How to Build a Culture of Accountability | Part 2A: How to Identify Capability Gaps

Accountability is critical at every level of every organization, whether you lead a startup, nonprofit, or government agency. In this series, we discuss each element of accountability, why it matters, and ways to build it on your team.

We’re starting Part 2 of our journey through accountability. As a reminder, the five elements of accountability are (1) clear expectations, (2) clear capabilities, (3) clear measurement, (4) clear feedback, and (5) clear consequences. In the next two posts, we dive into capabilities.

What are Capabilities?

Capabilities are the skills and resources your team needs to do their jobs well. As a leader, you need to clearly define the capabilities your team needs to accomplish your mission, and then make sure your team is properly equipped.

If your team does not have the right skills and tools for the job, they will not be able to execute. Imagine a soldier going to war without protective equipment, or an IT professional trying to resolve a customer’s problem without knowing how to use a computer. And capabilities affect more than just performance - equipping your team members with the right tools is one of Gallup’s 12 critical factors for employee engagement.

Broadly, capabilities fall into two main categories: skills and tools.

• Skills include the knowledge, expertise, and core traits needed to perform a job well.

  • Examples: Customer service experience, being able to lift at least 50 pounds, coding in JavaScript, honesty, making pivot tables, ability to calculate derivatives…the list is infinite.

• Tools include the environment and equipment required to perform a job well.

  • Examples: Computers, software, a streamlined expense approval process, safety glasses, machinery, a stapler…again, an infinite list.

Bottom Line:

Without the right skills and resources, your teammates aren’t set up for success.

How to Build Capabilities on Your Team

When it comes to building capabilities, leaders have three main duties to their teams. First, leaders must define the skills and tools needed to fulfill the team’s mission. Second, they must determine which of these skills and tools are missing. Third, leaders must help their teams fill capability gaps.

Step 1: Define Which Capabilities Your Team Needs

Based on your organization’s strategy and performance goals, you will need to create two lists. The first list should include all of the specific skills your team will need to accomplish the strategy, and the second should include all of the specific tools. If your team is taking on a new function or significantly ramping up performance, you will probably need to do some research to make sure your lists are complete.

At minimum, you should get your teammates’ input on which skills and tools they will need to accomplish their mission. They will be closest to the day-to-day work and often have the best insight on what would help them do their jobs better. In most instances (especially when you add new functions or expertise), you should identify model organizations who do accomplish similar functions especially well, identify their best practices, and incorporate them into your lists.

Step 2: Identify Which Capabilities are Missing

Some capability gaps are easy to recognize. For example, if your team has adopted a new strategy and needs to add entirely new functions and subject matter expertise, odds are good that you will have obvious new gaps to fill (e.g., adding graphic design expertise or introducing timekeeping software). And your team will hopefully be open (and perhaps vocal) with you about specific skills and tools they need to do their jobs well.

Other times, capability gaps are difficult to pinpoint. For example, if your team adopts a drastically enhanced performance goal (e.g., reviewing twice as many grant applications within a set timeframe), you might have a general sense that your team will need to make some changes. But you will likely need to dig deeper to (1) determine whether your team has a capabilities gap and (2) diagnose which specific skills and tools need improvement.

Do You Have a Capability Gap?

If you set clear expectations, but your team is struggling to meet its quality, cost, time, or other goals, you might have a capability problem stemming from inadequate skills or tools.

Symptoms of inadequate capabilities include:

• Your teammates cannot do their jobs to the required quality or within the required time.

• Some of your teammates consistently work overtime to complete the same workload as their peers or competitors.

• Your teammates consistently make the same mistakes despite having clearly defined expectations.

Diagnosing Which Capabilities Need to Improve

It can be difficult to determine whether your team’s challenge stems from lack of skills, lack of tools, or both. To diagnose your team’s capabilities challenge, you will need to answer the following three questions:

Question 1: Is this problem unique to your organization, or are your competitors struggling with the same issue?

• If it’s an industry-wide challenge and your organization is in approximately the same position as its peers, you are actually facing an innovation opportunity, not a capabilities problem. We will discuss options for innovation opportunities in the final blog post on capabilities.

• If your organization is lagging behind its competitors, you likely have a capabilities problem. Proceed to Question 2.

Question 2: If your organization is lagging behind its peers, is your challenge team-wide, or is it limited to specific team members?

• To make this determination, you will need to identify (A) your team’s baseline performance measures and (B) your individual teammates’ performance measures that contribute to the overall team measure.

• If each teammate’s performance is similar to your team’s performance, your issue is likely team-wide.

• If some team members perform well below the others, your issue is likely team member-specific.

Question 3: Does your team’s challenge stem from inadequate skills, inadequate tools, or both?

• For team-wide challenges, you will need to examine what your competitors do differently.

  • For instance, your competitors may:

    • Employ more people or have a bigger budget

    • Recruit and hire better talent, or have better training programs

    • Use better software or equipment or implement faster processes

• For team member-specific challenges, you will need to examine what your top-performing teammates do differently than your lower performers.

  • Skills: Some team members may have more training or experience than others, some may not know how to use their equipment (e.g., that one team member who still doesn’t know that track-changes exists), or some may not know the process for completing their work.

  • Tools: Some team members have better equipment than others, or some may have unique needs that call for different equipment (e.g., assistive technology) or tailored support (e.g., flexibility for family illness or mental health struggles)

Bottom Line:

Sometimes diagnosing your capability gaps is simple, but sometimes it requires a heavy lift - industry research, data collection and analysis, stakeholder input, and possibly more. If you don't have the capacity to handle the additional work, you should consider bringing in outside help (for example, you can connect with us here).

Once you diagnose your team’s capability gaps, you can take targeted steps to address them. We will discuss those steps in the next post, which will conclude our capabilities analysis by examining solutions for various types of capability gaps.

Michael Lanahan serves as Founder and Principal of MBL Ventures, a management consulting firm that helps business, nonprofit, and public sector leaders navigate issues of strategy, structure, and government.

To learn more, please visit www.mblventuresllc.com.