The ARCHWAY Approach^®

Accountability:

Our definition of accountability is that the accountable person carries the ultimate responsibility for the team or organisation's goals regardless of who was responsible for this or that. 

People we delegate to may be held responsible for tasks, but we are accountable to our superiors for the overall result, even if we didn’t make a mistake that was made by someone we delegated to.

Responsibility:

Our definition of responsibility is that we are responsible for a task as a defender in a football team is responsible for their performance. However, the team manager will ultimately be held accountable for that player's performance. Therefore, responsibility can rest with many, but accountability usually falls on one person. 

Consequence:

This word often fails to accompany the words “Accountability” and “Responsibility”. But if we do not bring consequences to bear when people have not done what is required of them, other consequences will be felt across the team and the organisation.  

If a person's poor performance is not addressed immediately in a supportive manner, and using our aptly named “Consequence Conversation”, the knock-on effects will impact far more people and may cause saboteurs or people to leave altogether. As we know to our cost, people really do leave because of other people. 

Holistic: 

Here, we mean that any decision taken to implement changes by the team must include a health check first to see how the decision could impact all stakeholders. In other words, any other team or even the organisation as a whole.  

It would be foolish to implement a change which negatively impacts another team as that will cause ill feelings. Better to discuss things with the other team, and even if it does add a step or two to their existing processes, it will be fully understood why the changes help achieve the organisation's goals. 

Why:

Why are we making this decision, and what caused us to have to make this decision in the first place? 

Also, ensure that we are all equipped to deal with “why” questions from anyone else, especially from clients or customers who should have been considered in the Holistic aspect above. 

Alignment:

Have we checked carefully that our decision is in line with not only our organisational values but our moral and ethical values too? Test this out with individuals, as we all have various views on matters. 

If we risk going against people's values, we run the risk of creating workplace saboteurs, which brings a whole new complication. 

You:

Does this sit well with you and every member of the team? When you consider this whole process, have you and others felt able to be authentic and true to your own beliefs, or have you been pushed into making a decision that does not sit well with you? 

There are a lot of factors to consider around Ethical and Authentic leadership, so take the time to check this out.  

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