to guide and motivate us \u2013 and we, as leaders, need to make sure it feels like that every day.\u00a0On the other hand, if the captain or senior leaders start acting badly, people feel disconnected, lost and susceptible to demotivation (or more unsavory visions of \u2018success\u2019)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clarity\u00a0\u2013 people are helped to do the right thing by organizations that ensure they understand what is expected of them\u00a0and provide them with the right tools do deliver.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the outside, and judged with hindsight, it\u2019s often obvious what \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019 look like.\u00a0But when you\u2019re a member of a team, whether in an organization or a sporting context, people create their own norms and expectations.\u00a0We quickly come to see things like the people around us, and follow well-established precedents\/norms.\u00a0Before you know it, you find yourself acting and believing in things that others might see as straightforwardly wrong \u2013 without even noticing.\u00a0Organizations have to make the definition of everyone\u2019s role abundantly clear and ensure that everyone is guided to do them well.<\/em><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Authorship\u00a0\u2013 people use their talents and passions to deliver success if they have the autonomy and freedom to make their own choices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we want the team to make the most of everyone\u2019s talents and do the right thing, each individual has to be free to make choices and shape their own approach \u2013 within the team\u2019s shared goals.\u00a0Early reports suggest that pressure was brought on junior team members of the Australian cricket team to act inappropriately by the senior players.\u00a0Such an environment diminishes the sense that people are able to make good choices for themselves and instead ensures that everyone either \u2018dances off the cliff\u2019 together or merely keeps quiet.<\/em><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Impact\u00a0\u2013 people need to be able to see and feel the impact of their actions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no exaggeration to say that much of Australia is apoplectic about the actions of the cricket team.\u00a0They have brought shame on themselves and, by extension, all of us.\u00a0People are calling for the worst offenders to be chucked out of the team and perhaps never play again.\u00a0The impact of bad behavior must be all too obvious to the team now…\u00a0The public won\u2019t be happy until harsh consequences follow for the main culprits.\u00a0But, if we want consequences to form a positive and helpful part of our culture, it\u2019s the role of leaders to make the consequences of everyone\u2019s contributions apparent every day, in big ways and small, so that everyone can understand how well they\u2019re doing.\u00a0The positive consequences of doing great things need to be quite clear and consistently applied.\u00a0And, heaven forbid, people do need to see what would happen if they transgress.\u00a0Recent events might seem a little extreme, but in fact we can all learn from this.<\/em><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Courage<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 people are encouraged to behave accountably by an environment in which they\u2019re supported to speak frankly, enabled to make brave decisions and can see that they won\u2019t face negative consequences if they call out bad practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courage is a quality that several cricketers must wish they had exhibited a few days ago.\u00a0If just one person in the team had said \u201chang on a minute, are we really doing the right thing here?\u201d a lot of pain could have been avoided.\u00a0But it can\u2019t just be up to individual courage.\u00a0It would take considerable strength of character for an individual, especially a junior one, to stand up and do that \u2013 risking rebuke or not being selected to play again (equivalent to being fired or missing out on career-developing opportunities).\u00a0What we need is an environment in which everyone knows, beyond doubt, that if they speak up, no negative consequences will follow for them.\u00a0Not only that, but they\u2019ll be believed \u2013 which is important, because before an act takes place, it might be hard to prove.\u00a0This is so much more than setting up a hotline or a suggestions box \u2013 it\u2019s about shifting the whole nature of relationships and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll agree that there\u2019s a lot we can learn from the Australian cricket\u2019s team mistakes and pain.\u00a0As individuals, they appear to be sincerely nice people, living in a competitive world.\u00a0They have been under pressure to perform and feel embattled after a series with more than its fair share of scandals and \u2018needle\u2019.\u00a0But all scandals involve nice people under pressure.\u00a0And so does under\u2011performance\u2026<\/p>\n

The companies \u2013 and teams \u2013 who understand this and resolutely create an environment that supports the\u00a0drivers<\/em>\u00a0of accountability are the ones who perform, who get the best out of everyone and in whom we can believe.<\/p>\n

Take the time to analyze properly where you are currently excelling in terms of these drivers \u2013 and where you might have room to improve.\u00a0If you would like access to the \u2018Five Factors\u2019 tool I use to assess the current state of accountability with clients, please send me a note and I\u2019d be happy to share.<\/p>\n

As leaders, we need to grow new muscles to inspire our people, to role model in high\u2011transparency environments, and to be connected without being controlling.\u00a0(In the next instalment of this blog series, I\u2019ll share examples of the practical things that can be done to strengthen these muscles).\u00a0This is really the most important lesson we can take from recent lamentable events.<\/p>\n

* To see more information on the \u2018drivers of accountability\u2019, click here to see the last installment of this blog:\u00a0https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/accountability-let-start-doing-like-we-actually-mean-part-ed-hurst-1\/<\/a><\/p>\n

If you would like to get a factual account of the cricketing scandal itself, this is a good place to look:\u00a0http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2018-03-25\/how-cricket-ball-tampering-incident-unfolded\/9584618<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 
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