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Build Accountability

May 20, 2003

"Build accountability into the relationship by concentrating on 'us' rather than 'we-they.'  Just as soon as we separate ourselves from others, we set up a we-they orientation, which reinforces our separateness everywhere in our lives.  At home we-they shows up in many ways such as parent-child, man-woman, and young-old.  At work this duality is found in management-employees, sales-operations, home office-field, old timers-new people, and boss-subordinates.  The tendency is to build walls between the others and ourselves and to defend or protect our particular position.  And, as soon as we set up we-they, we introduce the component of blame.

Relationships, families, teams, and organizations are all crippled by blame.  At home we blame our parents, our spouse, or the kids.  At work, we blame the culture, the customer, the boss, or the other department.  Finger-pointing and blame seem to be the norm rather than the exception.  Whether spoken or not, blame is in the background of many conversations.  Who is wrong, who made the mistake, and who should apologize dominate our relationships.  What if more people were accountable for their behavior (Zaiss, 2001, pp. 54-55)?"

Reference:  Zaiss, C. (2001).  True partnership: revolutionary thinking about relating to others.  San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

How are you building accountability?

True Partnership is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu/

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Created: 2008-12-22, Updated: 2009-01-09