What is Responsibility Redefined™?

Everything you know about leadership and personal responsibility is about to be disturbed...

Effectiveness Begins With Responsibility

No one doubts that. Now you can know exactly how responsibility works in the mind. It's accessible, observable, learnable, teachable. That means you can truly develop leadership, build teams and develop cultures of responsible leadership. Individuals can overcome any challenge and achieve their dreams of freedom, power, and choice...

It's Time You Redefined Responsibility

Most people (regardless of position) shun responsibility when things go wrong. You know that's true. History is littered with high-level examples of those who temporarily reveled in being above the responsibility codes of society.

But you deserve better, and you can have it much better. We can prove it.

We offer a startling new way to stare down responsibility in your organization, team, classroom, or family. A way that redefines how the whole concept is used. Our painstaking field studies (begun in 1984) revealed a natural mental process which reveals exactly how responsibility works in the mind.

First. We're calling all control freaks to step forward. You know who you are. And most managers, teachers, and parents are. You insist on accountability, so there's always someone to blame … but often do not take responsibility yourself when it comes to finding resourceful responses to problems. (It takes about ten minutes of light debate to prove that we know what we're taking about on this powerfully important point.)

Next. There are three steps to recovering from your blame game addiction.

You've got the right people on the bus; now ask yourself this:

How do people in your organization react (what do they feel, think, and say) when things go wrong?

Do you know the answer, exactly? We do, because we've done extensive research on how people respond when things go wrong. What we've learned will change your definition of responsibility forever. It is both predictable and troubling.

When Things Go Wrong

As long as everything is going your way you don't much talk about responsibility. It's when things go wrong that you start defining responsibility — and things go wrong everywhere, every day, all day! Communication fails, schedules conflict, processes break down, decisions disappoint, and mistakes arise.

Most accountability practices fall far short because there are, according to our painstaking research, six ways people effectively avoid responsibility when things go wrong — and get away with it as a matter of course. Even highly skilled, intelligent, and well-compensated people avoid taking responsibility when things go wrong, and get away with it over and over and over again. These six responses chew up enormous resources while adding zero value to your work. Until it's pointed out to you, you don't see it in your culture — it's ambient. Would you like to change that?

What Responsibility Means

Let's face it. Responsibility is a loaded word; it's full of baggage. To some, responsibility is a burden. To others responsibility is a reward. For many, responsibility means having someone to point to. And, responsibility also means owning your choices and outcomes.

But our breakthrough discovery proves that responsibility is a process – a mental process triggered whenever something in your world isn't quite right (like the thought, "who took my car keys?"). So all these different meanings of responsibility derive from our mind sets as we respond to problems. Huh.

We can teach you this in no time. You can test it for yourself, and you'll be teaching it to others soon after that. When you understand what's going on, it changes everything about how you lead, manage, communicate, and relate.

Accountability ≠ Responsibility

Accountability is external. It's an agreement to be held to account by another for your operations or results. If you are calling meetings to determine who was accountable, you're managing via the rear view mirror, and looking for people who are trying their best to hide. Not the sign of a healthy culture.

Responsibility is internal. It's a feeling of ownership. True responsibility stands out because people are leading, learning, correcting, and improving. The sign of a healthy, high-performing culture.

Responsibility is NOT	Responsibility IS
A personality trait that some people have and others don't.	A predicable and observable mental process, universally consistent across situations and people, which can be discerned, taught, understood, and developed.
A new system for blaming others and forcing them to be accountable for their actions.	The ability of any and every person to respond constructively to problems and opportunities.
An external system for assigning and measuring accountability.	An internal, self-applied system for encouraging immediate reflection, learning, and correction with natural, positive, measurable consequences.
An unpleasant but necessary method for doing the right thing.	An powerful new way to think about yourself and your ability to effect change in all areas of your life and work.

Not Better Problem-Solving Tools, Lightning Fast Problem Ownership

The Responsibility Process™ and Keys to Responsibility^™ will redefine responsibility in your organization so you and your leaders and employees apply your current resources much faster and far more effectively.