[Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips]Accountable and Responsible

Welcome to Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips!
September 18, 2000
Written by Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D.
Published by Partnerwerks (http://www.partnerwerks.com)

Subscribe free. Send a blank email to
TeamWisdom-on@mail-list.com 

For everyone who desires to accomplish more with others,
TeamWisdom Tips promotes TeamWisdom(TM) -- the individual mental
skills and behaviors that create highly responsible and
productive relationships at work.

In this issue:

1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
2. Welcome Notes
3. Accountable and Responsible
4. 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch
5. Resources you can use - free TeamWisdom NDA

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1. 10-Second TeamWisdom

Distinguish between accountability and responsibility in order
to successfully operate in teams within hierarchies.

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2. Welcome Notes

Welcome and thank you to the new subscribers from 
Christopher's presentation at the 11th
International Conference on Work Teams this past week. The
audience enjoyed Partnerwerks' distinction between
accountability and responsibility, so Christopher wrote 
about it in this week's tip.

Be sure to forward this week's TeamWisdom Tips to cross
functional managers and staff people who support teams in a
hierarchical environment. Also consider the informative
e-newsletter, Work Team Coaching Bi-Weekly, who re-published
last week's TeamWisdom Tips in their latest issue. You can
subscribe to it by sending a blank e-mail or any message to
subscribe@workteamcoaching.com

A few spots remain for the upcoming seminar Being Powerful
in Any Team. Sign up today at http://www.beingpowerful.com.

TeamWisdom Sighting: "I consider tonight's race to be the 
best race I've ever been a part of," said US swimming sensation 
Gary Hall, Jr. after the American men took second to the 
Australian men in the 400 meter freestyle relay on Saturday.  
How gracefully can you smash a record and accept second place?

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3. ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE

How can you treat teamwork as an individual skill? Start
distinguishing between accountability and responsibility.

Accountability means to be held to account for something to
somebody. Accountabilities are often expressed in terms of a
quality and quantity of results within a time horizon. When used
well, hierarchies operate on accountability. Each position in
the hierarchy is accountable for all operations performed by the
chain that reports to that position. The inhabitant of a post
distributes and delegates her accountabilities (without giving
up accountability) to others to perform. Each post remains
accountable to whomever delegated the accountability to that
post. Accountability is negotiated and assigned through
employment agreements.

If you work in an hierarchy and are not absolutely clear to whom
you are accountable (the person who evaluates your performance)
and for what you are accountable (the quality and quantity of
results within time frames), you may be in danger of never
knowing whether your work is relevant. I suggest that you take
responsibility for your own actions in allowing this to happen
and correct the situation.

Responsibility means, literally, the ability to respond. When
people talk of responsibility as "taking ownership," I think
this is what they mean. One who demonstrates responsibility holds
both an intention for overseeing the course of something (such 
as a shared task) and a corresponding intention to respond to
whatever happens to that thing. Thus "responsibility" is an 
internal experience. It's an urge, feeling, or mindset that 
one will interact with their environment to bring about a result.

While responsibility is an internal experience, accountability
is an external one. To say it another way, accountability can be
assigned, but responsibility can only be assumed.

Just as hierarchies rely on individual accountability, teams
rely on shared responsibility. They are not mutually exclusive 
at all. In fact, they are extremely complimentary. Individuals 
with TeamWisdom take responsibility for relationships as well as
accountability for deliverables, and, they engage in the
conversations that build productive relationships at work.


Get started with this week's 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch.

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Christopher will be speaking...

- October 4-6, Being Powerful in Any Team, Austin, TX
- November 13, Software Quality Conference, San Jose, CA
- November 14, Berrett-Koehler Publishing, San Francisco, CA

His next public seminar is Being Powerful in Any Team, October
4-6, Austin, TX. More at http://www.beingpowerful.com

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4. 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch

Consider your most important interdependencies at work. What
percentage of responsibility do you assume for the quality and
productivity of each of those interdependencies. Why?

Bonus Stretch

How clear are you of your accountabilities? For complete
clarity, you should be able to report the quantity, quality 
and time horizon of all results that you are expected to produce. 
If your clarity is not high, consider taking responsibility for
increasing it.

We wish you a world of productive relationships.  

Faithfully,
Christopher and Erin

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Find what you need fast from the TeamWisdom Tips Archives. Enter
key words at:

http://zip.mail-list.com/archives/teamwisdom
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5. Resources you can use

FREE!! TeamWisdom Nondisclosure Agreement

Speaking of responsibility...

We frequently sign confidentiality agreements as requested by
our customers. Sometimes these are referred to as
non-disclosure agreements or "NDA's." In the last two weeks, we
were offered two very different NDA's. One was clearly written
from the point of view of the requester. Typically, it made us
feel like an untrusted outsider against which this company was
attempting to insulate itself. The other NDA was very
different. It was Titled "Mutual Nondisclosure Agreement" and
was clearly written to call attention to secrets belonging to
either party in the relationship. Instead of "us/them"
language, this NDA stated that either party could be a
"discloser" or a "receiver" of secrets covered by this
agreement.

NowDoc.com's innovative CAO and General Counsel (who also
happens to be an expert at partnering and quality processes)
Michael Oswald has kindly given Partnerwerks permission to
forward a copy of this Mutual NDA to you. 

Just hit reply and ask us for it.

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Exchange sage advice and other resources at the Team Advisor:
 
http://www.partnerwerks.com/What_s_Here_/Jump_In/Offices/Partnerwerks_Associates/_Christopher_Avery/team_advisor.html

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Copyright 1998-2000, all rights reserved. You may republish
Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips. Please include complete contact
information about the author, Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D.,
President, Partnerwerks Inc. (cavery@partnerwerks.com); and send
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To schedule a presentation or consultation with Christopher,
contact info@partnerwerks.com.  See presentation topics at:
 
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