Accountability and Action

In a random discussion yesterday concerning the nature of change and response, I came to realization which has been surfacing in the back of my mind for some time know:  the relationship between accountability and action.

Accountability is a word that I hear thrown around a great deal, both at work and in other places.  Someone needs to be accountable.  You are accountable.  Another version (they are not the same in my opinion but are used synonymously) is that one is responsible e.g. accountable.

However, making one accountable without giving one the authority to make changes or take action means that accountability is less of an item which enables action and is more of an item which shifts blame.  Accountability becomes another concept for how failure will flow: if this fails, who was accountable?  It matters not that they the tools to execute or the authority to request, only that they failed.

Another area where accountability fails is that it is seldom linked positively to rewards.  If I am accountable, am I also not potentially in a position to reap rewards for successfully executing my tasks?  Too often the answer is no. To succeed is simply to do your task; to fail to ensure blame.

This, in turn, leads to individuals turning away from taking action.  If I am only to blamed, if there is no ability for me to execute or enforce that which I am accountable for, and if there is no reward for successfully completing my accountability, there is no incentive for anyone to take action.  Taking action can lead to nothing at all; certainly if I fail to take action, I am probably no worse off than if I took action if for no other reason than I have definitively ensured I will not mess up more completely than if I do nothing as all.

And thus the cycle of powerlessness:  I cannot change anything so I do nothing.  I do nothing (because doing nothing really does nothing for me) so I cannot change anything.  Anything I try to change, any choices I try to make are simply swept away as my actions become the equivalent of building sand castles in front of the ocean knowing that they will be swept away.

How do I change this dynamic?  I wish I knew.  In order to change it I would need to create or find a situation where accountability can result in success, where authority is given to execute and where reward and blame are equally possible as outcomes.

Where can one find such a situation?