Workforce Development Kelly L. Glass, Consultant

Treating Accountability as the Baseline for Performance

Accountability is not a challenge to overcome or a goal to be reached for people who are excited and passionate about what they do.  It is a given.   When passionate and motivated people volunteer for responsibilities and willingly hold themselves accountable for affecting change, accountability systems become the minimum standard for performance. 

Accountability systems sometimes are viewed in a negative way, especially for those held accountable.  They can polarize teams into confessors and judges and create a culture of blame between people and organizations.  This view of accountability systems is dangerous.  It stagnates creativity, breeds inaction, and siphons energy and productivity.  But, viewing accountability as a reciprocal agreement results in a mutual understanding of expectations and creates excitement and enthusiasm.  Thus, accountability becomes the foundation for creative and proactive problem solving rather than a barrier to it.   

This shift in thinking regarding accountability is of particular utility as more people are asked to volunteer their talents outside of their work setting for the benefit of their own careers and the bottom line of their organizations.  The emergence of public-private partnerships (PPP or P3) is one such example that relies heavily on volunteer experts and leaders from the public sector, private sector, and frequently the nonprofit sector.  Successful public-private initiatives involve a range of issues such as workforce and economic development, infrastructure, and the environment.  They depend on the involvement of motivated and active leaders who willingly hold themselves accountable to share ideas in a collaborative way.  The success of these initiatives is measured by the manner in which they impact policy decisions, organizational direction, and individual choice.    

Taking a close look at the process reveals that public and private sector leaders are the conduits through which information flows among P3 participants including organizations and individuals.  Leaders contribute to system-change by creating cross-organizational policies, systems, and recommendations based on collective experience and expertise.  They then tap into those policies, systems, and recommendations to utilize the benefits within their own organizations.  These synergies are made possible in part through strong accountability – the kind that mutually inspires people and organizations to work smarte, share ideas openly, implement policies voluntarily, and contribute to truly successful system-wide, organization-wide, and individual change.

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