Dear Bob ... Yet another note thanking you for your excellent analysis of the 'accountability' trend. For me, very timely as well. I've been living on a software user's forum for the past several weeks in order to help troubleshoot the many issues surrounding the printing of our monthly newsletter. Yet, it's not in my job description to do so. I'm 'accountable' for the functionality of the hardware and the soft Dear Bob …Yet another note thanking you for your excellent analysis of the ‘accountability’ trend. For me, very timely as well. I’ve been living on a software user’s forum for the past several weeks in order to help troubleshoot the many issues surrounding the printing of our monthly newsletter. Yet, it’s not in my job description to do so. I’m ‘accountable’ for the functionality of the hardware and the software only. The graphics designer, new to us since February, seemingly has a flawed workflow, or at least one that is ignorant of the software’s antiquity. One of our supervisors likes nothing more than to focus on my ‘accountability’, rather than identifying the issues and working towards a solution.Sometimes our dialogues wear me down, but armed with phrases from your last KJR column, I can combat the non-productive focus of ‘blamestorming.’Thanks again! – Accountable, but not that accountableDear Accountable …Glad you liked the column, and thanks for giving me the excuse to plug it here in Advice Line. If it helps, here’s a tactic that’s worked well for me in the past when the subject becomes blamestorming: Ask what problem you’re trying to solve. What happens next can be downright fun to watch.“What problem are we trying to solve?”“Uh … well, this is a big problem and we need to hold people accountable.” “Agreed. But we don’t need a meeting for that. If your point is that you’re holding me accountable, that’s great. Just give me the authority to fix it and I’ll fix it.”“No, no, that isn’t the issue. I’m not saying you caused the problem.”“Then what problem are we trying to solve? Are we trying to fix the immediate difficulty, improve the process we follow so it won’t recur, decide who owns it to give them the authority to fix it, or what?” “Oh. Well, we … uh, what were our choices again?”Well, okay, in most organizations you can’t be quite that in-your-face. The tactic does work, though: By forcing everyone in the room to either agree they’re trying to find a scapegoat or to think through what would be a productive use of meeting time … by holding their noses in it, as it were … it is possible to quickly refocus a meeting on something more useful than figuring out who’s to blame.– Bob ——– Technology Industry