A Culture of Accountability@Scale | Lessons from Amazon—a Series on Building Culture at Scale

This series explores scaling culture by looking at the impact on Behaviors, Processes, and Practices that support successful outcomes in Decision-making, Accountability, and Innovation. You can read about Decision-making@Scale in an earlier article in the series.

Accountability is the foundation of high-performing teams. Yet, without the right behaviors, processes, and practices, even the best strategic plans fall short.

At Amazon, accountability isn’t just a value—it’s embedded in leadership principles, decision-making, and mechanisms that reinforce ownership and execution. A few key takeaways:

? Behaviors: Principles like Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit ensure that teams debate rigorously but align fully once a decision is made.

? Processes: Mechanisms like Bar Raisers in hiring and Daily Employee Feedback hold teams accountable for continuous improvement.

? Practices: Single-threaded leadership drives focus, execution, and scalability in complex organizations. Monthly and quarterly business reviews (MBR/QBR) keep everyone on the same page and create space for problem solving.

Companies like Apple and Google also integrate accountability into their cultures, leveraging data, collaboration, and clear expectations to drive execution.

How does your organization foster accountability at scale?

Principles Work in Synergy

A former colleague illustrated these principles in action when deciding between internal and external resources for a leadership program. She prioritized Insisting on the Highest Standards for quality, then applied Frugality through a lens of long-term thinking, resulting in a decision to use 60% internal and 40% external resource for an efficient and cost-effective outcome that minimized risks.

Avoiding Passive-Aggressive Cultures

One standout principle is Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. It encourages employees to voice their concerns and disagreements with a decision, using data backed arguments where possible. Once a decision is made, everyone is expected to commit to it fully, with the understanding that decisions can be revisited if proven wrong later.

When a senior team changed a key metric and process the front-line managers believed this would have negative consequences and voiced their concerns. Despite their vigorous arguments, the decision was implemented. The managers committed fully to the new process and, after six months, data showed the previous metric was more effective. This experience reinforced the importance of balancing speed and quality and willingness to change decisions based on outcomes.

Mechanisms

Jeff Bezos famously said:

“good intentions never work, you need good mechanisms to make anything happen."

You need to replace human best efforts with repeatable, scalable processes and tools, which are often automated, to achieve the desired outcome.

A mechanism is a “virtuous cycle” that reinforces and improves itself as it operates. It takes controllable inputs and transforms them into ongoing outputs to address a recurring business challenge. Mechanisms are best suited for solving recurring problems or opportunities, as opposed to one-off challenges.

Conclusion

Employees are looking for clarity and accountability and you can give them that. One of Gallup’s 12 Drivers of Engagement is “I know what is expected of me at work.” Integrating behavioral expectations with processes like the Bar Raiser program and practices like xx effectively scales a culture of accountability. Transparency and clear accountability mechanisms enhance the employee experience and positively impact outcomes like Execution.

Cultures of accountability, like those at Alphabet, Facebook, and Amazon, deliver strong execution according to The Culture 500.

Fast-paced, high-quality decision-making combined with accountable employees and leadership is essential. However, without a culture of innovation at scale, companies risk becoming outdated. The next article in the series discusses Innovation@Scale.

Share how your company fosters a culture of innovation.

ChatGPT was used to revise this article

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