Accountability for change

The organisations that I work with that truly transform (there are some good case studies here - bit.ly/cde-casestudies) are the ones that hold themselves to the commitments that they made.

Every single one of my culture workshops ends with a written list of promises that team members make to each other. If you don't write your promises down, you don't really mean it and the workshop just ends up being a fun couple of days away from the office.

Those promises come with accountability partners, and a meeting within the first month. Not six months, not "whenever", one month.

And what I've noticed is that the difference between organisations and teams that change rapidly and those that change gradually has nothing to do with the scale of their ambition. It's entirely about the courage they have to follow through on what they said they'd do for each other.

Without team accountability, change will always be optional.