The Accountability Gap

Everyone who has ever been involved in an enterprise-wide implementation has quickly discovered what we call the Accountability Gap. This gap can be described in several ways, such as the difference between knowing and doing, reporting versus tracking, talking versus communicating, delegating versus empowering, motivating versus engaging…the list goes on. The gap describes the difference between what you really intend to have happen in the organization and what people are actually doing.

Every organization or team faces the dilemma of the Accountability Gap. In fact, there are probably some significant gaps that you are dealing with today in your own work. These gaps in performance extract a price that can be measured not only in terms of organizational efficiency and effectiveness, but in terms of progress towards achieving results.

When Accountability Gaps persist unchecked, they create what we call in our book, How Did That Happen? Holding People Accountable for Results The Positive, Principled Way, a Phantom Reality. That is, we begin to believe in our own inaccurate description of how things really are. When you operate under the assumptions of a Phantom Reality, your inaccurate view of “how things really are” can cause you to make the wrong decision, solve the wrong problem and move in the wrong direction. Phantom Realities frequently lead to wasted time and effort and almost always impede people from achieving the intended result.

One organization we worked with had one of the most sophisticated performance management systems we had ever seen. Individual goals and objectives were tied directly to organizational strategy. Everyone in the company could link their individual work priorities to the goals of the Chairman of the company. They even had a system people used for implementing counter-measures when goals were in jeopardy of being missed. However, a survey of the top leadership group revealed that people broadly believed that the results the organization needed to achieve were unclear, that individual goals were not really connected to organizational goals and that the counter-measure plan was not being utilized as intended. While the leaders knew there was a gap, they had underestimated the significance of that gap.

By definition, when an organization experiences an Accountability Gap it means that people are just going through the motions. There is a difference between activity and results, and that difference measures the price we pay in terms of effectiveness. Every leadership team should conduct an Accountability Gap Analysis to determine where their gaps are, how significant they are and which are most important to close first.

Creating A Culture Of Accountability addresses the gaps as people take greater ownership, buy-in and invest, operate Above The Line and truly engage in moving the organization forward. We all know these gaps exist and may be caught in the trap hoping a dose of tenacity and repetition over time will make things better. This is a fallacy that can sabotage almost every effort to move the organization forward. Closing the Accountability Gaps should be a priority for every leadership team. To learn more about creating greater accountability for results, go to www.partnersinleadership.com.

Above The Line, Creating A Culture Of Accountability, and Phantom Reality, are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership.