Cultural change happens one person at a time, so everyone needs to know what is happening and what they need to do. Positive accountability ensures that each person knows what they need to do to contribute to organisational change and keeps relevant people informed about actual progress.
Starting at the top of an organisation and letting change filter down is inefficient and takes too long, because there is no consistent structure for personal accountability. People are forced to make it up as they go along, so the change quickly looses direction and momentum.
In simple terms, a change needs to be driven from the strategic level in an organisation through all levels of management to the teams and individuals who need to contribute and change. This is not easy, because the change can be slowed or blocked as each level of management interprets the change from their perspective.
A solution is urgently needed to quickly get the change to each person in terms they can understand and action. This eliminates a lot of the uncertainty that causes resistance and leads to organisation members not giving the change the priority it needs to succeed.
TASKey has developed and validated a consistent easy to apply solution that makes it significantly easier to translate an organisational change into what each person needs to do, when and with whom. Personal accountability is facilitated in a positive way, because each person knows what they need to do and how the change will actually affect them.
The solution uses a simple Plan-on-a-Page template (used in 175 countries) to create a list of To Do’s. Context for each Plan-on-a-Page is provided in a work breakdown structure. Visibility, security and privacy are dynamically managed on a need-to-know basis. Personal To Do lists are created from relevant Plans-on-a-Page. Progress is explicitly managed on the basis of personal To Do’s completed.
The solution uses software to facilitate the process and to provide organisation members with web and mobile browser access to what they need to do in context from anywhere at any time. The software also keeps people informed by email about any changes to plans that affect them.
Employing software to facilitate cultural change is a cultural change itself. However the investment in introducing the software is relatively small compared to the huge amount of time, effort and stress saved in introducing cultural change. Plus the return-on-investment continues, because future changes and projects can be run with minimal additional effort, even if some personnel change.
Cultural Change is achieved through positive accountability. People want to do what is best for their organisation, so making it clear what they need to do gives them confidence that they are making the best use of their time.