Responsibility and Accountability
Alignment, accountability and autonomy are three English terms that together form a solid foundation for work in adaptive organizations.
Alignment describes the agreement between the ideas and goals of different people, e.g. a team and a manager.
Autonomy describes the degree of self-determination for a person or a team. It is always important for a stable autonomy to have a clear description of its limits.
According to Webster’s dictionary, “accountability” (also “responsibility”) is “the quality or state of being accountable; a duty or willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions”.
Henrik Kniberg’s 1-min Youtube-Video on “Alignment enables Autonomy”
Promoting responsible behavior
Important: Accountability is not about punishing misconduct, but about being willing to take responsibility for one’s own actions.
If I, as a manager, want to promote responsible behavior, I should
- Start with myself, show integrity and responsible behavior
- Set clear expectations
- Build trust and psychological safety
- Formulate SMART tasks. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and trackable.
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