Anticlue

Accountability or Execution

Do we have an accountability problem or an execution problem? Organizations suffer from various types of problems. Look at the Katrina outcome, everyone had a sense of accountability, but no one had the ability to execute.

Accountability is a sense of obligation to execute. Execution is the ability to get the job done. In work, it is essential that the execution is in place. If you can’t execute, then it doesn’t really matter what your level of accountability.

IMHO, the ability to execute is necessary before we ever begin to discuss the concept of accountability. Also to be frank, I’ve met a lot of colleagues with a good sense of accountability. Of that population, few were able to execute.

First, execution isn’t easy. Accountability is easy. The reasoning behind this is that the sense of accountability just needs to be within you. Execution is the ability to get the job done. To do any work within an IT organization, which means it is getting a team that is executing. So execution involves several people where as a sense of accountability is just within oneself. One can create an environment that a sense of accountability can florish, but the accountability comes from the individual not the organization. The execution of a task comes from the organization. The individual that motivates the organization to complete the project/task has the ability to execute.