Accountability alignment exercises

Back when I worked at Benevity there were several times when we had changing expectations, team make-up, team goals, and culture. One of the biggest areas that some teams struggled with was the transformation from a waterfall team to an agile, empowered, and semi-autonomous team. To help several of the teams with this problem, one of the exercises I devised was an accountability alignment.

What this was meant to do was help highlight if one team, or one function on a team, had expectations of others, the outcomes we were pursuing, our organizational or team context, or anything else, and help lay it all out there for us to discuss and align on. Then, it would help facilitate the discussion around realistic expectations, accountability, and product delivery.

This was a relatively simple exercise that had excellent outcomes, but I forgot all about it until recently at ZayZoon when one of my best friends, Vivien, set up a very familiar looking Miro board and asked the teams present a couple of questions.

Accountability alignment among empowered pods

For accountability alignment among an empowered pod, start by making a canvas similar to the below. The Y axis has the functions, while the X axis has their primary responsibility area.

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and allow each function to fill their row, adding a couple of words per sticky note for each overlapping column.

You can do this to answer questions like:

• What’s your vision or expectations of the product when it comes to X?
• What’s your understanding of X in regard to our team?
• Where do you want to see us improve at X?

This can be done with any mix of functions. The ones provided are examples of common pod make-up, plus an additional column for if a business stakeholder is present.

Make a new canvas for each question.

Accountability alignment among cross-functional teams

For accountability alignment across multiple teams, start by making a canvas similar to the below. Both the X and Y axis have the team names, but where they would overlap with their own team we leave blank or cross out.

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and allow each team to fill their row, adding a couple of words per sticky note for each overlapping column.

You can do this to answer questions like:

• What do you need from X team to be successful?
• Where should communication look like with X team?
• Where should collaboration look like with X team?

This can be done with any mix of teams.

Make a new canvas for each question.

Outcomes > outputs

As you see me harp on all the time, the point is not to learn a new framework or have a pretty canvas at the end. The point of these exercises is purely to help facilitate revealing people's expectations and assumptions of each other and their functions, having meaningful discussion, and aiding in reaching alignment.