Accountability
Always a name. Always the system first.
Every outcome has someone responsible. Every mistake is checked against the system first, then against the person. And both are learned from.
Inside the letter A
Accountability in FLAIMS means two things that only work together. First: every outcome has exactly one name. Whoever holds the Core Job answers for it, and that is in the job register, visible to everyone. Second: when something goes wrong, the first question is what in the system made it possible. The person only comes into view once the system has been ruled out. Whoever turns that around gets a company in which nobody tells the truth any more. And all of it is the condition for taking ownership: it cannot be decreed, but you can build the structure in which it is possible.
The trap
"The team takes care of it" means: nobody takes care of it. The counter-reaction is a blame culture, and that is just as expensive: as soon as mistakes land on people, they hide them, and the company stops learning.
Mechanics
- 01The Accountability Steward holds the job register: which Core Jobs and Joblets exist, who holds them, where responsibility sits. No outcome without a name.
- 02Blame the System First: when something goes wrong, three questions are asked. Was the responsibility taken up? Is there a name attached? Did learning happen? In that order.
- 03The learning chain: A demands that mistakes are learned from. M delivers the how. The change itself belongs to the Core Job whose structure is affected. Anything that changes structure is ratified by S.
- 04A is subsidiary. It only becomes active where learning fails to happen, and it asks before it sends a signal. No audit catalogues, no forms, and the signal never concerns a person.
Rooted in research
Each source with a short sentence on what it actually says.
- Edmondson (1999), Psychological Safety
High-performing teams combine high standards with the freedom to report problems early. Commitment and safety complement each other.
- Senge (1990), The Fifth Discipline
Recurring problems almost always have a structural cause. Whoever looks for the person to punish keeps the pattern alive.
- Reason (1990), Swiss Cheese Model
Big failures rarely come from a single slip. They happen when gaps in several layers of defence line up. The right answer is to close gaps.
What this does not settle: from aviation and medicine; transferring it to service firms is craft.
- Dekker (2014), Understanding Human Error
Naming a person as responsible and still repairing the system first is not a contradiction. That is exactly what a fair error culture is.
What this does not settle: it needs lived rituals; a mission statement is not enough.
- Note: FLAIMS-specific constructs such as Steward, Anchor Core Job, Core Job, Joblet, FlowCoach, Gravity Decision Model and the learning chain are developments of the model out of practice, not cited research.
In practice
No more grey zones. For every outcome you know who answers for it. And when something fails, the system is repaired first.