Imagine you want to change your behaviour. Perhaps you want to work more effectively, listen more attentively, or plan your work better. What often helps is a bit of external pressure to turn that intention into action. But how do you do that?

In many of our programmes, we introduce accountability as a practical way to support behaviour change. Participants work in pairs, holding each other to account while actively helping one another build new behaviour. In this blog, we explain how it works.

What is your learning goal?

The first step is formulating a clear learning goal. We focus on specific, individual behaviour. What behaviour do you want to stop showing, and what would you like to put in its place? Which behaviour would actually make you more effective?
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Paul van Bekkum explains:

“If you want to change your behaviour, you can ask your environment for help. This is called gathering feedforward on your learning goal. It’s not about what someone has observed you doing in the past, but about suggestions that help you move forward. That makes it fundamentally different from feedback, which focuses on what has already happened. This approach is used by Marshall Goldsmith, a leading authority on helping successful leaders create positive, lasting behavioural change for themselves and their teams.”

Accountability in practice

Once learning goals are clear and the behaviours you want to practise are small and manageable (smaller is better than bigger), we can start working with accountability.

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Put simply, this means pairing people up and asking them to speak with each other several times a week. In these short check-ins, they challenge and question one another on their progress. Has your colleague genuinely made an effort to work on their learning goal by showing the intended behaviour, or by consciously avoiding old patterns?

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At first, this can feel slightly awkward, and some people are sceptical. Yet it quickly proves to be a powerful and supportive mechanism. A colleague helps keep you accountable for your intention to learn and grow, and that makes all the difference.

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Dolf L’Ortye elaborates:

“When we talk about behaviour in this context, we mean behaviour that is tangible to others: visible, audible and noticeable. Take the intention to become a better listener. A concrete behaviour linked to that goal could be: my colleagues hear me start every meeting with an open question.”

In the hustle and bustle of everyday work, 99 out of 100 people find it hard to consciously focus on developing their professional skills. Content and deliverables usually take priority, and constant busyness doesn’t help. That is precisely why this method of frequent, short check-ins is so effective.
At Summiteers, we use accountability ourselves. A simple example: you might spot Post-it notes on our laptops with the behaviour we want to practise written on them. Every six months, we rotate accountability partners.

Small goals, big impact

Dolf continues:

“These interventions are highly effective. Behaviour really does change, and it happens quickly. The effect is even stronger when team members share their learning goals with the wider team. We actively encourage colleagues to remind each other of their goals. Give a compliment when you see someone making progress. Because the changes are small and woven into everyday work, they get the attention they deserve. When a team of professionals each becomes just a little more effective, the positive impact on the organisation as a whole is significant.”

Curious about the kinds of learning goals professionals often work on? Here are a few examples:

• I want to truly listen in order to understand others, rather than to make my own point
• I want to take up more space in meetings (or, conversely, step back more)
• I want to bring more structure to the meetings I chair
• I want to be fully present in meetings, instead of being distracted by other thoughts
• I want to explicitly test the assumptions I am making

We will soon be publishing a practical booklet that supports this process. More on that soon, so keep an eye out.

Can we help you?

We create movement, make something complex understandable, something big manageable, a (vague) idea concrete and make something difficult succeed. Can you use help with this? Contact us.

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