Today’s Teamwork Explorer Tip is the Ace of Spaces, Accountability. (Need to know more about our approach to teamwork?) See our Teamwork Explorer blog post.)

Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team has greatly influenced the work we do on teams. His 4th dysfunction, avoidance of accountability, is the focus of this blog’s team tip, accountability. It’s no surprise that this tip falls into the category of our spades, or task cards, as indeed work needs to get done on teams! As Lencioni suggests, “While a sense of accountability should pervade virtually every aspect of organizational life at a great company, the place where it must be demonstrated and addressed most clearly is meetings.” We agree and we like Lencioni’s idea of a scoreboard which helps the team keep track of things.

Ace of Spades – Accountability

Knowing who is responsible for what is vital to a team’s success. It’s very easy for these accountabilities to be too vague, especially when there are changes in team membership. Who is responsible for what is the most important thing to have documented at the end of any team meeting.

What other tips do you have for embracing accountability on a team?

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