Business: The Accountability/Alignment Process: Three Steps to an Accountable Organization

The Accountability/Alignment Process: Three Steps to an Accountable Organization

Written by Bruce Klatt and Shaun Murphy

The Accountability/Alignment Process: Three Steps to an Accountable Organization

Generating genuine accountability and functional alignment into your workplace cannot be left to vague ambitions and abstract statements. Well designed processes must be embedded into repparttar heart of an organization to ensure that each employee’s goals and expectations are clearly defined and that repparttar 142843 resources to bring about specific measurable results are in place.

In our recent book, Aligned Like a Laser, we outline an effective three step process for ensuring managers and employees are mutually accountable and that repparttar 142844 entire organization is aligned toward specific goals.

The Accountability/Alignment process has three fundamental steps:

(1)Accountability (2)Alignment (3)and Achievement

These steps shape repparttar 142845 essential foundation for repparttar 142846 practice of accountability and workplace alignment.

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Step 1: Accountability

Accountability is articulated through a document called an Accountability Agreement. This document forms a context for success by making each individual’s contribution visible within repparttar 142847 organization. It is a brief – 2 to 3 page – overview of repparttar 142848 outcomes that an individual is promising to deliver which also outlines repparttar 142849 support and resources that he or she needs from others in order to achieve these results.

Seven Elements of an Accountability Agreement:

(1)Business Focus Statement (2)Operational Accountabilities (3)Leadership Accountabilities (4)Support Requirements (5)Goals (6)Sustainment Plan (7)Positive Consequences

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Step 2: Alignment

Alignment requires a constructive business dialogue focused on end results. After completing Accountability Agreements, a workgroup negotiates responsibilities and forms an understanding of each member’s contribution to repparttar 142850 team. The alignment process involves resolving gaps and overlaps in repparttar 142851 team’s accountabilities, and it ensures that each member agrees to provide repparttar 142852 critical support needed to fulfil repparttar 142853 team’s purpose. Alignment clarifies repparttar 142854 practice of accountability; it focuses energy and eliminates distractions across repparttar 142855 entire organization. It also provides a renewed sense of confidence and interdependence based on a publicly declared promise to deliver business results.

Groupware Finds Home in American Business: Collaboration Tool Analysis

Written by Joe Miller

What is Groupware?

Have you ever had to manage document collaboration in a hurry? No need to be ashamed if you said "yes." Virtually every American business has experienced moments of ad hoc team collaboration. In other words, repparttar ideal business collaboration method involves meticulous record keeping and organization; all deadlines are met; nobody feels rushed. That doesn't sound very realistic, does it? The important thing is that even scattered, ad hoc business collaboration can be organized in such a way that important records of business documents and their version history can be kept. Groupware tracks all documents across email and hard drives, tracking changes and saved locations. Groupware also lets businesses review changes and merge them, simplifying an often difficult process. Groupware is time-saving software recognized by American businesses for solving repparttar 142842 ad hoc collaboration challenges. Any given search engine search for "groupware" will undoubtedly yield a long list of sponsored searches in addition to repparttar 142843 millions of indexed pages referencing groupware products, testifying to its usefulness among American businesses.

Groupware as a Collaboration Tool

Due to repparttar 142844 fact that millions of groupware packages are available for businesses, users must do their homework to find repparttar 142845 right groupware to suit their business needs. One of repparttar 142846 best ways to start is to analyze groupware as a collaboration tool. Since businesses collaborate on virtually everything from budgets to marketing reports, presentations, and memos, businesses need a collaboration tool that works repparttar 142847 way businesses work. The difficulty of some groupware packages is that even though they provide a virtual vignette of helpful tools, instead of groupware working for you, you are working for it. I do not think I would be alone in raising my voice against difficult and expensive IT infrastructure set-ups. Software that does its job after it is downloaded or installed is repparttar 142848 best way to go. Be sure to be thorough in analyzing repparttar 142849 costs, including repparttar 142850 opportunity costs, of groupware as your business collaboration tool.

Having analyzed repparttar 142851 set-up costs, it is time to move on to analyzing repparttar 142852 usability of groupware as a collaboration tool. First, does repparttar 142853 groupware package your business is looking at work only within your office, or does it also work with clients, investors, partners, and others with whom you collaborate? It is important to remember that no business is an island. A collaboration tool which cuts out those with whom you collaborate will not be very helpful. In other words, groupware which works with those outside your business once it is installed helps everyone to be on repparttar 142854 same page. Being on repparttar 142855 same page is important when working through repparttar 142856 barrage of business collaboration documents being fired back and forth between email accounts. Email is an example of how collaboration is so often done online. Your usability analysis of groupware as a collaboration tool must take into account online collaboration.

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