Oz Principle: Behaving Above the Line

Accountability is one of the most critical ingredients of personal and organisational success. Without a doubt.

Accountability is defined as:

“a personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results to See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It.” 

In a previous organisation I worked for many years ago I experienced a continuous lack of accountability. There was a constant blame culture and no one took ownership or responsibility for their work or behaviours.

At the time I was frustrated and I couldn’t put a finger on why I felt so strongly about it. I remember feeling quite alone when pointing out areas of improvement or where individuals were repeating the same mistakes. Reflecting back I now recognise my values and the organisation’s values were not aligned. The company didn’t value accountability or integrity, they were nurturing an unhealthy environment.

I would quite often hear:

“That’s not my fault, the customer’s expectations are off.”

“Server has gone down because Microsoft had too many updates.”

“Why did Sales sell this, it’s a terrible product.”

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

In an environment where employees are blaming other departments, their colleagues, and even the customers there is little chance of establishing a cohesive team and healthy culture. Everyone wastes so much energy watching their own back instead of just owning it, accepting things that went wrong, and focusing on how we move forward as a team.