What is the best way to maintain
accountability? Is it to tell people
what you want them to do and just hope they do it? Or for someone on the Leadership Team to send
an email to the whole company and expect everyone to now keep themselves to
task? Recall the marketing adage, the “Rule
of Seven,” which states that prospects need to hear the message at least
seven times before they’ll take action.
David Rock describes in Your Brain at Work that “Attention
changes the brain.” Imagine that you are
told about a new product or service line that your company intends to
offer. If you hear about this only once,
even if it is in the form of “Let’s make it happen!” – is that enough? Will you suddenly spring into action and
complete the goal with no further attention brought to the subject? Probably not.
Traction
and the Entrepreneur’s Operating System understands this as well. In following EOS, your leadership team and/or
departments will set quarterly “Rocks” or goals – things that absolutely must be
done in the next 90 days, and assign 3-5 of them out per individual for
accountability. But the focused
attention does not stop with merely setting these Rocks, or even with writing
them down. Every week, the Leadership
Team or department team re-gathers for a “Level 10” meeting where each Rock is
brought up one by one, and the owner or main person accountable speaks to
them. However, unlike many “Status”
meetings, in EOS, all that is said in the first go-round is “On Track” or “Off
Track.” If “Off Track,” the item is
dropped to a later portion of the meeting designated for resolving
“Issues.” Once all Rocks have been
addressed in this fashion, the team goes on to prioritize each Issue, then
Discuss and Solve them one by one (IDS).
Whether your company uses EOS or not, this
cadence of declaring what is important, then maintaining weekly check-ins at a
high level, diving deep only when needed, is a great way to maintain
accountability for change. Attention is brought
to each topic on a weekly basis, and as long as owners are being honest, the
frequent cadence allows for quick resolution of problems before they escalate
out of control or it becomes too late.
One key component of maintaining successful
L10 meetings is to have two roles met at each meeting. First is the meeting “owner” – who
facilitates the meeting and keeps it on track, and second is the meeting
“scribe” – who writes down all issues and solutions, and ensures these are
stored in a common location. These roles
could actually be undertaken by the same person if s/he is a fast typist and
strong facilitator.
Interestingly, AJC has offered this
service for many years to clients, even before having read and bought in to
Traction and the Entrepreneur’s Operating System. We call it our “Accountability Model,” and
liken it to hiring a personal trainer or housekeeper. When you know that you are meeting with your
PT or that your housekeeper is coming, you get your workouts done, or pick up
the clutter around your house. Without
that forced accountability, it is far too easy to let tasks which require a bit
of mental discipline to fall into arrears.
If your company needs to just get something
done – consider assigning or outsourcing someone to lead an “Accountability
Model” for your company or group. Stay
disciplined to meet weekly and ask if things are on track / off track for each
project; then discuss and solve the issues which need further attention. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that
everyone will get things done without maintaining attention and enforcing
accountability. If you can do this, just
imagine how next year you will be able to say that you actually executed on that
new strategy or plan, rather than having just talked about it.
Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and
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