On Collective Accountability and Commitment
Photo credit: Bianca Tuckwell
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been writing about what helps teams and organisations create a Culture of Learning versus a Culture of (just) Performance or (just) Comfort. I shared my views that the sweet spot for organisations to achieve that learning culture is the right mix of Psychological Safety and Collective Accountability and Commitment. Last week, I wrote about the Psychological Safety part, and this week I will write about Shared Accountability and Commitment.
As I explained last week, it has been proven that strengthening the psychological safety of a team does lead to the positive effects described by Amy Edmondson and others in their work… but not by itself. In fact, in some cases, simply increasing the sense of safety can actually reduce group motivation and cause performance to deteriorate, as members become more comfortable slacking off. This happens in teams and organisations that are more individualistically oriented, where there is a weak sense of interdependence and mutual accountability.
The key word here is “collective.” How can we build a team or organisation where everyone is dedicated to a common cause? Where we create that feeling that I’m obligated to you, and you are obligated to me. Where we feel daily that the group tends to do what they say and tends to say what they do. How can we go from individualism to collectivism? Where everyone in the team views their group’s goals as superordinate to their own needs and orients themselves toward maintaining strong connections with others in the group.
As a leader, here are four practical things you can do to increase that sense of collective accountability and commitment:
1. Set the direction and let the team work out the path
Once a direction, mission, or vision has been articulated, one of the best ways of creating shared accountability and commitment is to let the team work out the way to get there. I could even argue that it would be better to articulate that future with the team, but if you don’t, at least don’t give your team all the answers and steps to get there.
2. Design fluid structures and processes
Allow teams the freedom to design, implement, and change processes and structures that allow them to deliver better work. One of the most frustrating things for teams that will quickly diminish their sense of ownership and commitment is when processes are designed for them and/or implementing change is a huge undertaking. On the other hand, if you remove roadblocks for them as a leader, their commitment and accountability will skyrocket.
3. Feedback is constant and two-way
Create a culture where you, as a leader, provide feedback to your team members in the form of coaching and advice, and where the team can provide you with constant feedback about what they are learning from doing the (ever-changing) work. Not the typical one-way corrective (you are not doing this well) form we see in many teams and organisations.
4. Shared goals coupled with transparency
It seems obvious, but how many times have we expected teams to collaborate and have a collective commitment and accountability, yet they all have individual goals and KPIs? Make sure all success metrics, objectives, and incentives are team- or organisation-based. Having individual goals and rewards is the easiest way to kill collective ownership. Once you have that in place, allow the team to have all the information and transparency they need to know where they are and how far they are from where they should be.
For example, at Neu21, we don’t track any individual metrics; we don’t know, nor are we interested in knowing, how many clients any individual person brings or the amount of work (I think they call it billable hours in the traditional consulting world) any of us do. Instead, we constantly share and discuss how we are going as an organisation and what we can do to improve our results.
What other things do you do as a leader to increase collective accountability and commitment?
