The 4 Steps Process To Create Accountability in The Workplace

The accountability concept is becoming increasingly prominent in big companies. These companies have many people, functions, roles, and tasks that should ensure the excellent performance of their working processes. 

When managers hear these types of excuses:

  • "That's the way we have always done here".
  • "It wasn't my fault that it's late."
  • "No one told me what to do."
  • "Someone should have told me not to do that."

This means that we are probably facing a lack of accountability; instead of blaming people for these answers, we (the managers) must consider how this has been possible to develop inside the company culture.

We must understand that "accountability" does not define anything. Accountability or lack of accountability results from a process that implies four steps.

In the image below, you will find the four steps for creating accountability.

Accountability process

1st Step - Define

In this step, we must define the behaviors we expect to see in the persons; we have to go to a level of detail that simultaneously constitutes a way to train them on the job/task and defines some critical points that constitute the expectations. This work has to be done before the communication phase. We must think about what and how we want people to do the tasks or jobs we give them.

Checklist about how to define expectations:

  1. Which behavior/s do you need to see in your collaborators?
  2. Define the behavior (s) precisely enough, and do not be vague.

2nd Step - Communicate

In this step, we take time to communicate the task to the person one-on-one and define the required critical points. Together, we can also decide the time frame in which we expect the quality of the task to be achieved. Some tasks could require a learning curve that includes a trial-and-error period. A mentor could be assigned. It must also be clear that the task accomplishment will be assessed at a specific date that must be defined in the communication moment.

Checklist about how to communicate in person and effectively all the expectations you have:

  1. Expectations must be detailed enough.
  2. Listen for possible objections.
  3. Answer to the objections. Clarify.
  4. Look for an agreement about the expectations.
  5. Do not fall into the trap of giving only "suggestions" about the expected behaviors.
  6. Do not slide away.

3rd Step - Assess

A first assessment is critical to review if the task is achieved and at which level of quality is accomplished. This is a crucial moment for the person tasked because he/she knows that there will be a moment in which her/his accountability will be gauged; this is also a critical moment for the manager because he/she will be shown all the possibles glitches in the task and in the process to which the person was assigned. Assessment is necessary because it will be the source of all the possible improvements to the process and its standard work. 

Checklist about how to give feedback about the showed behaviors against the expectations:

  1. Timely feedback
  2. Sensory based
  3. Actionable

4th Step - Follow through

While the first assessment is crucial in the accountability setup, the Follow-through phase is also critical. Setting regular timed moments of checks about the expectations we have for a process secures the maintenance of the system in place; we remember that the law of entropy is neverending operating and that it disrupts all types of events in life, physical or systemic.

Checklist about how to follow through:

  1. Be open with your team about assigning future projects due to their progress in the accountability mindset.
  2. Prepare a development plan about accountability, linking projects & accountability.
  3. Create opportunities for your people.

The process outlined above is useful as a guideline to build accountability. Still, it becomes instrumental in all situations where accountability is lacking, and we don't really know what is missing.

In some cases, expectations are not clearly defined. In other cases, the manager didn't communicate the expectations properly, so the draft of the expected behaviors is lying dormant in a closet. In other situations, there has never been an assessment or enough follow-through. In any case, this four-step process is the cornerstone of building accountability.

 

Mario Mason

(Kaizen Coach)

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