A Taligens Insight
Many organizations and leaders struggle to get team members to own their work, hold each other accountable, and bring forward solutions instead of problems. We often hear from our clients about their desire to increase accountability and ownership in their teams, but they struggle to make that a reality. Along with staple practices like gaining agreement upfront and following up when someone doesn't deliver, we wanted to highlight other aspects of building a culture of accountability and ownership.
When people are given a chance to reflect on, experiment with, and try out their "why" within the organization, they are able to make concrete that which motivates them. With this in hand, they are more willing to take risks, try new things, and make bolder promises, all which are important in building greater accountability and ownership.
Recall when you learned a new game, like football or Monopoly. You were told the roles and objects in the game, the moves people could make and how to win the game. The same is true when defining a new game at work, say a new way of working with greater accountability and ownership. As it turns out, there are structures in language called Speech Actswhich allow us to coordinate effectively, make and deliver on authentic promises and build trust. By helping people to observe, talk about, and make authentic promises, accountability increases.
Many of us are trained from a young age to respond to requests and commands. "Put away your clothes." "Can you help me with this?" As we get older, we find ourselves continuing this pattern in our places of work. We can build skills to proactively bring forward solutions that thrill our customers instead of waiting for requests to come our way. This involves becoming curious about the world of those we work with, having good interpretations about their unmet concerns and making offers to them (even if some of our offers may be rejected). As individuals learn to make effective offers, ownership increases in the organization.
One of the biggest challenges to foster accountability is that people often don't free to make authentic promises. They say "I'll try," "I'll do my best," or they will even agree to a promise without feeling that they can deliver on it. The trick is, you can't hold someone accountable to something they never actually promised. This is often missed in organizations. Ensuring that people have the space and skill to say no, to negotiate or to reprioritize is essential to ensure authentic promises are made upfront.
As leaders, it is commonplace for us to approach our team members with preconceived notions of what we need or which solution will fit. This can foster a culture of top-down requests and reduced personal ownership. By challenging our own tendencies to confer our preconceived answers on the team, and to instead allow ourselves to listen to the team and be unsettled by them, we can foster greater ownership. A bonus is we may even be surprised by something new they bring our way.
At Taligens, we help our clients imagine and build inspired futures by reconnecting people to the meaning of their work. Fill our Contact Form to start a conversation with one of our partners
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