{"id":21,"date":"2009-06-08T20:29:02","date_gmt":"2009-06-08T20:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwconsulting.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2009-07-31T21:13:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-01T02:13:43","slug":"producing-accountability","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fwconsulting.com\/wordpress\/consulting\/case-studies\/producing-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Producing Accountability at All Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"iStock_000000934159XSmall\"A client contacted\u00a0us when it became evident that\u00a0the behaviours of its employees were not aligned with the vision of the organisation. Some employees were willing to be accountable only when their personal results were positive. Others were willing to be responsible for\u00a0the performance of their department. Most saw the success of the company as an exclusive concern of the owners and senior managers. Furthermore, there was a tendency for the management to “take charge” at critical times and to become heavy-handed and authoritarian.<\/p>\n

These behaviours\u00a0echoed the results of surveys performed on Jamaican workplaces, especially those described in \u201cWhy Workers Won’t Work \u2013 The Case Study of Jamaica\u201d by Kenneth Carter.<\/p>\n

After a short diagnostic, we designed and conducted a series of\u00a0workshops involving each employee of the company, including\u00a0the management. What stood out most was a series of key moments\u2014or turning points\u2014that occurred in these workshops.<\/p>\n

One involved a CEO who discovered, and then admitted, that he had suffered a serious loss of trust in his employees after\u00a0a former worker attacked him in the media with charges of being corrupt. The CEO wrote a letter apologising for the damage that the former worker’s mistrust had caused, and the CEO read it to the workshop attendees. During later iterations of the same workshop, he had the courage to read the letter again, which gave each member of the staff a chance to hear him make a promise to address any breach in trust that he might ever experience again.<\/p>\n

In a follow-on workshop, the employees of one division started out by complaining that a local managing director had broken several key promises that had been made publicly. After discussion and coaching, the employees contacted the senior management, who changed their appointments for the day and came over to meet with them just after the lunch hour. The employees explained the situation to the managing director\u2019s boss, who addressed the situation on the spot by apologising for the broken promise and requesting that the managing director also apologise, which he did (albeit reluctantly, at first). That conversation helped to spur a turnaround, which helped the division stop the slide in profits and reverse plans for a layoff.<\/p>\n

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Consultant\u2019s Notes<\/strong>
\nFor more information on this approach, read our report \u201cThe Accountability Challenge: The Making or Breaking of Caribbean Corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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