What does accountability mean to you? How do you hold it, for yourself and others?

OWN. YOUR. SHIT. No more, no less. The more I think of it, the more I also include fairness and nonjudgment in this concept. At its core, accountability is objective, dispassionate. Ironic, then, that its consistent practice plays a central role in building and maintaining trust, that profound, subjective emotion that can move mountains when strong, and yet can be destroyed in a single breath.

We are almost halfway through the month, friends! Listing my own life practices every day feels like a whole lot of repetitive navel gazing–does it resonate at all? Or are you getting supremely bored? I’m loving it personally, as new insights emerge almost as soon as I sit down each evening, and I see so many nascent and intertwined ideas to develop and expand in the book. Do the societal assessments and admonishments feel pedantic? Redundant and preachy? Oh well, I’m working stuff out here–thanks for joining the ride, and feel free to get off and get back on later, it won’t be like this forever! Okay onward:

How do I already do accountability well?
–I take responsibility. After an initial WTF, ‘you suck’ moment in interpersonal conflict, I am quick to self-assess, ask myself the asshole question, apologize if needed, and make repairs. For operational snags at work I trouble shoot with the team and our collaborative root cause analyses are efficient and effective.
–I invite others to own their stuff, gently. Holding someone accountable is not the same as blaming, shaming, or guilt tripping. The objective is not to make someone ‘feel bad’, but rather to acknowledge and address mistakes and course correct going forward.
–I’m able to separate facts from interpretation, most of the time. Even in the most emotionally charged situations, I’m able to reason through and eventually get to reconciliation.

How could I do better?
–It’s hard to put my finger on it…sometimes I’m in such a rush to take responsibility that I get anxious, almost like it’s a race to blame myself before others can do it–is it virtue signaling? I really do believe, in my thinking brain, what I wrote above. True accountability is not about blame. But my feeling brain may still harbor some false unworthiness that I need to work out?
–I think I can do better at upholding accountability around me. It can be a delicate balance of relationship, task, emotional regulation, and other factors… Sometimes it’s not appropriate to do it in real time, rather people (I) need to cool down, find the loving posture, attitude, and words. This risks missing the opportunity. So I can balance commitment with timing?

How does society do accountability well?

Wheels of Justice. They turn, at least sometimes, if slowly, imperfectly, and incompletely. There are tenacious and resilient people all around working to make visible and accountable that which others would sweep under any rug. Their relentless persistence and infinite mindset truly boggle me, and I bow in admiration.

How could we do better?

Transparency. Political campaign funding. Corporate finance and taxes. Pharmaceutical research. Medical billing. Legal loopholes. We can’t hold anyone accountable if we don’t know who’s doing what. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, as they say–it’s at least a partial truth.

Cull the bureaucracy, grow the manpower. So many systems remind me of the Weasleys’ Burrow, a house built of lopsided additions, ricketty stairs, and hoarded artifacts from divergent historical worlds. FDA drug approval and post market safety monitoring, civil and criminal litigation, employee hiring, promotion, and retention–so much red tape and not enough people who understand and can navigate it–people who do good go overworked and unrecognized and those who do harm fly blithely under the radar, all for far longer than serves us. Like individual people, our organizations and institutions need agility, responsiveness, and adaptiveness to operate optimally in the accelerating complexity of our world. Easier said than done, I know.

What else? How does accountability show up effectively in your life? Where do you really need more? I will revisit this; stay tuned.