Most people know that accountability is important but don’t know how to improve it in the workplace.
We’ve learned that understanding team-building activity’s key role in shaping accountability is paramount—knowing what is needed to strengthen trust, what helps improve communication, and how team-building activity impacts enhancing respect.
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Here’s what experts have to say.
Accountability is the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions and decisions.
And, building a culture of accountability in the workplace and within a team fosters trust, respect and improved performance.
What is key to remember is that team building activities focused on accountability aim to strengthen these qualities.
Background On Accountability Team Building
Unsurprisingly, our lives now need accountability more than ever before.
If you’ve ever a workplace with no accountability you’ll understand how well-designed activities facilitate open and constructive conversations around accountability. What’s more, these activities are grounded in goal setting theory.
So, let’s clear this up from the get-go: Taking accountability encourage reflection on past actions and pledges for future improvement.
In fact, accountability team building activities provide opportunities for team members to practice taking responsibility within a safe case setting.
If you’re not familiar with accountability, it’s important to get acquainted.
The Value of Effective Accountability Team Building
Let’s face facts: Effective accountability versus responsibility team building activities have many benefits:
- Strengthen trust – Although we might think it’s only the bigger-picture of accountability that is important, organizational aspects like trust that have serious implications in the workplace. By taking responsibility, team members show they are reliable and can be counted on. This in turn builds further trust. We hear this from customers that regularly use of our training courses.
- Improve communication – Everyone knows that communication can be a hard nut to crack and one that many companies find daunting. We’ve learned that discussing accountability requires honest and transparent conversations. If you find yourself in a similar boat then these type of conversations will improve communication skills.
- Increase commitment – Not getting enough commitment? You’re in luck. Getting the buy in you need might not be as challenging as previously thought. Public pledges to improve situations will create motivation to follow through. And, this is what boosts commitment in the workplace.
- Enhance respect – More specifically, accountability demonstrates maturity and integrity, earning respect.
- Boost performance – While it’s generally best to not dive in talking about performance straight away, the experts say that greater accountability in the workplace will improve trust, communication, commitment and respect. Thus, leading to increases in team performance.
5 Tips to Get Started
Here are 5 immediate tips to help you introduce successful accountability team building:
- Explain the purpose – Ensure everyone understands why accountability matters.
- Make it safe – Encourage constructive vs punitive conversations.
- Lead by example – Managers should demonstrate accountability first.
- Start small – Begin with low-stakes activities and work upwards.
- Be consistent – Schedule regular accountability discussions.
6 Accountability Team Building Activities
Getting the right trigger activities in place to improve accountability is just as important for your organization as developing your employees.
As for what made the cut? We tested different activities that specifically are designed to boost accountability.
So no matter your business goals — and yes, creating a successful organization definitely counts, here are 6 impactful accountability team building activities that our experts find critical:
1. Accountability Discussions
- Overview: Team members pair up and discuss times they showed accountability and times they avoided it.
- Instructions:
- Pair team members.
- Prompt them to share examples of accountability and avoidance.
- Encourage storytelling and two-way dialogue.
- Bring the team back together to debrief learnings.
2. Accountability Pledges
- Overview: Individuals make public commitments to improve accountability.
- Instructions:
- Have each person write an accountability pledge for improvement.
- Take turns sharing pledges aloud.
- Revisit pledges in future meetings to check on progress.
3. Accountability Timeline
- Overview: Visually map out team accountability highs and lows.
- Instructions:
- On a whiteboard, draw a timeline of major team events.
- Identify points where accountability was strong or weak.
- Discuss patterns, insights and lessons learned.
4. Accountability Role Plays
- Overview: Act out scenarios to practice taking responsibility.
- Instructions:
- Develop scripts for common accountability challenges.
- Have pairs role play the scenarios.
- Debrief on what was realistic vs unrealistic.
5. Accountability Recognition
- Overview: Publicly recognize positive examples of accountability.
- Instructions:
- Invite team members to share stories of others’ accountability.
- Have the group vote on the best examples.
- Recognize the winners and discuss their stories.
6. Accountability Questions
- Overview: Answer thoughtful questions on taking responsibility.
- Instructions: Develop probing accountability questions. Go around the team having each person answer a question. Have a group discussion on insights.
Conclusion
I need a focused environment to be effective, especially when things get busy.
So I was extremely excited to see how the experts chose the above activities.
The accountability pledges matches my belief in the need for strong leadership perfectly, and accountability recognition marries my belief in recognizing employee excellence.
At least we can do our best to celebrate staff, right?
Introducing accountability team building activities allows teams to strengthen trust, communication, commitment and respect.
And, effective implementation requires explaining the purpose, making it psychologically safe, leading by example, starting small and being consistent.
In a nutshell, creative activities like accountability discussions, pledges, timelines, role plays, recognition and questions spark impactful training when done regularly.
Be honest with yourself: With improved accountability, teams can reach higher levels of performance – without it, unmanaged risk remains within our lives.
Catherine Fitzgerald is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oak Innovation. With 30+ years of experience in the training and development industry, Catherine and her team at Oak Innovation are ideally positioned to help training professionals, business managers, and entrepreneurs access great training content.
