Insights on Excellence | "Insights" Archive

How to create accountability and urgency to reach your company's objectives

by Stephen Hawley Martin
for Virginia Business
January 24, 2006

In companies that still operate through a traditional hierarchal pyramid (with employees at the bottom reporting to managers, who report to supervisors, who report to vice president-directors and so on) responsibility for accomplishing objectives usually rests with those who report to the chief operating officer or the CEO. These top reports have the job of lighting a fire under those who report to them, who in turn light a fire under those who report to them, and so on down the line. But what happens when the hierarchy has been eliminated and the company operates through interlocking, empowered teams? How can management create urgency and be sure progress is being made?

One tool many enterprises use is the "objectives worksheet," a simple tracking mechanism that allows each team to monitor and respond to key business metrics. Its purpose is to provide clear focus for a team and to establish accountability for the contributions a team is expected to make. It also can create a sense of urgency.

The primary team in an organization, which is chaired by the top executive, should design the objectives worksheet using a format so that will remain consistent throughout the organization. This will eliminate the possibility of confusion or misunderstanding. (See sample worksheet.)

This team also should create a worksheet containing global objectives to measure performance of the organization overall. Objectives on worksheets to be used by teams at other levels should be used to support these high-level objectives.

The primary team should review progress toward global objectives at regular intervals, and the rest of the organization should be kept abreast of progress made or the lack of it. This procedure will not only keep everyone in the company informed, it also will serve to create urgency to make the numbers when things are falling behind. It also will create a sense of esprit d'corps when objectives are being met or exceeded.

Once the global worksheet is ready, teams throughout the business need to develop worksheets defining specifically how they will support the organization's goals. The metrics used should reflect the team's area of responsibility. Ideally, each team should have at least one objective for each key area that has been targeted for improvement.

Teams need to identify who owns responsibility for tracking the progress made toward a particular objective and for keeping others focused. Objective "owners" are not expected to accomplish objectives by themselves, but they are responsible for updating the worksheet before each meeting and making sure it is accurate.

A review of a team's objectives worksheet should be a standing agenda item at every meeting. The team should identify what's working and develop corrective action plans when performance is below target.

Typically, each team will send its worksheet and corrective action plans to the primary team monthly for review. Many organizations go a step farther by replacing this with monthly or quarterly presentations by team leaders. Responsibility for these presentations is often rotated among team members, creating additional urgency to generate good results to report.

A worksheet or a presentation clearly demonstrating how a team is contributing to the business can make a very powerful statement and be highly motivating to the team that presents it. Such a report can also motivate other teams when they are challenged to do as well.

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Stephen Hawley Martin is a former principal of The Martin Agency in Richmond and the author of more than half a dozen books including his newest, Lean Enterprise Leader: How to Get Things Done Without Doing It All Yourself. He is editor and publisher of The Oaklea Press, a book publishing business dedicated primarily to helping business executives increase productivity.