Accountability and where to start.

When we go to work, our role, and much of what we do at work is a function of the structural world around us. This can be the company structure, the function you work in, your specific role and or specific project team structures. When these things go undefined, uncontrolled and uncoordinated, time, effort and money is wasted. Worst of all people are frustrated, unmotivated and switch off.

The importance of accountability means not pulling your hair out later.

What I am seeing more often than not is, that there are a lot of organisations becoming uncoordinated and overwhelmed by what they have going on. People are frustrated and there is poor visibility and alignment of activities. There are the day to day activities of the core business, then there are numerous projects in play that are uncoordinated, misaligned and generally under performing.
Contract staff are the norm and there is no accountability for results and outcomes. I bet there are very few people in the organisation that can actually articulate what the top 5 strategic objectives or goals are and how their role helps deliver them.

Managers that I speak to, in general, seem to be more complex than ever before and they spend the majority of their day in reactive mode and fighting fires.

They spend their day on the phone and in meetings. But I have to ask DOING WHAT?

How do we change this?

I think it’s time to raise the accountability at all levels of an organisation. Then what is expected, actually gets delivered.
You can start raising the accountability bar by looking at what’s happening around you. What needs to happen? What poor performance patterns can you see?
Accountability starts with the alignment of 6 key elements; Strategy, Structures, People, Process, Technology and Information. These then need to be wrapped by an effective governance frame. Governance sounds dull and boring and in most cases it is. But it is a crucial ingredient as it sets the foundation for assessing opportunities and prioritizing activities. It provides the mechanism for assigning roles, responsibilities and accountability.
Suffering in silence takes no skill. Raising the bar on accountability does. When you do it, you will increase individual and business performance.
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About the Author Jackie O’dowd: Jackie delivers improved business performance; creator of the realising success Framework, and author of Connecting The Dots – The Blueprint For Strategically Aligned Business Performance. Jackie helps organisations to solve problems and improve organisational capability and performance. With extensive experience across multiple industry sectors such as Petroleum, Manufacturing, Health, Civil & Mining Services, Employment Services, ICT, Oil & Gas, Government and Professional Services, results speak for themselves. Jackie works with organisations that want to realise their potential and get real sustainable results. Connect with her on LinkedIn.