Hmm… The little guy here looks a little quizzical, doesn’t he. That’s because he knows that so much of what we intend to do… actually never gets done. You know, all those “shoulda, coulda, wouldas.” This shows up in my coaching a lot. Where’s the accountability? Where’s the progress? How do we avoid delay… failing to execute. No, please. No comment about Congress.

Takes a wise little owl… like my pal above to remedy this situation.

I introduce an accountability process labeled… “AWDs.”

Let me explain.

Much of my interaction with clients involves meetings with their teams. We cover a lot of ground. As a meeting moves to close, I point out, “We have 5 or 10 minutes left. I see a number of you are rustling in your seats ready to run out the door to you next thing.” Let this happen without comment and any value coming out of our meeting will just float out into the ether.

“My question to you guys is, What was the result of this session?” Blank stares for the most part.

“Ok, why don’t we take the last minutes we have left, and answer two questions.”

“What did we learn? And what are we going to do about it?”

A conversation ensues. Finally, “Good, we’ve surfaced some valuable learnings. Now what are we going to do about them?”

On a whiteboard usually there I write down… “AWDs.”

Action          Who         Deadline

• Action: What specifically is a task or project we’ve identified ?
• Who: Who is the one person accountable for completing this Action?
  • Only one. He or she may work with others to complete the Action. But only the one person named here is directly accountable for getting it done.
• Deadline: This is the clincher. When will the Action be completed? Not “soon”… “next week”… “when I can.” No. What day? Sometimes, what hour of the day. But here’s the key. The only one who sets the deadline is the person above Who is accountable for completion. If the boss, or someone else sets the deadline? You might later hear, “You didn’t give me enough time.” Or “Sorry, I couldn’t meet your deadline.” Be sure the person accountable sets their own deadline. It must be compatible with the needs of the business.

       (Without question… setting deadlines re the work to be done is the most difficult part of this process. Locks in accountability.)

Follow Up: Process always requires a number of meetings to complete assigned Actions. At the beginning of the next meeting? The first agenda item? How did we do completing the tasks identified at our last session? Or do we need to revise the deadlines set previously?

In other words, no one gets “off the hook.”

The “AWDs” exercise assures things get done. Don’t fall through the cracks. Locks effective productivity in place.