Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Business Effectiveness

Written by admin on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

In this article, Roger Schwarz shares two stories that illustrate the benefits and definition of Joint Accountability - one of the core principles of his approach to effective interaction. He also describes the frustrating, costly, and all-too-common consequences of a lack of Joint Accountability. This is a key point because “the buck stops here” mentality is what allows things to get done in an organized and timely fashion.

I once was part of a group of management professors who often taught in executive development seminars. Other non-management professors in the school ran these. Occasionally these non-management professors would approach someone else in the management group to express their concerns about our teaching - they wouldn’t approach the person who had taught for them.

For example, if I had taught the session, the professor - let’s call him Larry - would approach my colleague Dick and tell him that he was concerned about my performance. After Dick tested his assumption that Larry hadn’t given me this feedback, Dick asked what led him not to talk directly with me. Larry almost always said that he didn’t want to upset me. Sometimes Larry or another professor would tell Dick that they wanted him to tell me their concerns, but not tell me that they had told him. Other times, they would request that Dick not tell me.

At this point Dick would ask, “What is your purpose in telling me if you don’t want Roger to know?” Dick did not agree to their conditions - he held them accountable for their views. More about this later.

Different story, same organization: When the school was looking for the equivalent of a new Dean, there were three final candidates, all internal to the school. The search committee told the faculty that they would accept letters evaluating the three candidates, but that they would only give weight to signed letters.

I was in a bind. I very much wanted one candidate to get the position, and was very concerned about another candidate getting it. I wanted to write a letter, but I was an untenured assistant professor. I had reason to believe that if I signed it and the candidate I had great concerns about got the position, my tenure might be in jeopardy.

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