CRA Inc

4 Sep 06 @ 8:45 pm

How to combat a culture of excuses and promote accountability

Whether the goal is elevating employee performance, SOX compliance, strategic alignment, spurring innovation, or something else, leaders earn their keep by creating the conditions of accountability in their organization.

What conditions lead to accountability? Our research has shown time and again that most people in organizations will be accountable—that is, they will do what’s needed and expected—to the extent to which…

• Expectations are clear to employees.
• Employees perceive that those expectations are credible and reasonable.
• Employees anticipate that positive consequences will follow performance.
• Employees anticipate that negative consequences will follow poor performance.

Strategy & Leadership has just published an article that elaborates our Accountability Model, highlights from our research the factors that most frequently promote and inhibit accountability, and provides a case study of how we helped one organization assess and address its accountability problems.

You can download the complete article, “How to combat a culture of excuses and promote accountability,” here.

Though the article primarily addresses the diagnoses and remedy of existing accountability problems, the model works just as well – and perhaps better – as a tool for prevention. At the outset of any new strategy or business initiative, it provides a means for due diligence, a framework for asking: Is it reasonable for us to expect that people are going to do the things we need them to do? And if the answer is ‘‘no’’ or ‘‘we’re not sure,’’ leaders have an opportunity to make changes and prevent accountability problems before they occur.

posted in category(s): From The Journals, Points of Interest, Tools in Practice