How Winnipeg City Can Solve the PR Crisis? Accountability Visual Boards

When Winnipeg Free Press reported that most city property and planning department inspectors stole time and worked for an average of only three hours a day, half of the city ruptured into moral anger. The department started an internal investigation. The Mayor ordered an independent investigation by the City ombudsman. And the provincial Premier ordered an investigation into a wide range of misdemeanors by city workers.

Why are the managers reluctant to enforce accountability at workplaces?

The easy answer is, they are afraid of backlashes. They are afraid that the best employees may leave! Even worse, they are afraid that accountability culture might backfire on themselves.

But the surprising and more realistic answer is, the managers and workers do not even really know who is responsible for what! There is a saying that singing in the choir is easy because nobody would notice an individual contribution!

Here is some exciting news. An innovative practice has solved the problem of management accountability. Needless to say, this is a really outstanding achievement, and I am going to share the secret here. The idea is basically taken out of the old-world method of naming and shaming, but in a sophisticated way, I so it won't appear like that. It comes off as a motivational tool instead.

Accountability by visibility works. That is the reason why people have exercise partners, partners for dieting, partners for marathon running and so on. The partner makes you accountable: it is as simple as that!

Visual management boards that track Key Performance Indicators do just that. KPI's that track the important performance parameters in the windshield format, meaning the past actions, in what are called 10-second boards, by colored markers of red, green and yellow. Visual management boards are very common in modern manufacturing. Also known as huddle boards, these are the display boards that track the progress of the KPI's on a daily basis. But most actual boards do not track accountability!

A little ingenuity is required in converting the normal huddle boards into accountability-driven 10-second boards. The secret is to designate the section manager the owner of his/her board and put his / her picture on the board! So, any yellow or red marker is clearly indicative of the manager's performance, and it is visible for anyone who is passing by in a matter of 10 seconds. Hence the name 10-second boards!

The above method, although very good on paper, has the potential of being applied in a very dangerous way! And if this potential is not eliminated, managers may disagree or will be unwilling to put up their pictures on the boards. The glitch is, accountability must come with appropriate authority and must also be accompanied by the availability of standard operating procedures, training, availability of resources, and so on. It all starts with a good RACI - Responsibility, Authority, Communication, Information - model. The rule is, the KPI's on every visual management board must be clearly understood by all the team members and the manager in terms of a simple responsibility-accountability model. In simple terms, this would mean that everyone understands who is doing what.

It is this surprisingly simple method, that just makes clear who is doing what, that makes accountability easy. But again, I know in most places I have seen, this simple definition of accountability does not exist. That leads to a lot of finger-pointing, blaming and workplace conflicts. When things don't happen, as they should, people don't even know who to ask!

If you are a small and medium business owner, non-profit or government department head, who cares for the immediate value addition, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, business continuity, and a 100% workforce engagement, I have a freebie to start with. It is a free email course called "What the hack?" Please sign up here.