The Accountability Dice
By Michael Wilkinson, CMF
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies Inc.
Pat is highly irritated. For the third staff meeting in a row, Steve, a subordinate and a strong performer in handling day-to-day operations, failed to meet the deadline for an action item related to a strategic initiative. Three weeks ago, when Steve first missed the date, Pat was sympathetic. Pat knew Steve had a long list of urgent requests vying for his time. So when Steve asked that he be given an additional week to complete the action, Pat granted the request without hesitation. At last week's meeting, however, Steve still had not completed the action and once more he requested and was granted a one-week extension. When Steve arrived at today's meeting with more excuses for why he couldn't get to the strategic initiative, and when three other people also had reasons for not getting to their actions, Pat realized he had a big problem on his hands.
Sound familiar? Leaders are often faced with the problem of addressing subordinates who are relatively strong performers, but who chronically miss deadlines. It is not unusual for the deadlines to be on special projects or activities outside the normal day-to-day operation. The situation can be perplexing. As one leader said to me, "What am I going to do? Fire them for missing a deadline?"
In the scenario above, Pat's willingness to NOT hold Steve accountable for missing deadlines, may have communicated to other staff members that deadlines are not important. The result: more staff members providing excuses for not meeting targets.
One strategy for increasing accountability, without firing people, is the implementation of the "Accountability Dice." While it is fun, the strategy also helps team members hold one another accountable for supporting the team's vision and norms.
Here's how it works:
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