The Vocabulary Landmines of Responsibility (and choosing Kuleana instead)

It was a while ago, yet I clearly remember something about my mood when I wrote the chapter on Kuleana for Managing with Aloha. I felt like a gleeful, one-woman wrecking ball in having the opportunity Kuleana gave me with cleaning up some of the wanton business-speak which can litter our language at work.

Try this with your team:
Grab a blank flipchart and ask everyone how many different words they can come up with in a word-association brainstorm for responsibility.

Accountability, authority, motivation, delegation, dependability, reliability, empowerment, engagement, obligation, ownership, expectation, initiative, duty, diligence, follow-up, conscientiousness ... the words will come at you rapid fire, and I guarantee you will be saying, "Wait, slow down! I can't write that fast!" before even a full minute is up.

That's about all it takes because everyone wants responsibility from each other, and so in their indirect-but-blunt way they are asking for it, rattling off their expectations.

Next however, do this:
Say, "Let's go through these one at a time now. If collectively they all mean responsibility, then what are the differences between them? Why do we need so many words to explain what responsibility is to us?"

What happens next is usually pretty fascinating. Suddenly everyone gets quieter and more tentative. They hesitate and just look at you, waiting to see if you'll give them a break and rephrase the question.

So you press on... "Well, how about just these two: What is the difference between responsibility and accountability?"

Not that easy.

If you look them up, most dictionaries use one to define the other. For instance, on www.dictionary.com you will find:

re·spon·si·ble       –adjective
1. answerable or accountable, as for something within one's power, control, or management
2. involving accountability or responsibility: a responsible position.

ac·count·a·ble       –adjective
1. subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; responsible; answerable.
2. capable of being explained; explicable; explainable.

This is why I like coo·lay·ah·na better: Defining Kuleana within the organizational culture over time gives us the opportunity to clean up a lot of other words that people tend to throw at each other at work like these grenades of expectations that can be pretty darn brutal.

I believe in setting high expectations. However I also believe that you should explain them well instead of lying in wait for people to trip up. We don't really do that deliberately; the problem is that responsibility is thought of as so ordinary, and so well-understood, that it actually ends up to be riddled with faulty assumptions.

Kuleana can give you the chance to have new conversations about responsibility at work. In introducing a new word for responsibility, you discuss it, and clear up a whole mess of assumptions. For instance, I'd start with something like this:

Responsibility

I believe that responsibility is very much like motivation: it’s personal and self-driven. The responsibility a person has accepted for something is strongest when fulfilling the obligation connected to it satisfies their personal values. They take ownership for it easily, and they feel emotionally connected to it. When you are a responsible, loving parent, no one has to tell you to accept responsibility for your kids. When you love your job, no one has to tell you to take responsibility for doing it.

Accountability

Accountability comes with ownership. No personal ownership, no personal accountability.
Incomplete ownership = incomplete accountability.
Incomplete accountability = loopholes and excuses all over the place.
If you want someone to take full accountability for something, you need to delegate it to them completely, with full freedom, support, and authority to get the job done. They need to feel they are trusted and empowered. Then you can hold them accountable. Wouldn't you want it approached that way for you?

What do you think? How does that sound?

As the month goes by, we'll take a look at more vocabulary connections to Kuleana. Meanwhile, you might also enjoy this article that I re-edited for Talking Story yesterday. It explains why I believe vocabulary is such a powerful tool for us:
The Best, Yet Most Underutilized Tool for Communication There Is.

Our value of the month is Kuleana, the Hawaiian Value of Personal Responsibility.

Photo Credit: every giraffe knows on Flickr by Janesdead