Archive for the "accountability" category

The Difference Between Accountability and Responsibility

There's a blog post and comments over at Linked-In about the difference between accountability and responsibility. Here's what I said…
I agree with Thomas Dodds (a commenter there) who says:       
"So I TAKE responsibility and I am HELD accountable."
In my work with Responsibility Redefined I think, write, and teach everyday about the difference between Responsibility and […]

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More on Accountability ≠ Responsibility

Though we use the words interchangeably in society, accountability and responsibility are not the same thing at all. I blogged about this a few months back. It was music to my ears to read Bill Ferriter who teaches 6th grade language arts in Wake County, NC (where he was named Teacher of the Year for […]

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Thanks for the kudos

I appreciate Steven List's blog post on my session Monday afternoon at Agile 2007. I like what he captured as the essence — that responsibility derives from self while accountability comes from without.
Music to my ears.

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High Performance in Swedish

Today I was teaching Responsibility Redefined to a wonderful group of consultants at the premier Swedish consulting firm Provins Fem. I mentioned

"effective" versus "efficient" and one of the consultants stopped me for a quick language check—as they had done all week when I used language they did not understand (such as "hold my feet […]

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Swedish Responsibility and Accountability

I am in the countryside outside of Stockholm at a beautiful conference facility teaching Knowledge Team Leadership. I've discovered two important things about the Swedish people. First, like the Hispanic people with whom I work in Mexico, Swedes do not have distinct words for accountability and responsibility as I use those words in the English […]

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