Accountability Question of the Week: I am accountable for whatever happens in my organization, regardless of how well I do my own job.

How can I be accountable for whatever happens in my organization?

Well the CEO and COO and others are. So why them and not you? Could be in how we define accountability. Could be that they are getting paid more. Pay me more and I will be more accountable?

To be accountable or responsible or to take greater ownership all we have to do is say “yes, I can impact nearly any situation at work”. I have that power. Each time I do not act on an opportunity to make an impact I cheat myself and my coworkers. These actions can be as simple as picking up trash without worrying who or how it got left in the wrong place. Listening and checking for understanding. Speaking up with a reality that others may not want to hear. Offering to help.

If you believed and acted as if you were accountable for whatever happens in your organization would your job become easier?

Role Plays: Whats the use?

Role plays can be the most trans-formative tool in a  training or coaching process.  But they have to be done right. While role plays are an effective way to engage people, when they lack guidance they can be lost time and a deterrent to engagement.

Why Role Play?  To practice a needed skill.  Needed is critical here and a skill that the participant wants or has some idea they want to master because there is a ready need.

How to do them right:

1. Allow plenty of time.
2. Use scenarios that are real, get them from the participants.
3. Set them up well, do some coaching of the role players. When using real scenarios this is fairly easy. (For example one real scenario is approaching an employee who has a body odor issue. A second is an employee who is simply not meeting expectation, wrong procedure, wrong format etc. and they do not seem to be getting it.) We use the whole class, all of the participants to set up the scenario, talk about the approach and style, what you will do and not do etc.
4. This is all dependent on  a model to follow for having effective discussions that achieve the desired outcome. We work the model, or whatever we are teaching.
5. Use the rest of the class as experts on how to intervene based on the training teaching and as people to critique.
6. Facilitate the role play by interrupting and stopping it when it goes awry. the skill builder must be able to call time and ask for help. Actively coach during the role play. The active coaching makes all the difference. This is where the skill builder corrects behavior, tries a new technique, adjusts their style to see what happens. The real time,  real issue impact is phenomenal. The other role player, the subject/object will go with the flow and respond to the skill builders change in style and direction.
7.  Debrief it but not too long. Role plays done this way take 20 to 40 minutes so the debrief is usually brief 5 to 10 minutes and very rich.
8. Everybody participates and does both sides of a role play, that is be a skill builder and an object employee.

When we do these best they will take whole day depending on the number of people and we rarely lose interest or engagement. People said they learned as much from seeing them as doing at times. Seeing others styles working was a great eye opener for people.

Thanks for reading.

Bob Sutton
513 260 9518