“Culture of accountability” is a term I hear several times each month.   Leaders talk about wanting to have a culture where accountability is embedded in the business.   Some organizations have it and I consider them world class.  The flip side is that many organizations want accountability to be a part of the culture but lack the processes or systems to make it a reality.

To transform the company and make accountability a part of the culture, organizations need to make it transparent, personal and real.

A process needs to exist to bring visibility to accountability.

An action register is a tool that just does just that.   It provides a way to track critical assignments and tasks that people have been assigned or volunteered.   Documenting the task or activity is only the first step, next an owner of the action needs to be assigned, a target date for completing needs to be agreed to as well.  Once we start doing this, we can remove ignorance as an excuse.   The narrative of “no one told me” or “I didn’t know” will go away.

Too many times leaders assign a task to an employee and it does not get completed because the employee believes there will be no follow up so why follow thru on the request.

Download a sample action register here

Seth Davies, VP of Competitive Solutions Inc