Our revolutionary Workplace Accountability Index provides organizations with the critical insights they need to achieve rapid speed to market — and flourish in competitive markets.

In the modern marketplace, rapid (and often, disruptive) change is par for the course. In fact, according to a Palladium survey, some 72% of executives believe their business model will be under threat within the next five years. With the rise of cloud-based technologies, decentralized currencies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), organizations that can deliver innovation at speed have a competitive advantage.

This need for agility isn’t inextricably bound to technological innovation, however; even companies that rely on legacy systems in relatively steady industries must prepare for the tides of change. For instance, in the spring of 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced new legal stipulations that have impacted every organization that handles the personal data of European citizens. The updates sent companies in industries from banking to pharmaceuticals into a frenzy as they sought to implement operational changes in order to remain compliant with the new regulations.

Today, almost every company feels heightened pressure to continually optimize operations and introduce new products and services to consumers quickly in order to maintain a competitive edge. So, how can businesses reliably keep pace?

Why Accountability is the Key to Increased Speed to Market

The key to mastering speed to market has little to do with hiring the most educated engineers or even tapping into a previously unmet demand. Rather, speed to market is determined by the level of accountability in your workforce. Accountability, according to the New York Times bestseller The Oz Principle, is the “personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.”

While achieving rapid speed to market is great, long-term success is impossible without an organizational culture of accountability. Take Theranos, for example: the now notorious startup promised to deliver a revolutionary blood testing method, by which a full range of health tests could be run on just a drop or two of blood — 1/1000th of the amount normally needed. The startup secured more than $700 million in investment and its CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely hailed as the “next Steve Jobs.”

However, a string of investigations beginning in 2015 revealed that Theranos’ technology was extremely underdeveloped and could not deliver the results it promised — and that thousands of stakeholders had been led astray by false promises made by the Theranos leadership team. Faced with a range of legal challenges, Theranos collapsed, and Holmes is now awaiting trial for criminal fraud.

The Theranos story should serve as a cautionary tale that reinforces the critical role of taking accountability in the workplace. Although Theranos achieved rapid speed to market with a disruptive idea, the organization was plagued by a lack of accountability that inhibited it from producing the solution it promised. Instead of proactively taking ownership for the promises made to investors and consumers, Theranos’ culture was plagued by patterns of secrecy and blame that led to one of the greatest ethics scandals of our time.

On the other hand, highly accountable employees come together to form innovative, high-performing teams that deliver on their promises. These teams consistently succeed because they identify problems early, take psychological ownership of these problems, and collaborate to develop creative solutions and achieve desired results. An additional benefit of accountable cultures is the element of trust-building: when everyone is accountable, trust soars.

Boost Your Speed to Market with the Workplace Accountability Index

It should be clear that in order to thrive in the modern marketplace, organizations need to foster high levels of employee accountability. But how can leaders assess and identify current accountability gaps?

The new Partners in Leadership Workplace Accountability Index gives leaders the ability to quantify levels of accountability within their organizations, measuring critical indicators of accountability — including feedback seeking, psychological ownership, creative problem-solving, and rates of effective action-taking. These elements are then correlated to the question on the minds of all C-suite executives: “Is my organization equipped to deliver the speed to market and agility needed for a successful future?”

By measuring these crucial indicators, the Workplace Accountability Index can help leaders determine if they are focused on the right problems and positioned to handle change; if their employees are demonstrating ownership for solving problems rather than shirking responsibility; if teams are solving problems creatively and efficiently; and if effective action is being implemented in order to deliver on results at speed.

Beyond the engagement surveys currently on the market, the Workplace Accountability Index provides leaders with a real-time pulse on organizational accountability, equipping them to address inefficiencies and achieve accelerated speed to market.

Learn more about how the Workplace Accountability Index can boost your speed to market and help you maximize topline results.