Page 99 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

Accountability isn't (just) about deciding who is to blame when something goes wrong, but it often
carries this negative connotation, and this may be the reason why project leaders sometimes fail to
create a culture of accountability. Finger-pointing isn't great for team spirit, so accountability needs
a rebrand.
Being accountable means being a team member who can be trusted, accountability means being
willing to accept responsibility for your actions (and the plaudits when your actions make you into a
hero), accountability means that you don't have to have your project leader stand over you all the
time to make sure you're nailing it! Some project leaders are caught in the "accountability means
blame" trap so find it hard deciding who is responsible for what, especially when there are multiple
team members working on the same task.
Some teams are just too close-knit and friendly for individual accountability to deliver fully, the
‘we're all in it together attitude’ is great as long as having your colleague's back means helping
recover after a mistake, not cover it up. In my experience, teams without proper accountability are
often ones where a project leader has risen through the ranks to a senior position and now finds it
awkward holding former colleagues to account.

The Treatment:

Create a culture where it's OK to fail, to err, to miscalculate, to get it wrong, to be human - as long as
you are open and honest and take the best action to put things right. In cultures like this, it's
amazing how everyone does have each other's backs and pulls together for the greater good. In
cultures like this, it is also easier to assign responsibility because doing so doesn't feel like you're
setting a colleague up for a carpeting later on.

Accountability needs to be clearly established from the start, without any room for
misunderstanding, and this way all parties deliver the exact responsibilities given to them.
Again, Project Management as a Service solutions, like end to end PMO, can take the heat out of
accountability, especially in teams that are too close-knit or where a former colleague is now the
leader. External resources don't worry about internal issues or as one colleague puts it "the rudders
on the wings of a plane don't care about the baggage on board, they're too busy steering the plane."

5) The Sting: Misinterpretation / Miscommunication

Another area for problems is when stakeholders and end clients misunderstand IT-specific
terminologies, protocols, methods and concepts. I have a rule that if the client has a false
understanding of IT project deliverables, personnel, methods, or tools - then this is our (the project
team's) fault. Unrealistic project expectations and assumed deliverables really leak perceived value
from your delivered project – so communication is key.

The Treatment:

An IT project manager must liaise with the client in order to help them understand what exactly can
and will be achieved and more importantly (perhaps) what cannot and will not. Sometimes we
assume that everyone is as clued up as we are about the workings of our IT Project, especially
stakeholders, sponsors and clients who surely have a vested interest! The truth is that they do have
a vested interest but only in the result and the delivered project. They don't care how it comes into
being, no more than you care how a plane takes off and stays in the air, you just care about getting
to Lanzarote! An educated client, ultimately, is a happy client, they don't need to know the workings