Musings at Altitude

I’m on the road, and every evening when I get to my hotel room I turn on the TV, scan the news channels and sit down and smile as I see all the incredible signs of “authority with no accountability” (AWNA) and remember back to so many other examples of AWNA throughout my career. 

I see AWNA in our Congress where they pass legislation with such great authority and then avoid any accountability when bad things happen even when it’s a direct result of the legislation that’s passed!  I’ve also seen AWNA in the military where headquarters with specific missions to “organize, train and equip” step over those bounds and engage in operations planning.  They then force execution in accordance with that plan but ultimately have no accountability for whether it can be effectively executed or not.  And I’ve seen it constantly in business, where bureaucracy rules the day and bureaucrats set policy or boldly establish expectations and yet they typically have no accountability for the results that then must be achieved.

To me there’s a simple solution.  Anyone in a position of authority must publish and daily track their actions leading up to and through the execution of the mission that was defined and enacted based on that authority.  In addition, any person in a position of authority must define clearly up front the expected outcomes and then hold themselves jointly accountable for that outcome with those then accountable for executing the mission.  And finally, if for any reason the outcome is not what was envisioned at the time of the authoritative mandate, then both the one in authority and the ones executing the mission will then be held accountable and be called to answer for any shortcomings.  Finger pointing and blame will not be allowed.  Both those in authority and those executing the mission will be held accountable.  Period.

A couple of good things will happen because of this:

1. those in authority will quickly see a need to fully coordinate and fully cooperate with those who must execute the mission
2. those executing the mission will have less contempt for those in authority and maybe more respect since there is now shared accountability for the execution

This could truly revolutionize bureaucracy.  Today, there is great comfort in making sensational statements about savings or earnings when there is no tie between the bureaucrat and any ability for execution against those irrational expectations.  And yet those sensational statements spin throughout the bureaucracy being further sensationalized and in many cases memorialized in the budgetary promises and net income expectations of the organization. 

Accountability de-sensationalizes any expectations and drives humility into any projections.  Accountability creates a desperate desire to share the planning process and share the burden of defining the expected outcomes.  Accountability forces an organization to critically assess both those performing the mission and thus creating the income as well as those overseeing the portfolio and establishing the expectations.

AUTHORITY WITH ACCOUNTABILITY – what a novel concept.