I had to laugh this week as I had essentially the same conversation inside Roth IAMS (on two different topics) as I had with a customer, just about two different circumstances, which doesn’t happen very often.  I figured that I would share the stories because if it is relevant for us and one of our customers, it might be relevant for you and your team as well.  

The first conversation was within the company and had to do with our project tracking software.  One of the key behaviour changes that we are trying to get our staff to make is that as soon as they finish completing a site visit, a report or the technical review of a report, that they update our tracking software immediately so we have a real-time view of where we are on many of our projects. 

Many staff will do it in bunches once or maybe twice a week, which means that our data, which we use to run the business is out-of-date for most of the week.  Additionally, downstream tasks don’t get brought forward if we don’t know that the previous task is completed.

As a result, we are adopting the approach that the task is not complete until you report it as complete.  So, if you write 5 reports in a week, but you do not update them in the tracking sheet then they are not done.    

Just today, with a customer we were talking about the challenges they face in getting their staff to complete and close-out work orders within their Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS).  I recommended that they take the same approach and make the closing out of the work order the last step in the process of completing the work order, instead of just doing the actual work be the entirety of the expectation.

If you are looking to build accountability into your organization, related to any specific task or process, you need to be able to measure your progress and where you are on the journey.  The only way to be able to do that is to have some form of reporting.  Until and, unless the act of reporting is built in as the final step in the process (otherwise you essentially make it optional), you will be building on a shaky foundation.  

Build a culture of accountability where the job is not complete until it is reported as complete.