Can you share responsibility and maintain accountability?

The authoritarian approach to management – top down, we know best, we’ll make the decisions, you just do it – is usually pretty good at demanding accountability.  It is the Board that answers the questions:

• Who will take on this task?
• When will it be accomplished?
• How will we know when it’s accomplished?

But nonprofit management is shifting from authoritarian to stewardship* – where the board and Executive Director/CEO are partners.

Further on the spectrum, many organizations are shifting to the stakeholder style, in which different groups are represented on the board.

Even further, and many organizations have democratic decision making. Community members, staff, board, administration are all involved in steering the organization.

Most organizations are a blend of two or more of these management approaches, but as authoritarian approaches diminish, what does that mean for accountability?

If there is no single entity at the top that tells you what to do, and punishes you if you don’t do it, how do you make sure it’s going to get done?

Accountability is not just top-down. According Merriam-Webster, accountability means “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions”

An obligation or a willingness to accept responsibility.

Accountability can be self-imposed; as management styles evolve to become more participatory, self-imposed accountability emerges.

As responsibility for the organization and outcomes shifts from the top downward, individuals at all levels participate in crafting the desired outcome. Participants become invested in its success. They decide that it’s an important goal; a goal that they want to be part of, take ownership of, and work to accomplish.

This is where accountability is triggered. As an individual takes ownership of some aspect of the project, they answer the first of the three questions:

• Who will take on this task?

But the next two questions must also be answered:

• When will this task be accomplished?
• How will we know when it’s accomplished?

As soon as someone takes the lead on a task, it should become automatic that the next two questions are asked and answered.

A strategic plan crafted by multiple constituents will be enthusiastically embraced. It will have major goals and strategies. But even as responsibility broadens, the questions remain. With every decision, in every meeting:

• Who will take on this task?
• When will it be accomplished?
• How will we know when it’s accomplished?

Accountability requires answers to all three. Make asking them a habit.

*See Governance and Accountability: A Different Choice for Nonprofits, by Tracey Coule in Nonprofit Quarterly.

For more about engaging your board and community, follow me at The Detwiler Group, or contact me directly at sdetwiler@detwiler.com.