How Did That Happen? Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way

The authors already have two classic titles on accountability to their names. The first of these is The Oz Principle, published in 1994, and the second is called Journey to the Emerald City.

Why the Wizard of Oz theme? Well, one of their recurring lessons is that the solutions to most our problems lie within ourselves, which is a key theme in the classic film The Wizard of Oz. As they explain in the introduction to this new book, accountability is not about finger pointing. Rather, it boils down to "a way of being" that enables us to set and meet our own expectations.

"How Did That Happen?" presents a system for increasing accountability in your workplace, including when things have started to go wrong. The book contains all sorts of interesting and wide-ranging examples, from space travel to natural disasters. And there are lots of diagrams to break up the text, as well as handy summaries at the end of each chapter that work as learning aids.

So who should read this book? In short, anyone who hates nasty surprises, and is committed to doing what it takes to avoid them.

Above all, it will be useful for business leaders and managers who want to instill a strong culture of accountability in their teams. The book tells us, step by step, how to achieve this in the modern workplace.

But it will also appeal to readers who are interested in testing out their own accountability, and then improving it, if they find they're not as accountable as they'd like to be.

So keep listening to find out why two out of three isn't good enough, especially when you're a tattooist; why colleagues who comply may be doing a bad job; and what you should do when you realize you're playing the "blame game" yourself.

One of the key concepts in the book is what the authors call the Outer and Inner Rings. The first five chapters explore the Outer Ring, and how accountability hinges on expectations in the workplace. This starts in chapter one, which explains how the Outer Ring is all about building accountability.

Here, the authors explore what they call the Accountability Sequence. This involves creating accountability goals, making sure people understand them and like them, and checking everyone is doing what's needed to make them happen.

All too often, the authors say, the practice of holding people accountable merely involves them making excuses for what they did wrong. And this makes them back off from the real issues.

What we need to do instead is rethink the way we look at problems – and to do this we can use what the authors call the three axioms, or principles, of "the Outer Ring."

The first of these is the Accountability Fallacy. This is when we assume there's something wrong with employees who fail to deliver, and there's not much we can do about it, apart from punish them. Next is the Accountability Assumption, which looks at things from the other point of view – that people are, in fact, always doing their best.

Lastly, there's the Accountability Truth, which is about realizing that if something goes wrong, there's usually something wrong with what we are doing. The authors suggest that we ask ourselves, "How did I let that happen?" rather than simply, "How did that happen?".

At this point, we come across the first of several handy charts, which are scattered throughout the book. These charts are in a variety of formats, and they're all self tests, designed to assess whether we're up to scratch in various aspects of accountability. For example, the one in this chapter aims to help managers figure out how well they're getting on with their team members.

The authors point out that it's easy to shy away from holding employees accountable. We may not want to offend them, or we may be worried that they'll hit back at us. This is when we have to examine our own accountability style – is it the old-fashioned and strict "Coerce and Compel", or the more lenient "Wait and See"?

The authors suggest that a better approach to both these styles is what they call "the positive, principled way." If this sounds familiar, it's because it comes directly from the book's subtitle. The positive, principled way is a blend of styles, that helps managers make fair decisions.

This awareness of your own personal style underpins the next step in creating accountability, called Form Expectations, which is explained in chapter two.

Here, the authors describe how to create what they call the Expectations Chain. This involves raising the right expectations for your needs, and making sure you know who you're depending on. There needs to be good communication between everyone involved, and this takes time.

The importance of communication and the concept of buy-in is covered in more depth in the next chapter. Here, buy-in is called the "Why," and it's grouped with "What" and "When" to make the "Why, What and When approach."

The chapter starts with an anecdote. A company vice president explains to his boss why he couldn't deliver the results on time: he needed more resources. But all his boss says in response is, "I don't care!"

With these three words – in the old fashioned Coerce and Compel style – his boss communicates his expectations in no uncertain terms. The vice president realizes he needs to do something fast. He has to spur his team on to get the expected results without the extra funding. To do this, he asks them to contribute to a discussion on why they need to change. This is the buy-in the authors say is so important. They provide a fun example here, to show what can go wrong if we have the "What" and "When" in place, without the why, or motivation. A man sues a tattoo parlor for misspelling a word on his arm – one he'd written down on a piece of paper. The tattooist defends himself by saying he did what he was asked, when he was asked to do it. The message is that What and When can move hands and feet, but they don't make the mind care about the final result.

At this point, readers are set some homework. We're asked to think of someone who's accountable to us and ask them a series of questions about how we communicated an expectation to them. The aim is to get us to apply what we're learning to the challenges of everyday life.

Chapter Four is about what the authors call "Alignment." This means working to create agreement about your expectations. For employees to really own an objective, you need "complete alignment." All too often, people simply go along with what's being proposed because doing so is the path of least resistance. The authors call this "Complyment", and it comes with its own problems.

When people are just complying, they're rarely giving a hundred percent effort, and will probably show no enthusiasm when discussing their job with others. On the other hand, if they're completely "aligned," they'll think creatively and stretch themselves.

Chapter five is about inspections, which need to be carried out in order "to keep the main thing, the main thing," as the authors put it. Inspections make sure the right things are happening and provide support for staff. They're not meant to feel like interrogations, so if you ask questions that make people think they're being tested, you're in trouble.

So the authors advise avoiding making employees feel as if they've passed or failed once you're done with them. They also say it's best to keep the results of your inspections private. In short, create a two-way conversation, so team members view you as a mentor, not a judge.

This chapter is valuable for showing how we can avoid a blame culture. Don't get personal, but do talk about the problem in hand. Focus on the issue, not on the ego. And watch out for sarcasm!

Until this point, the book has explored what the authors call the Outer Ring. In chapter six, we move on to the Inner Ring. Here, we look beyond building expectations to what happens when expectations are not met. There are four solutions here: Motivation, Culture, Training and Accountability.

If a lack of motivation is causing problems, it needs to be tackled, the authors say. And what you learn next are ways of getting people to join your cause. One is to talk about your goals, as though they're a story, with a plot. Then you have to sell the story, but it doesn't stop there. You have to keep on supporting your story, and you also have to cheer it along. Another chapter covers training, and here the authors use the simple example of a girl learning to ride a bike. When you do something so well that you don't think about it anymore, you may not be much good at teaching others how to do it. So this chapter builds on the importance of awareness.

The role of communication in learning is broken down into listening and talking styles, and whether we do these things literally or figuratively. Do you pay attention to the meaning of words, or to the feelings and emotions behind the message? Do you prefer short messages that are to the point, or long, engaging conversations? We can learn faster if we work out which style suits us best.

The high point in this chapter is a section offering ten lessons about feedback. One of the best of these is making sure feedback actually happens. The authors point out that people tend to stop giving feedback over time, so we have to make a conscious effort to keep on at it.

The ninth chapter is called Assess Accountability. It starts with another chart, separated into two halves by a line. Above the line are the authors' steps to accountability: Do It, Solve It, Own It and See It. Below the line are actions that belong to the blame game. These include Wait and See, Cover Your Tail, Denial and Confusion.

All of us tend to fall below the line at one time or another, but the important thing is to spot when we're doing this, so we can get back above the line again fast. The authors say it's crucial to ask the question: "What else can I do?"

One of the most memorable, and useful, charts in the book lists Characteristics of Accountability Attitudes. The three attitudes outlined here are deflecting, calculating and embracing.

The person who deflects accountability often avoids taking risks that could end up in failure. They also find reasons to stop working at every obstacle. Those who are calculating carefully avoid blame.

But those who embrace accountability are not scared of failing. They take risks happily, and they don't blame others or outside circumstances when things move along too slowly. They're also comfortable with admitting their mistakes if things don't go as planned, and they welcome obstacles as challenges.

The final chapter is about different types of corporate culture – those that encourage accountability and those that don't.

The authors list four types of negative culture. The first is based on complacency, when people wash their hands of any responsibility that isn't strictly theirs.

Then there's confusion, when people have to guess where responsibility lies.

Next comes a culture of intimidation, when people take responsibility only when they feel forced to. In this case, they're more worried about who's going to blame or punish them than what they're supposed to be doing.

Finally, there's abdication, when people avoid responsibility as much as possible.

From these examples of negative cultures, the authors move on to cultures that work. They say we should be striving for integrity in our organizations, which means following through on expectations, being realistic, and telling it how it is without worrying about blame or failure.

The authors' conclusion is this: managers need to communicate accountability, and develop a clear vocabulary so there are no misunderstandings. This makes sense, because poor accountability can so easily hide behind confusion.

The book's practical method, based on self-questioning to create awareness, is simple and clear, and works well. Readers who think accountability is all about assigning blame will be disappointed. But those who want to understand the foundations of accountability, and work to build them throughout their organizations, will find this book very useful.

All in all, "How Did That Happen?" is coherent and encouraging – and it's easy to dip in and out of, once you've got used to the concept of the Inner and Outer Rings.

The book has a related website, where you can assess your own accountability: www.howdidthathappen.com. You need to register to gain access to lots of free resources.

"How Did that Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way," by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, is published in hardback by Penguin.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon.