How can we make team members more accountable and willing to take responsibility for their roles as a team member?
There are many little ways that teams teach members to be accountable to the team. It begins with the rotation of meeting roles where team members must be facilitators, scribes, timekeepers and process observers on a regular basis. Then, we add in the Star Point Roles for the team where members must take on significant responsibilities for the team. The Help/Hinder list often lists participation and involvement as a requirement. Throughout each team meeting, the Scribe is recording the action items with the names of people who are responsible and their deadlines. If a member doesn’t volunteer to take on tasks, it becomes noticeable to the team very quickly.
How can teams learn to hold members accountable for their actions?
We set up accountability during the first meeting when the team establishes its help/hinder list of behaviors and accepts that a process observer has the authority to correct problem behavior. At every meeting the scribe is recording action items with individual team members identified as responsible for completing tasks. Also at three months, the team completes their “thermometer” assessments to provide feedback to each other about issues such as accountability.
What is the best way to deal with team members who don’t pull their weight?
We begin by never removing old due dates from the Open Action Items list; forcing the member to see that they are repeatedly missing their commitments. This gives the team specific feedback they can share with the member. “We need to discuss with you why you are missing your due dates.” Remember, on a team we try to think the best of someone before we think the worst. It may be that the person doesn’t understand the assignment or lacks competency to do the task. These always need to be checked first.
What are some ways of getting people — who don’t report to the same manager or each other — to be accountable to the team?
To be accountable to the team, the team has to be able to exert some authority over the team members, either through providing feedback to managers about the member’s performance or by holding the member accountable themselves. Team members need to see that there will be consequences if they do not do as the team has asked.
