ANSWERABILITY - THE KEY TO SUCCESS?

I have learned the power of answerability. Usually I work on my own, at my own pace, taking breaks when I want to. And yes, probably eating too much. I know I take more time to write the blog, prepare the client report or presentation than I ought to. While I always deliver on time, I am not particularly efficient. .

But this past weekend I worked with my colleague at her house in the country. The required six-feet apart (yes we are both vaccinated) we worked on a project together.

And something magical happened.

We created stunning work in a third the time it would normally take.

Because I was answerable to her.

I was working on part of the project, she the other.

Both parts equally important to the finished product.

We had a deadline, but did not need to finish the work over the weekend.

We also both know that the quality of the work we produce is always better when we work together.

Great work is always the produce of more than one brain.

So it was not that I felt up against a deadline.

Or that creating with her is a new experience.

It was, quite simply, that I did not want to let her down.

I wanted to create my piece so that we should say - Excellent, that is perfect.

I needed to answer to her, not just to myself.

Answerability is different from accountability.
My personal trainer is always talking about accountability. If you are accountable for your actions you will take more responsibility for them. If you are interested in losing the 10 pounds, or strengthening your core, the only way is to be accountable. And this translates into measurements and measuring.

Corporations fall into this accountability trap. They think that if they define success metrics, measure regularly, assess the data, that they will improve performance. And to a degree this is all true.

But it is qualitatively different from answerability. Answerability is different in three important ways.

First it is about being answerable to another human being, not to an idea or a number.

And because you are answerable to a person, you want to earn their admiration, their respect. You want them to think you do good work. Their assessment matters.

And this takes us to the third way answerability is different.

You want to be admired by the person you are working with because you want the partnership to last, to continue to be productive. Because you know that you produce better with that person; you have more successful outcomes with them. You are better with someone else.

Adam Smith explained all of this to us in 1756 when he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He explains that the essence of self-interest is not greed, it is our need for “approbation” - our need to be liked by others. With that as the essence of self-interest, Smith is able to construct a society of self-interested individuals that will produce “the public good”.

When we value the other because we know that we need them to achieve our goals, we feel the answerability to them. Yes, we are more efficient and more productive. But we are also more human and more personal. We know the power that comes when we work with each other, and are answerable to each other.

This was an important realization for me. It may also be invaluable to organizations. When, for example, your employees feel answerable to each other, they will achieve amazing things.

And perhaps the even more interesting implication is that when corporations are answerable to their audiences, as people, not numbers, that they will perform better.

Because being answerable really means benefitting from the mutual respect that is so vital to success.