Embracing Accountability
“First I believe that any organization runs best when all of its members embrace accountability.”
Rex Tillerson
How does an organization transform itself into a place where each and every employee accepts personal accountability and also accepts the burden of holding subordinates accountable? For the past 40 plus years we have worked with hundreds of organizations all over the world and have found those organizations which fully embrace an adult version of accountability prosper, and those who don’t often fail.
There are many definitions for accountability but for the purpose of this presentation we will define accountability as:
“The acknowledgement and acceptance of one’s actions and of being answerable for the resulting consequences.”
I want all of you to think about times in the past when you’ve been given a task or a specific responsibility to fulfill or when you’ve given an assignment to an employee who works for you. What you’ll find is there will always be a result, it may or may not be the result you intended but, there will always be a result. Will there always be accountability? Let’s look at what often happens when we fail to hold people accountable:
- They believe you don’t care about them or the quality of their work.
- They begin not to care about the quality of their work.
- They fail to improve.
- Others believe the weak employee is protected for some reason.
- Others resent the extra burden they must carry.
- A general apathy develops for adherence to requirements.
These are, of course, just a few things that can happen. I am sure you can come up with a similar list from your experience.
To ensure you don’t suffer any of these consequences let’s review some of the foundational elements of embracing accountability: clarity, integrity, measurement, and Performance Management. These are by no means all of the elements necessary to ensure a high accountability culture, but they are essential elements.
Essential Factors to Embrace Accountability
Clarity
Have you ever worked for an organization where you were unsure as to where the organization was going? No one seems to know which direction the ship is sailing. In these organizations attempts to embrace accountability are doomed to failure as everyone is unsure of the endgame and their specific role in accomplishing the stated strategy. Companies that excel at embracing accountability have a shared vision of what the future state will look like. A crystal clear and detailed view of what their world will look like 5, 10 years out, and exactly what must be done to get there. They have a defined strategy, thoughtful tactics and a specific plan for the transformation they desire. They create a common language so to decrease ambiguity and improve understanding as to what is meant by even the most common terms.
They also have precisely defined objectives. These objectives are not something as simplistic as selecting a statistical target. These objectives define; the intended outcome, the required resources, specific targets with a timeline and the person or persons directly accountable for achievement or completion. Clear, concise strategy, goals and objectives are foundational elements of a high accountability culture. Another factor in establishing Clarity is what my friend Martin Ferris calls the “exactly.” Martin’s exactly theorem states: “if you want someone to do something, you must tell them exactly.” How many of you have ever given a subordinate an assignment and they return in a day or two to show you what they have done? Suddenly you realize their effort isn’t even close to what it was you thought you asked them to do. When these situations occur who loses? The employee asked to do the task loses as he or she didn’t meet your expectations. As the boss (you) also lose as the task you needed remains incomplete. When your “exactly” is unclear, poorly defined or misunderstood, holding someone accountable becomes far more difficult. Part of creating Clarity is to make sure people understand precisely and exactly what they are accountable for.
Integrity
Our next component is Integrity. In Integrity, we are going to talk about a few different things, truthfulness, trust, respect, fairness and promises kept.
At last year’s Region VI VPPPA Conference, I attended a presentation made by a contracting company regarding their new Incident Management software. At the end of this presentation, the presenter said they were working on a new project with an insurance carrier to identify the causes of a relatively alarming trend. In the past decade there had been close to a 90% drop in Total Recordable Incident Rate. Over the same time period Fatality Rates had actually risen. The dependable correlation that existed for years between number of Recordable per one fatality seemed to be going out the window.
There was much discussion about potential factors for this, but no one wanted to address the elephant in the room. Of late, some industries and some companies have developed an over-reliance on injury management to attain their desired or mandated Recordable Rate. I understand contractors have a lot of pressure put on them by hiring clients. If you don’t achieve an acceptable rate you might not get to work for that client again. But I ask you to put yourself in the shoes of the people who work for one of these organizations. They claim they haven’t had a recordable in four years, but we have had 17 workers comp cases that somehow magically all ended up not being a recordable. How can you develop a culture which prizes accountability when those in charge can simply use injury management to make all of the injuries disappear?
The next component of Integrity is trust. My father taught me, “your word is your bond,” and when you say you are going to do something, I must trust you are going to do it. Trust has to be a two-way street when it comes to accountability. If I give a subordinate an assignment that person must know I’m going to hold them accountable for it. This brings a level of certainty to the relationship and taps down any ambiguity that may arise for inconsistent oversight.
Respect is also an important component of Integrity, and again respect must be a two way street. If I am not respectful of those who work for me how can I expect them to have anything but disrespect for me? They might not do it openly, but in their hearts they will not respect me, my decisions or my motives. This makes true accountability very difficult particularly as it relates open and honest communication.
The final component is fairness. Years ago I had a discussion with a friend of mine who was a mechanic at a chemical plant we worked with. I had and still have great respect for Jimmy. He talked about the Supervisors he had worked for; so and so was good, the next guy not so much, the one after that was great. I asked him, “Jimmy, what makes a good supervisor in your mind?” He gave me any number of answers; trust, respect, experience and knowledge included. In the end though, he narrowed it down to what he thought was most important; fairness. It was treating everyone pretty much the same. It was not having two different sets of rules for those we favor and those that we don’t. Fairness makes accountability more transparent and acceptable.
Measurement
Our next component of Embracing Accountability is Measurement. If an organization is to progress it must Measure well. The Structured Safety Process™ ensures that inputs (prevention activities and involvement) are measured. SSP also measures the vitality of critical processes and systems and finally it measures results. Many of our clients are good at measuring inputs and results. Where we find they sometimes fail is in measurement of systems and processes. Having agreed upon metrics which are accepted by the owners of the process or system is essential in creating accountability for these programs. If I know the measurements are reasonable, consistent and valid I am far more likely to embrace the accountability that comes with analysis of system I have been assigned ownership of.
Finally when it comes to measurement you have to avoid what we call the tyranny of the count. Often we see organizations set requirements for particular activities. These often tend to deal with volume. Give me x of these and y of these. When these requirements are not managed with the quality of the activity in mind you can slip into the tyranny of the count. This inhibits acceptance of personal accountability and often leads to pencil whipping. To avoid this overemphasis on numbers Managers must go to the field and harvest what they have sown. Checking the quality and appropriateness of assigned prevention activities demonstrates the value of the activity and demonstrates the activities importance to the person who completed the work.
Performance Management
Our final component in Embracing Accountability is performance management. Every one of our clients has some sort of performance management system. Each places emphasis on different things. Some focus more on skills and interpersonal dynamics, while others tend to be concerned with goals, objectives and results. In each system there always exists some tension between measuring process versus measuring results. The best companies measure both process and results, with weight being given to process. These organizations know if they focus on process the results will take care of themselves.
Another thing we encourage is tying completion of assigned responsibilities (the “exactly” we discussed earlier) directly to Performance Appraisal. These responsibilities must be a mandatory part of each individual’s job. Participation in any process and its’ required activities must be a condition of employment. While most Managers inherently understand this when it comes to production, many mistakenly believe other job requirements; such as’ safety or quality can be voluntary. This is the greatest threat to a high accountability culture in that it promotes the idea that I am really accountable for only parts of my job. In organizations that Embrace Accountability, quality completion of all assigned responsibilities is expected of each and every employee.
In Performance Management there also exists the component of recognition. When someone has done a good job, when they have fulfilled their responsibilities, they need to recognized, in some cases they need to be rewarded. But this is a sword that has to cut both ways. So with recognition also comes the concept of punitive consequences for those who can’t or won’t fulfill their assigned responsibilities. We’re not talking about draconian measures, where you would beat conformance into people. What we are talking about is dealing with those individuals who either can’t or won’t fulfill their fundamental obligations. When all efforts to improve performance have been exhausted, these individuals must be required to leave the organization. This, the hardest part of accountability is essential. These individuals are often a danger to themselves and fellow employees and their continued presence inhibits others from fully Embracing Accountability. The good news is that if you follow the methods we have outlined here the likelihood of having to let someone go is less than 1%.