Accountability is a key component in a business

Bob Nelson

Accountability --- or positive accountability, as I like to refer to it --- starts with raising the awareness of what is expected of everyone in the workplace, why that is important, what it looks like, and what the organization will do to support people in fulfilling these expectations.

You need to capture the Heads (awareness), Hands (skills) and Hearts (motivation) of each and every person and bring them, one by one, into the game of work. Not as easy as simply announcing the goal, but more effective and sustainable as you make progress.

It is difficult to force anyone to do anything in today's work environments. You need to think of work as a journey to transfer ownership and responsibility from wherever it currently is (the manager/owner, HR, Corporate) to each and every employee in the organization. You can't just command this of them and expect it to happen. It won't. You also can't just create a program and drop it on the organization or provide work tools for employees to use and hope for the best. In both scenarios, you'll be sadly disappointed. Some associates will grab hold (the ones that were already so inclined), some will wait to see what happens to the first ones who try something, and most will wait to see if they ever even hear about the program (or tools) again.

As to examples of organizations that have done specific things to hold people accountable for practicing recognition, here is spectrum of techniques from nudging to hammering I have seen, from some organizations I have worked with in the past:

• Sierra View District Hospital in Porterville, California, initially provided some recognition tools for managers to use and encouraged them to try those out for a year and then required a certain number be used per manager the second year.
• Bronson Health Care in Kalamazoo, Mich., did a similar thing, requiring that every manager use a dozen thank you notes each quarter and provide copies of those notes to their managers. HR would do "spot checks" to see how a manager's notes were coming and if they were behind, would set up a little meeting with the manager's senior leader to discuss. They told me they never had to set up a second little meeting with any manager.
• Boardroom Inc. in Greenwich, Conn., asks all managers and employees to submit two suggestions PER WEEK and doing so is a requirement of participating in the company's gain-sharing program at year end. If someone falls behind, they will send them a large Hershey's bar with a note of encouragement "for nourishment" as they think up additional ideas.
• AAA of Southern California uses a 360-degree feedback from employees to score managers on how well they provide recognition, encouragement, etc. The quantitative scores translate into how a third of the managers' annual bonuses are calculated.