HR Must Embrace Culture and Accountability as a Strategic Process

Accountability is the key to innovative corporate culture. But at many organizations, accountability only comes up when something goes wrong. That's when the blame game kicks in and organizational goals get lost in the mix. HR professionals play a key role in championing the culture and accountability equation.

"Our experience proves that accountability, done the right way, produces greater transparency and openness, enhanced teamwork and trust, effective communication and dialogue, through execution and follow-through, sharper clarity, and a tighter focus on results," writes Roger Connors and Tom Smith in the bestselling book,  Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing Your Organization and Creating Accountability for Results. " Accountability should be the strongest thread that runs through the complex fabric of any organization."

However, companies remained largely challenged to create accountable and transparent organizations to more fluidly execute on strategies.  

Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch

"We've all heard that culture eats strategy for lunch," notes Mark Blankenship, Ph.D., the executive vice president and chief people, culture and corporate strategy officer for Jack in the Box Inc. Blankenship is one of 73 contributors to The Rise of HR, a compilation of HR thought leadership sponsored by HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).  (The e-book is available for free download.)

He offers some key strategies for developing an accountable organization:

Have an organizational framework: The framework should capture not only what HR is directly responsible for but the entire organization's ecosystem, from strategy to stakeholders.

Jay Galbraith's Star Model is a great example of a framework that can be used to influence employee behavior. "One of the uses of the Star Model is to use it to overcome the negatives of any structural design," he said. "That is, every organizational structure option has positives and negatives associated with it.  If management can identify the negatives of its preferred option, the other policies around the Star Model can be designed to counter the negatives while achieving the positives."

Understand the power of culture: "The HR profession must have a keen sense of cultural alignment with his or her organization to help accelerate business/agility outcomes."

Have a competency/role framework. Don't just add HR value, add enterprise value.

Understand the role and leverage of leadership. HR must drive alignment, capabilities and engagement.

Have a measurement framework. Measure how the information connects to critical business performance.

Create and activate strategy. "In all of my years as an HR professional, this area is where most of the discontent arises from CHROs. Those who cannot connect strategic creation with activation are relegated to an activation role. This is where HR has been struggling to gain a seat at the table."

The Power of Accountability

 Accountability can't be mandated, but it can be encouraged. Josh Leibner a leadership consultant writing in Entrepreneur magazine, notes that a common mistake is made when companies ask people to own activities instead of outcomes. "You want people to stop paying attention to the amount of time they spend doing things and pay attention to the ultimate outcome desired," he writes.

In addition to clear strategies, roles and outcomes, Henry Browning, a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, warns that it is extremely important not to view accountability as punishment.  Accountability needs to be built on trust, he writes in Forbes, with a focus on improvement.

"To that end, each person needs to honestly say what they know, what they thought and what they did (or didn't do)," Browning concludes. "One important thing you can do to support a learning atmosphere is to take a systems approach as well as holding individuals accountable. Seek to understand what aspects of the situation have influenced the process, system, culture or circumstances."

Building accountability in the workplace is not easy. For the HR manager, and the workforce, it takes courage and practice. But HR can play a significant role in making accountability an essential ingredient in the culture of business.