From customers' and suppliers' viewpoint, Company X is fast growing, exciting, and high-energy. Inside, though, it's a tornado. Fighting fires, arguing over who committed to what, why it didn't happen, and noticing things that fell through the cracks in just enough time is normal.

How can this happen when they have weekly departmental meetings, keep track of action items, and post projects and timelines everywhere? Easily! There is no accountability. They don't hold each other accountable for commitments. They've seen what happens when you fail, and it isn't pretty, which undermines individual commitment. Requesters frequently change their minds, reprioritize, or create new, more urgent projects without ever really closing the loop on the old ones.

The Bell Labs culture I grew up in had a strong sense of accountability. When you're working on things that literally change the world, it's easy to be committed to something bigger than yourself. The "Labs" culture meant failure was a viable option. Success was discovery and application, not climbing a corporate ladder. At AT&T, the culture was the opposite. While I was privileged to have great management, the majority of AT&T focused on the bottom line. Failure was not an option. When I left AT&T and started working with many companies, I realized this culture was more the norm, not Bell Labs. That's why I believe culture creates (at least?) two reasons for people's struggle with accountability.

First is the fear of failure. Even before kindergarten, we're taught failure is bad. What if we can't do it or do it right or something goes wrong? So, we whittle down the scope, involve others so blame can be shared, make resource requests we know won't fly, or let our fear hold us back from really creative solutions....