Lessons in Accountability

On Valentine's Day the state of Pennsylvania was hit with a snowstorm that also dropped several inches of heavy sleet and freezing rain. As you can imagine the roads quickly became treacherous, but for Interstate 78 and parts of Interstates 80 and 81 the situation can only be described as unbelievable. Hundreds of motorists became stranded in a fifty mile traffic nightmare that continued for more than 24 hours. As of this date the roads remain closed while crews try to remove the snow and ice.

It has been interesting to observe how state officials have responded to this crisis. Initially the state said that "Mother Nature is the only one to blame"; small comfort for those who spent the night in their cars and trucks during the height of the storm. By Friday, the governor was apologizing and admitting an "almost total breakdown in communication" among state agencies that contributed to the massive problem. But now what? State legislators have demanded hearings and the governor has appointed someone to lead a review of what went wrong. In a situation like this one, will anyone really be held accountable?

As a leader in your organization you already know how tough it is to practice accountability. It's hard to confront someone who isn't performing and even harder to admit when we have made a mistake or not lived up to a promise. Team members often struggle to tell each other the truth and so we accept less than stellar behavior even as results decline. Is this approach really helpful? Should we continue to play the "blame game" or step up and own responsibility for our actions or inactions?

A number of my clients have invited me to help them with team building and the issue of accountability is always a tough subject to discuss. I have discovered that it is more difficult to hold each other accountable if we don't trust the other members of our team. For this reason we usually spend quite a bit of time learning about each other first, building a level of trust, before we begin to identify how team members are contributing or detracting from the team's success. When teams finally reach the point where they can tell each other the truth an epiphany occurs. Instead of pretending everything is fine, the team can hold each other accountable through positive peer pressure.

Will the aftermath of this year's Valentine's Day snowstorm result in real changes at PennDOT (our transportation department) or will the hearings simply point fingers and make excuses? Knowing how hard it is to practice accountability I'm guessing that "Mother Nature" will be the only one to lose her job.