THE Blog on Accountability

Ted Garnett, CRP, PHR, Six Sigma Blackbelt
Ted(insert@sign)accountacution.com
319-431-6845

01-14-2010
Accountability Hurts My Head!

The NFL just announced plans that it wants players to self-report concussions.  And if they don't they expect the players, coaches, (essentially peers) to report if anybody is acting strange so they can be checked by medical.  So if you have a locker next to a guy that can't remember how to tie his shoulder straps on before practice, then you should tell the team Doctor.  This, for some reason has sports talk show hosts and players freaking out.  "You can't expect a guy to rat on another guy!"  "You don't want to mess with another guy's livelyhood, he has a family, he makes money doing this job!"  "You really cannot expect players to hold each other accountable, it just won't happen!

Interesting.  Care for the player's life, health, family etc would seem to be MORE in alingment with reporting than not reporting.  But that aside, I get it, who want's to play mommy to their teammate.  But let me ask, who wants their teammate to die?  Who wants a teammate who can't remember how to tie thier shoes making decisions on the field?  The pros to Peer to Peer Accountability (as I call it) far, FAR outweigh the cons.  There is always some element of difficulty in accountability whether that is the risk of how they will treat you, the risk to your relationship, the risk you won't do it right or get the outcome you want, the risk you might get held accountable back...these are all risks that cause people not to hold others accountable . . .especially peer to peer or upward accountability.

So, if doing it is hard, how hard is not doing it?  How many planes need to fly 1 hour over the airport before the flight attendants who fly that same route daily get the courage to call the pilot and say, "hey are we going to land soon?"   How many times do doctors need to amputate the wrong limb when the nurse stood there knowing it was the wrong limb but silent out of fear of the risk of bringing any accountability?  How many banks need to be bailed out when management knew things were wrong and even Senior Executive knew it and yet nodoby holds anybody accountable until we all pay?  How many NFL players will worsen a head injury before their teammates bother to say something to the doctor out of concern they might HURT  THAT  GUY'S  FAMILY  BY SAYING SOMEHTHING?

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