REPLY Policy paradox and SD (SD6700)

[SDMAIL Bill Braun]

Posted by  Bill Braun <bbraun at hlthsys.com>

Bill Harris wrote:
>   Sometimes I think accountability is used synonomously with punishment
>   or the threat of punishment.
Hi Bill H.,

Forgive me for taking a single sentence out of context. I think you are right 
on the mark and it summarizes my mental model succinctly. Your observations 
match my experience - accountability is often used as a club, either as a 
threat or to deliver actual beatings.

Of late I've soured on the phrase "personal responsibility" insofar as it is 
usually used as a club by one segment of society pointing out the 
deficiencies of another segment of society. I (truly) cannot recall the last 
time I heard someone say, publicly, "I can see my behavior as personally 
irresponsible, and I must change."

I used the term "chosen accountability". This flips the source of 
accountability from exogenously applied to endogenously adopted (or chosen). 
When we couple chosen accountability with a promise I make to you (for 
example, as my peer in an organization or team) I now come from quite a 
different place - I'll venture to guess what you call personal 
responsibility.

Allowing that "chosen accountability" is accessible (in the context of the 
levels of abstraction to which you made reference, an important point in my 
opinion) I see its connection to SD at two stages. One, during interviews 
leading up to a dynamic hypothesis it may be useful to speak to people in 
terms of what they have chosen (or not) in the context of decision making. 
Two, during policy analysis I also see possibilities for talking about 
chosen accountabilities.

(I've been conducting conversations in my organization over the last four 
months with front-line people [care givers and administrative folks] and 
no one has surfaced puzzlement with the term, "chosen accountability". I 
think it may be, now that I think of it, that I initially introduce the 
concept of accountability in exactly the way you described it.)

Your thoughts on OD are helpful. They speak to the juncture at which I see 
myself at present, trying to make some sense out of the intersection of OD 
and SD.

Good learning, thank you, Bill.

Bill Braun
Posted by  Bill Braun <bbraun at hlthsys.com>
posting date  Sun, 16 Dec 2007 08:08:54 -0500