Want a Culture of Accountability? You Need More Than Just KPIs
Accountability gets mentioned a lot: in leadership meetings, transformation plans, and team check-ins. But saying it’s important isn’t the same as building it into the way people work.
When roles aren’t clear and decisions lack ownership, progress slows. Work becomes fragmented, and teams lose sight of what they’re meant to deliver.
Creating accountability means designing clarity into every part of how the organisation operates – from how decisions are made to how performance is measured.
What Actually Creates Accountability?
So: accountability needs to be designed into how people work. This starts, unsurprisingly, with clarity – around roles, decisions, and how success is measured.
One practical tool is RAPID – a decision-making framework that defines who is responsible for each part of a decision.
RAPID stands for:
Recommend – Proposes a course of action
Agree – Must be consulted and can veto
Perform – Executes the decision
Input – Provides relevant data or experience
Decide – Makes the final call
This helps teams understand responsibilities and decision rights from the start.
Make KPIs Work for You
Performance measures play a key role in creating accountability – but only when they’re well-designed.
The Starting Point
Accountability doesn’t happen by default: it needs deliberate design. Creating the right environment means clarifying decisions, aligning incentives and ensuring people understand what they’re responsible for.
That’s the foundation for high-performing teams – and for any successful transformation.