Mention goals with accountability and people immediately think punishment or guilt, when really it is neither. True accountability is about how you as a leader have decided to organize the process that will get things done. The current podcast walks you through techniques that will make your project a lot less anxiety producing.
Accountability is all about opening up and allowing the free flow of ideas to come up with solutions. Which reminded me of a scene from the movie Apollo 13. Once the famous line “Houston, we have a problem” is spoken a group of engineers on the ground gather around a table with all the items the crew in space has available to them and has to come up with a workable solution that would get the crew back to earth. That is accountability.
What I like about that scene is the fact that each member in the problem solving group is allowed to brainstorm, present an idea, and then let the group work it over until they come up with something that works. In our normal experience the group leader says what is to take place and everyone’s ideas are shoe horned into making it so. There is less of an attempt to adjust to the situation (think 6 hours to keep a space crew alive and get them back home) and more a focus on “This is what we need to come up with”.
Think in terms of small steps for your focus:
Break the problem or situation down into parts or sections. Then ask what is the first step you think you need to take? Once this step is established some of the obstacles to taking it will become apparent. You now have a direction.
Establish an atmosphere of learning for your group:
Open yourself up to a course of action that I’m going to do this and see how that works out, realizing that changes and adjustments will probably have to be made. Doing this establishes an atmosphere that what could be termed “failure” is acceptable as you attempt to learn what will and will not work.
Set up agile groups:
Study after study has shown that the tighter the working group the better the work. In an agile group ideas come from a small gathering of three or four members that meet daily to review progress (even if it is only 15 minutes), they experiment liberally and succeed or fail quickly. It also means no one can hide behind weeks without contact or direction
Get the full list by listening to the podcast. But most important is the idea that when groups are allowed to wrestle with ideas and then bring them to life… the best ideas rise and there is less fear and guilt over what was or wasn’t done. And isn’t that what you want for your business or team?
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