Establishing Organizational Accountability through Digital Transformation

A valuable opportunity, to plan for and foster during the pursuit of any digital transformation, is to use the journey as a powerful new way to establish and positively reinforce organizational accountability across the firm. The typical drivers for embarking upon Digital Transformation journey center around external forces, such as market, competitive and supply ecosystem factors, or around various internal factors associated with operational efficiency, and financial performance. While these are all worthy objectives, Digital Transformations also present a new set of entirely unique means by which to achieve true transparency in business, while clarifying organizational accountability in newly self-sustaining ways. We’ll explore some of these in this article with the goal of stimulating creative thinking around how change agents and leaders at every level can benefit from and encourage this valuable by-product of effective Digital Transformations.

Defining Organizational Accountability

Organizational accountability refers to the responsibility and answerability that individuals and groups within an organization have for their actions, decisions, and results. It involves being transparent and taking ownership of one's actions, both positive and negative, and being willing to accept the consequences that arise from those actions. Accountability is a fundamental principle in any well-functioning organization as it helps establish trust, promotes ethical behavior, and ensures that objectives are met effectively.

At its core, organizational accountability is about creating a culture where individuals and teams are committed to delivering on their commitments and obligations. This includes being accountable for meeting performance targets, following established processes and procedures, and upholding the values and standards of the organization. Accountability can be applied at various levels within an organization, including individual employees, teams, departments, and the organization as a whole. When everyone within the organization understands their role in achieving organizational goals and is held accountable for their actions, it fosters a sense of responsibility and collaboration, ultimately driving performance and customer success.

Why Organizational Accountability is critical for success

Organizational accountability is vital for the success and sustainability of any business. Here are several reasons why it holds such significance:

• Performance and Results: Accountability ensures that individuals and teams are focused on achieving desired outcomes. When employees understand that their actions have consequences, they are more likely to strive for excellence, meet targets, and deliver high-quality results. This creates a culture of continuous improvement and drives productivity within the organization.
• Trust and Credibility: Accountability fosters trust among employees, customers, and stakeholders. When individuals take ownership of their actions, admit mistakes, and work towards rectifying them, it enhances credibility and builds confidence in the organization. Trust is a critical factor in establishing long-term relationships, attracting and retaining top talent, and maintaining a positive reputation in the marketplace.
• Ethical Behavior and Compliance: A culture of accountability promotes ethical behavior and adherence to regulations and standards. When employees are held accountable for their actions, they are more likely to make ethical choices and act in accordance with organizational policies. This reduces the risk of legal and ethical violations, protects the organization's reputation, and ensures compliance with industry regulations.
• Innovation and Adaptability: Accountability encourages innovation and adaptability within an organization. When employees are accountable for their decisions, they are more likely to take calculated risks, learn from failures, and embrace change. This enables the organization to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving business landscape and fosters a culture of innovation and continuous learning.

In conclusion, organizational accountability plays a crucial role in fostering a culture of responsibility, trust, and performance within businesses. It drives individuals and teams to take ownership of their actions, ensures adherence to ethical standards, and promotes the achievement of desired outcomes. By cultivating a culture of accountability, organizations can enhance their performance, build trust with stakeholders, and create an environment that supports long-term customer success.

Digital Transformation: the perfect platform to improve Trust & Accountability

At its core, digital transformation seeks to re-wire an organization and prepare it for effective and beneficial utilization of emerging digital means of business in a vast array of forms. To be effective, these transformations must explore and reveal the true self of operations at every level. No stone can be left unturned in the discovery and planning stages of true transformations. Herein lies immense power, some of which may remain partially untapped without application of the right insights. 

When ‘examining the patient in transformation’ to this level of depth, the change agents of each digital transformation are presented with some unique opportunities.  From an organizational accountability perspective, this level of visibility to the real inner workings of the firm can be mindfully applied to the quest for the establishment of organizational accountability. Collaborative development with all of the process stakeholders, can successfully multiply the value of transformative efforts by identifying and unlocking a host of means by which to build trust through unbiased process transparency and truly democratized information visibility.

Rather than delve into the mechanisms of organizational trust (a fascinating subject for another paper) , let’s focus on un-demonizing the concept of ‘Organizational Accountability’ by helping our transformation stakeholders to mature from the traditional Accountability = Blame dynamics, to the far more enlightened and organizationally beneficial Accountability = Empowerment state of play. Research shows that by embracing transparent accountability, leaders in all fields can find new levels of empowerment and positive reinforcement, rather than suffering the consequences of opaque or resisted accountability (How Personal Accountability Drives Empowerment). 

Digital Transformation is the new lens through which transparency in business can be viewed more directly than previously possible. The digital instrumentation of processes (including Customer Experience life cycles) delivers the highly beneficial side benefit of digitizing the very mechanisms that, in prior times, were often the most persistent sources of opacity. Opaque processes destroy trust, be it internal or external, and ignite the very sorts of organizational hunt-for-blame responses that have demonized accountability for the ages.  By exposing process roots for digital transparency and optimization, the ‘need’ for opacity can be dissolved and replaced with a fact/data-driven decision and execution model which turns accountability from a personal risk, into empowerment for the stakeholders now equipped with unimpeded process (and therefore, data) visibility.

• Visibility of the processes in operation
  A fundamental aspect of digital transformation is the systematic revealing of the true cause-effect relationships between not just ‘the boxes on the flowcharts’, but between the people who are ultimately accountable for them. Establishment of organizational accountability starts with unbiased process visibility to the stakeholders. This is the preferred starting point.

• Create higher degrees of Transparency in Business 
  By properly sharing and elevating this newfound level of process visibility, change agents can facilitate new conversations and a more productive method of stakeholder interaction through a focus on shared transparency across the business. Setting the example in this way will help make the analysis of root causes and improvements through digitalization a matter of removing opacity rather than any finger-pointing that would otherwise tend to occur in such discussions under the prior, opaque, circumstances.

• Foster greater trust thru clarity and organizational accountability 
  The criticality of transparency is far more than purely a matter of compliance. Across the Financial services sector, for example, the trust relationship between Advisors has become a paramount issue. Digital Transformation in wealth management is a prime beneficiary of digital transformations that incorporate these ‘roots of trust’ through their transformations.

“Success has many Parents, but Failure is an Orphan” 

This familiar adage on human nature helps illuminate why we must strive to establish organizational accountability and general transparency in any business. It teaches us that by eliminating the sources of preventable failures through effective digital transformation, more successes can be revealed and elevated in visibility, and organizational accountability can become personal empowerment. This is a fundamental building block of Trust between all stakeholders, as well as a foundation for sustainable Accountability.

Contact us when you’re contemplating a digital transformation for your firm. We have the experienced perspective you can rely on for support and advice to ensure that your transformation delivers on all the possibilities in organizational accountability, helping your firm to set a strong example of trustworthy transparency in business.