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 completing 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.
Refresher - Building Capabilities
As a reminder, leaders have three main duties to their teams when it comes to capabilities. In the last post, we discussed how leaders can (1) define the skills and tools needed to fulfill their team’s mission, and (2) determine which of those skills or tools are missing.
After diagnosing the root problems, leaders can jump into the final step - helping their teams fill capability gaps.
Solving Capability Gaps
The chart below provides a structure to identify which solutions can help address each type of capability gap.
Industry-Wide Challenges
If your peers/competitors are struggling with the same challenge as your organization, you actually have an innovation opportunity, not a capabilities problem.
In these situations, you can attempt to “build a better mousetrap” by creating a new or improved skill or tool that doesn’t yet exist. For example, your team could try designing new equipment or a faster process to complete your work more efficiently.
However, pursuing innovation makes less sense if your team is struggling to complete their job as is, or if you have critical issues that require an all-hands-on-deck focus (e.g., unexpected key staff departures, rapidly pivoting to a remote work environment). In those cases, there are more pressing areas where your team should focus their fire.
Unique Internal Challenges
If your organization is lagging behind its peers/competitors, you likely have a capability problem stemming from inadequate skills or tools. Broadly, there are three ways to address capability problems. First, improve your organization’s skills. Second, improve your organization’s tools. Third, pursue mergers, acquisitions, or exits to transform your organization.
1) Skills Solutions
When you need to improve your team’s skills, there are typically five options to choose from: (1) hiring new employees, (2) training existing employees, (3) reallocating existing employees, (4) releasing an employee, or (5) engaging a contractor.
A) Hire
It makes sense when:
Your organization has a long-term or recurring need for a particular skill set.
You can effectively recruit and retain employees with that skill set, or quickly and effectively train new employees for that skill set.
Risks:
The employee could leave, taking the training and experience with them (e.g., takes a higher-paying job, retires).
Poorly planned or executed recruiting, screening, or interview processes that screen out good candidates or let unqualified candidates get too far.
B) Train
It makes sense when:
Your teammates are capable of learning the new skills (e.g., if your teammate already has basic Excel skills, they can probably learn how to make a pivot table).
Training your current teammates is cheaper, faster, or easier than hiring new employees or engaging a contractor.
Risks:
Poor quality training can leave your teammates ill-equipped and overconfident, heading in the wrong direction without knowing it.
Developing a training program in-house requires significant time and may detract from day-to-day work.
C) Reallocate
Sometimes you can pivot capable team members from one part of your organization to another area of greater need.
Example: The Missouri Department of Revenue’s Division of Taxation cross-trained its corporate income tax review team members to assist with individual income tax review when they have large upticks in work. This seasonal reallocation of team members fills a critical skills gap that happens every tax season.
It makes sense when:
You have a temporary increased demand in one area of your organization.
Moving team members away from another function wouldn’t jeopardize your services or organizational health.
The reallocated team members have the skills you need or can be quickly and effectively trained.
Risks:
Pulls teammates off of other areas where they might need to focus.
Could breed resentment across teams if talented team members are repeatedly brought in to make up for other team members’ lack of skill.
D) Release
If certain teammates lack the will or aren’t capable of building the skill to perform, your team may not be the best fit for them. In these cases, you will need to evaluate reassignment or termination to make sure your team gets the skills they need.
It makes sense when:
The teammate is unwilling to improve.
The teammate is unable to meet expectations despite receiving adequate coaching, training, and tools.
The team member’s poor performance hurts other teammates’ performance.
You have a replacement who has the skills you need or can quickly and effectively learn them.
Risks:
When handled poorly, release may damage team morale and trust.
Loss of a teammate could increase the workload for other team members.
E) Engage a Contractor
It makes sense when:
You have a short-term or one-off need that doesn't justify hiring a long-term employee (e.g., project manager, IT system implementation).
You have a long-term or recurring need for a particular skill set, but are unable to attract or retain the talent needed.
You need experience in a certain subject matter, but can’t afford to hire someone full-time (e.g., management consultant, attorney, marketing firm).
Risks:
Poorly defined scope of work can lead to frustration and unmet expectations.
Effective monitoring and engagement with the contractor takes time and energy from you and your team.
2) Tools Solutions
When your team needs better tools, there are two basic steps: (1) procuring the tools and (2) learning how to use them.
A) Obtain or Create the Tool
Once you know what tool you need, go out and get it. If it is commercially available (e.g., software, computers, safety equipment, allen wrenches) use your organization’s procurement process to buy it.
Sometimes the tool you need is a new or improved process. In these cases, you’ll need to design and create the ideal process that will boost your team’s capability.
If you can’t afford the tool or it’s not available on the open market (e.g., proprietary formulae, out-of-stock microchips for automobiles), you will have to improvise with the resources you have or wait until you’re able to purchase it.
B) Implement
Getting the tools you need is one thing. But tools are useless if your teammates don’t know how to use them or how they fit in your overall workflows. Once your team has the tools they need, they will need to be trained on how to use them, and you might need to redesign processes or standard operating procedures to incorporate the new tools into the day-to-day work.
3) M&A or Exit
When you have a team-wide skills or tools challenge with no straightforward solution, you might need to adjust your course in a bigger way.
A) Acquire or Merge
Businesses and nonprofits can quickly improve their team’s capabilities by acquiring or merging with a talented peer or competitor. Following the acquisition or merger, the combined organization has more talented teammates and tools under one organizational umbrella.
Public sector organizations can also benefit from mergers and acquisitions, but the process is considerably different (e.g., typically involves legislation or executive orders).
Examples:
Business: Disney’s acquisition of Pixar Studios created an unparalleled combination of creative talent, animation tools, and content-distribution channels that resulted in numerous hit movies and value creation for stakeholders.
Nonprofit: Two local social services nonprofits with similar services and client base combining to form a larger entity with broader reach, stronger fundraising capability, and greater economies of scale.
Public Sector: Through a multi-agency reorganization, the State of Missouri’s Department of Higher Education added the Division of Workforce Development, aligning the State’s expertise and programs for post-K-12 skills development under one umbrella.
B) Sell or Stop
If improvement is impossible or prohibitively expensive, it might make sense to cut your losses and focus your team’s efforts on more effective lines of activity. For a variety of reasons, this typically isn’t an option for public sector organizations.
Examples:
Business: Netflix spinning off its DVD sales business so its core business could focus on streaming content.
Nonprofit: A legal services nonprofit winding down operations because the demand for its services has drastically declined.
Questions When Considering Capability Solutions
(1) Does your team face only one capability challenge, or more than one?
If you have more than one capability challenge, each will likely need its own targeted solution. You will also need to determine whether you can address multiple challenges at the same time, or if you will need to prioritize and tackle one by one.
(2) Can you execute the solution in-house, or will you need to engage a contractor?
Some organizations are fortunate enough to have the expertise and capacity to address their capability needs entirely in-house (e.g., through a robust internal training program or regularly scheduled process reviews).
For other organizations, it makes sense to engage an outside contractor with the experience and capacity to solve your challenge. That way you and your team can focus on your day-to-day work (and the inevitable fire drills that come with it).
If you’re considering a contractor, I’d encourage you to start your search with MBL Ventures.
When you equip your teammates with clear expectations and the right skills and tools to do their jobs well, they can do amazing things. In the next post, we will discuss clear measurements to ensure that you and your team can accurately evaluate progress toward your organization’s goals.
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.
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