Steps to Accountability

William Wong Sept 2018

STEPS to ACCOUNTABILITY

See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It

Accountability was explained to me using a popular children's book "The Wizard of Oz". In this story, the main characters all wanted something - Dorothy to go back home, the Tin Man a heart, the Scarecrow a brain and the Cowardly Lion courage. Not knowing how to obtain these, they skip down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City where the supposedly all-powerful Wizard will grant them the courage, heart, wisdom and means to succeed. And as you recall, the Wizard was a complete fraud.

Until the end, they all thought of themselves as victims of circumstance. However, the journey itself empowers them, and even Dorothy (who could've just clicked her red slippers to returned home any time she wanted) had to travel the yellow brick road to gain full awareness that only she, herself, can achieve her desires.

Many can relate to the theme of this journey from ignorance to knowledge, from fear to courage, from paralysis to powerfulness, from victimization to accountability. The morale of the story? Don't get stuck on the yellow brick road; don't blame others for your circumstances; don't wait for wizards to wave their magic wands; and never expect all your problems to disappear. - The Oz Principles: Connors, Smith and Hickman.

Have you met the Wizards... of today?

There are many management Wizards out there who claims to have the power to magically bestow greater XYZ (pick your poison) but when you pull back the curtains you'll only discover success is not from some new fad, but rather our own willingness to take accountability for the results we want.

The Victim Card

So... accountability really just boils down to knowing what we want and taking ownership of the steps to get it done. If that's the case, then the only obstacle preventing us from achieving results is ourselves - with victimization being the biggest culprit. And the scary part is, there's a magnitude of excuses we can come up with for not stepping up to the plate - ranging from lack of training to market conditions, someone else's job, horrible manager, no upward mobility, the list goes on and on. As much as we love praises, we loathe failure just as much, if not more. The easiest way to avoid failure? Use the victim card, although it's a very dangerous game to play. The destructive force of victimization is so great that it can even topple a giant like GE, who's been lauded by Wall Street for the past 100 years as one of the best.

OK, I'm done being a victim! How do I start working toward accountability?

The Line Between Victimization and Accountability

To illustrate the solution, let us visualize an iceberg where the peak is above water and the rest submerged below. Draw a line where the water and air intersects. Now suppose the bottom portion represents Victimization and the top is Accountability. The choice is up to you on whether you stay submerged or climb out off the water. You either operate above the line with accountability or under the line as a victim. You are free to move back and forth, and most people do. Don't worry if you dip below the line, we're human. The key is to know when that happens and pull yourself back up.

Accountability Re-Defined

Accountability has gotten such a bad rep thru the years. People only think of this term when something goes wrong, e.g "Who's accountable for this mess?" No wonder we try to run away from it - I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole either. So before we go on this accountability journey, let's first redefine what it should mean. The Oz Principle likes to think of accountability as: "A personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results."

Steps to Accountability - [ 1 ] SEE IT!

So there's a line and all I have to do is stay above it. Check! But wait? How do I know when I'm above or below the line? Aw, and that there is the answer. We can't fix what we don't see. You can't get out of the victim cycle if you don't recognize what it looks like. The first step to accountability is to SEE IT!

There are six stages to the victim cycle. For this exercise, put yourself in the victim's shoe so you can experience it first hand. The more intimate you are with victimization, the quicker you are at identifying and fixing it.

Stages of the Victim Cycle

1. Ignoring/ Denying: Victims start off by by ignoring problems because cause if you don't pay attention to it, then it's not real. Bored of ignoring issues - no problem, just outright deny anything is wrong. You can't be at fault for something you didn't know about right? I mean, if the CEO of the company that perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in corporate history can use this excuse, why can't you? When Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling finally broke silence about the company's demise, his excuse was "I had no idea the company was in anything but excellent shape."

2. It's Not My Job: When the problem is so visible that you can no longer ignore, then the next best thing is to point the finger at someone else. After all, why take on this additional responsibility. And if it does fail, then I won't get blamed for it.

3. Finger-Pointing: OK, the problem is so big that I couldn't avoid it. But don't fret - when something does go wrong, blame someone else! "Hey I did my job, if something is wrong, it must be the other guy".

4. Confusion/Tell Me What To Do: This step is fun. When confronted, just say "Hey I didn't know" or "I wasn't too clear on it." Also you can try to shift any responsibilities of failure to the other person by saying "Just tell me what to do." Don't dare take any ownership.

5. Cover Your Tail: So you're caught up in the problem, quick what do you do? There's two ways to game this, either go on the offensive and play possum (Got an important meeting? Call in sick!) or defensively by coming up with as much documentation and stories as possible to justify why you can't be blamed for something that might go wrong.

6. Wait and See: I acknowledge there's a problem, but you know what, instead of doing something, let's just wait & see. Maybe it'll work itself out.

Tell-Tale Signs of Victimization provided by the the folks at "The Oz Principle".

You feel held captive by your circumstances.
You feel you lack any control over your present circumstances.
You don't listen when others tell you, directly or indirectly, that they think you could have done more to achieve better results.
You find yourself blaming others and pointing fingers.
Your discussions of problems focus more on what you cannot do, rather than on what you can do.
You fail to confront the toughest issues you face.
You find yourself being sought out by others so they can tell you what someone else did to them this time.
You resist asking probing questions about your own accountability.
You feel you are being treated unfairly and you don't think you can do anything about it.

You repeatedly find yourself in a defensive posture.
You spend a lot of time talking about things you cannot change (e.g. your boss, shareholders, the economy's performance, government regulations).
You cite your confusion as a reason for not taking action.
You avoid the people, the meetings, and the situations that require you to report on your responsibilities.
You frequently waste time and energy "boss or colleague bashing."
You spend valuable time crafting a compelling story detailing why you were not at fault.
You repeatedly tell the same old story about how someone took advantage of you.
You view the world with a pessimistic attitude.
You find yourself saying: "It's not my job." "There's nothing I can do about it." "Someone ought to tell him." "All we can do is wait and see." "Just tell me what you want me to do." "If it were me, I'd do it differently."

The Accountability Iceberg

To expand on our iceberg illustration, let us now submerge the 6 stages of the Victim Cycle underwater. Have you ever tried running under water? It's painfully slow if not impossible. That's the same impact you'll get trying to achieve your goals while acting as a victim.

I think it's important to repeat this - it's only human to operate under the line. Don't be ashamed of it. But like the cowardly lion who found bravery, it requires Courage to acknowledge the reality of your situation, no matter how bad or unfair your issue may be.

Even the most accountable people get stuck in the victim cycle from time to time. When confronted with a huge issue, I sometimes let my staff take a dip in the water to let them vent, but quickly LIFT them above the line for solutioning.

It also takes a lot of practice and self awareness to become good at this first step. The folks at Partners in Training provided a self-assessment for us to evaluate our ability to SEE IT. This assessment has high reusability - I take it from time to time as a constant reminder of where I am and where need to be.

SEE IT: Self-Assessment

Steps to Accountability - [ 2 ] OWN IT!

There's always two sides to every story and the victim side only shows you the one where you had nothing to do with creating the circumstances. I know it's easy to wallow in defeat or misery, but when that happens you screen out all evidence of anything that you could have done to get you where you are today. Victim stories totally removes all evidence of accountability.

To establish ownership, you need to reach down and find the Heart to see both sides of the story - looking at what you have done or failed to do and linking it to your current situation. This is a very difficult step for many because they just can't see the other perspective.

Just as Dorothy and her 3 companions learned valuable lessons from skipping down the yellow brick road, we too must leverage those teachings for our path to accountability. Like the Cowardly Lion, taking the first step above the line took Courage to SEE IT. No matter what your current circumstance looks like, your next step is to OWN IT. Only by accepting full ownership of everything that's keeping you down in your current scenario can you begin to better your future one.

If you can't connect these dots, then you'll never OWN IT and you won't ever SOLVE IT. There's a duality quote out there that says "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." It sorts you into two camps; the problem camp and the solution camp. Well, when it comes to ownership, you have to see yourself in both camps - the problem and solution. "If you are not part of the problem, you are not a part of the solution."

The Tin Man symbolizes finding the heart to own your circumstance, a capability, as it turned out, he possessed all along.

"Ownership is the ability to connect current circumstances with what I have done and the ability to tie future circumstance with what I am going to do." - The Oz Principle

Steps to Accountability - [ 3 ] SOLVE IT!

The answer to our third step pays tribute to the Scarecrow and his brain, because once you Own and See It, you'll need Wisdom to SOLVE IT. This part is no joke and may very well be the most difficult stage. Most people can see a problem from a mile away, but few can actually come up with how to solve it.

Solutions to complex problems may not reveal themselves w.o a fight. Your team will be tired, frustrated, pinned against the wall and most likely running out of time. These are the conditions that victimization loves to dwell. Stay vigilant in these long drawn out battles to keep your staff from falling Below the Line - it'll will only dull their senses and squash their ability to come up with creative solutions.

"The SOLVE IT attitude and behavior stem from continually asking the question: "What else can I do?" By constantly and rigorously asking this question, you avoid slipping back down into the victim cycle whenever certain events occur that would otherwise seem to block the road to results." - The Oz Principle

I've alluded to this previously, but when I initiate a Solving Session (especially on critical issues), I often allow my team to dip below the line to vent and get things off their chest. "Before we begin, go ahead and Drop Below the Line for just a few minutes and let me know what you really think." I allow this to happen because 1) they're already thinking it anyways, so lets just get it out of the way 2) by letting them vocalize it, they see what the victim card looks like, 3) I've trained my team on Accountability and they know from experience that dropping into the victim cycle produces ZERO results 4) allows someone on the team to self-correct. If no one does, I stop it within 15 minutes, but normally it's not me that says "OK, that's enough, let's get back Above the Line and see some real solutions."

Solve It Skills (hints/tips from the folks at PIL)

1) Stay Engaged: when a problem persists, people tend to want to give up or just stop trying. The "Wait and See" card comes out. If you see this happening, shift the focus from what can't be done to thinking about possibilities (no matter how silly or far fetch those ideas may seem).

2) Persist: Keep asking the Solve It question: "What else can we do to rise above our circumstances and achieve the results we want?" Rinse, repeat.

3) Think Differently: This is where your creativity kicks in. Encourage people to talk out their solutions no matter how silly they may seem because it may spark other ideas (or that far fetch one doesn't seem crazy after all). The one way of thinking got you in this mess, so use another way to get yourself out.

4) Create New Linkages: Think about how things have always been done and toss it out the window. Try to envision new ways, which may include creating new relationships (could be new contacts within your company, your community, your suppliers, etc). I've partnered with a direct competitor on more than one occasions (just because we're fighting for the same piece of pie doesn't mean my direct competitor and I can't have a bigger cut than the rest!)

5) Take the Initiative: Assume that others will not share the same ownership level or desire to achieve your goal. This is your goal, you need to be the one taking the bull by the horn. Jim Lovell said it best "There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened." There's also the person who never knew anything happened. Which one do you choose to be?

6) Stay Conscious: Or as some would say, "Stay Woke". Don't be a lemming, turn off that auto-pilot mode and start paying attention to everything around you that may lead to a solution. Always challenge current assumptions and beliefs to find that glitch in the matrix.

Steps to Accountability - [ 4 ] DO IT!

You've mustered the courage, listened to your heart and enlisted wisdom to develop a game plan. Only thing left is execution. This is the part that most people see, the tip of the iceberg. Without execution, the work you've put in up to this point was all for naught.

In the end, Dorothy applied the means to DO IT. She clicked her heels three times and poof, returned to Kansas. Dorothy had worn the magic slippers all along, but didn't know how to use it until she applied The Oz Principle.

Accountability means accepting full responsibility to achieve results and then actually doing it. Yes the other three steps have it's usefulness, but until you actually go thru with your game plan, you're back at where you started - still playing the blame game and wishing for something to happen. If Monopoly had The Wizard of Oz version, you'd be sent to jail. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. Playing staring contest with what you hope to achieve is great, but it's not going to bring home the bacon. You need to passionately, proactively and persistently DO IT!

How do we facilitate this? During the Solve It stage, I always ask my team "What are you and your folks prepared to do?" This way, everyone thinks about what they can contribute to the overall goal so when it's go time, they already have their war paint on.

Why do people fail to Do It - especially after all the enlightenment they've achieved with the first 3? Because execution is harder than it looks. Made sense on paper, but in practice there could be a magnitude of unexpected issues. This will cause you to test and retest the solution. Fear of failure starts to kick in. Your resolve will worsen that ultimately results in abandonment. The gravitational pull from Below the Line is so strong that it can suck you right back into the victim cycle, inflicting a loss of time, energy and resources.

The sad part is, sometimes people don't even start. Sometimes the perceived risk of failure is so great that people don't think it's worth the solution. Sometimes people don't get the jitters until they're standing at the alter, but the fear of having to bear the full responsibility of failure can make anyone bolt. At other times the problem may have temporarily fixed itself and now the team is off to other things: but band-aiding the problem will only delay and magnify the problem in the long run. It is MUCH easier to hide in a false sense of security of inaction and use risk as an excuse.

People hold inside themselves the power to rise above their circumstances and get the results they want.

"Just as the line between the Steps to accountability and the victim cycle separates effective organization from ineffective ones, the line between Solve It and Do It separates good companies from great ones. Great organizations welcome the risk associated with action, regardless of the inherent danger in those risks." - The Oz Principle

The Accountability Iceberg: See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It

Accountability is a process and not a one time journey. You'll find yourself traversing this accountability iceberg many times in your life. Don't be discouraged if you were only able to reach certain milestones within your first, 2nd or 100th climb. Don't be disheartened if you reached a certain stage only to fall back into the water. The peak is worth all the effort, keep climbing.

Take the case of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson who completed the first free ascent (using ropes only to catch falls) of El Capitan's Dawn Wall. El Capitan is the world's most famous rock wall in Yosemite National park and considered by many to be the epicenter of the rock climbing world. It boasts a vertical expanse that stretches more than half a mile up (higher than the world's tallest building - the Burj Khalifa). Put it this way, if you were to stand on the meadow at the foot of El Capitan, you won't be able to see climbers on the upper reaches of the peak. The Dawn Wall is biggest and steepest route of El Cap, considered the hardest rock climb in history, and thought impossible until the duo proved the world wrong on Jan 14, 2015.

Tommy and Kevin ascended the peak in 19 days, but their journey started 7 years before that - mapping out a 32 pitch, 3,000-foot route. They took numerous trips to see El Cap to test and re-test theories. If you thought your SOLVE IT stage was bad, imagine how many times victimization reared it's ugly head during this prolonged period. At the DO IT stage, Tommy and Kevin fell over 100+ times, sliced their fingers on razor-sharp edges, back tracked certain routes and battled against freezing temperatures. The fear of failure didn't weaken them, but instead strengthened their resolve.

** Many of the contents, diagrams and wisdom come from and are trademarked by Partners in Training. I am merely paraphrasing what I've learned from them and retelling as constant reminder of it's teachings. If you wish to learn more about this topic, go directly to them.