The 58 executives participating in my March 30 accountability workshop brought into focus a pattern I’ve observed the past few months in the other workshops I conduct around the U.S. and Canada three times every month.
In these workshops, participants are given the opportunity to determine the level of accountability in their organization using a proprietary Accountability in the Workplace Assessment I’ve developed.
In every single workshop I conduct, participants overwhelmingly site “communication” as a shortcoming in the culture of accountability they’re trying to build and nurture. It’s the single greatest opportunity for improving accountability in most organizations. I believe that “Clarity creates confidence,” so if you’re not clear about what you want and who will do what by when, it’s difficult to be confident in the decisions you’re making.
In the March 30 workshop, 93% of the participants – most of whom were attending in teams of 3s, 4s and 5s – indicated that they could do a better job ensuring that “every employee knows and supports our mission, vision, values and strategy and knows their role in helping to achieve them.” This part of the survey examines whether your team is clear about the plan it’s been asked to execute.
The pattern that came clearly into focus is the fact that most organizations also regularly score low on their ability to track performance, which is another aspect of an organization’s culture of accountability my survey tool measures. Guess what? Tracking is communicating. Tracking systems communicate whether or not the organization and individuals are meeting their performance objectives.
After all, if you’re not tracking performance, how can you expect to improve?