PROLOGUE
A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS
Accountability has become one of the most talked-about subjects of our time and perhaps the most perplexing of all people-related themes.
This story begins in Denver, Colorado, during the winter holiday season. Pete Williams, like thousands of other travelers in the Rocky Mountain states, has been stranded by an especially heavy snowstorm that has frozen the heartland of America.
Now, let’s start our journey as Stan Kiplinger, a retired business executive, meets Pete Williams, the hard-charging CEO of an internationally recognized electronics manufacturer who has just transitioned his organization into the fiber optics business.
The Amtrak train was the only alternative to waiting out this snowstorm, and Pete Williams was not the kind of person who liked to wait. He boarded the 9:00 a.m. to Los Angeles with stops in Martinez and Bakersfield, California, and moved quickly past other passengers to compartment 417-C, sliding open the door.
It would take nearly two days to get to L.A. by train. Even though it would take much longer than flying, booking a seat on the train was a better alternative to sitting in a Denver hotel room hoping for a flight when the weather cleared. And, like most of the CEOs of his time, Pete was a take-charge executive who viewed time and money as inseparable commodities. Traveling by train would also give him time to think through what he was facing in Los Angeles and back at corporate headquarters. Just before boarding, Pete had momentarily looked at the name of the train, The California Zephyr. He knew what it meant—a gentle western wind.2
As Pete opened the compartment door, he saw an older man who looked like a retired businessman. He noticed the man’s casual clothing, accented by a gold Rolex watch on his left wrist that suggested this fellow must have made some money in his time.
Placing his bag above his seat, Pete turned and made eye contact with his overnight travel mate. “Hi, I’m Pete Williams. With the airport closed and my flight canceled, it looks like we’ll be making this trip together.”
The older man reached up and shook Pete’s hand and said smiling, “My name’s Stan Kiplinger, but everyone calls me Kip. I’ve been watching this storm dump snow since I boarded the train in Chicago. It’ll be good to get to Los Angeles and feel warm sun again.” The older man paused and then asked, “Are you going home for the holidays, or is this a business trip?”
“It’s a business trip, I’m afraid,” replied Pete with a frown. “I need to get to L.A. for a meeting with our business partners, but this blasted snowstorm trapped me in Denver. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.” Pete realized he was expressing a lot of emotion to a perfect stranger, so he softened his tone. “But I guess that’s life.”
“It would seem so,” said Kip empathetically. “If it’s not too personal, what business are you in?”
“It’s not too personal at all,” said Pete, relaxing a bit. “I imagine we’ll know a lot about each other before this trip’s over. For the past forty-two years, my company was in the electronic parts business. Our business has been slowly dying because of all the changes in the industry. So to stay competitive I forced some drastic changes.”
The younger man, reflecting on his experience, said, “I guess it’s been about eighteen months now. My board of directors agreed to my radical idea of changing our business focus, but frankly, that’s when all of my problems began.
“Maybe I pushed too hard. I remember having one heck of a time talking my senior staff into reinventing ourselves. Talk about challenges: I felt like a presidential candidate on the stump, shaking hands and kissing babies all the way!”3
The older man nodded his head and laughed in support. “I bet it wasn’t a cakewalk to get all your people to take the risk, huh?”
“No, it wasn’t!” the younger man admitted. “I wanted to place our company squarely in the competitive arena of the fiber optics business. Kip, my people are good, and our reputation is solid, but many of our best customers were moving from the old brick-and-mortar parts business into the optics industry. We had to follow their move or look forward to closing our doors.” Kip could see the seriousness on Pete’s face.
“I believed then and I still do,” Pete continued with conviction, “that our decision was a good one. But now I’m not sure if we can pull it off. It’s almost like everyone is dead at the switch. I can’t get the staff or my management team excited about the challenges facing us. It’s as though they expect me to do all the thinking for them!”
“Oh?” said Kip.
Pete began unloading his troubles and fears on this seemingly sympathetic stranger. “Recently, we began manufacturing system components and optical fabrication supplies for a large multinational Japanese telecommunications provider. It was a big multimillion-dollar contract that made all the local papers. You know, the kind that a company can be built on.”
Pete leaned forward and quickened his pace. “So, when we signed the contract, I thought that it was the best day of my life—outside of marrying my wife and later holding my infant daughter in my arms.”
Pete paused and lowered his eyes before going on. “Our partnership is kind of shaky right now, so I’m personally going to L.A. to try and shore up the relationship. I frankly don’t know if I’m going to be looking for a new job myself when this is all over. Maybe I took too much risk and asked the company to bite off more than it could chew.”
Pete was still not looking at Kip but had his eyes on the floor. “I’m the genius who pushed everyone into this. Now I feel like a guy who’s walking the plank. And, to add to my troubles, the board recently placed a new CFO—a real numbers guy—at the helm of our financial department. Frankly, I don’t know if the guy is on my side or if he’s a spy. I can’t figure out the board’s motives for hiring him, but I have this uneasy feeling.” Then almost inaudibly Pete muttered, “I haven’t slept well for weeks.”4
Kip sensed that he needed to cheer up his fellow traveler. “It sounds like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. I’ve been there and survived. I know you will, too.”
Pete smiled a half-hearted smile, knowing that Kip was trying to cheer him up, and then said, “I wish it were only one or two problems, but there seem to be dozens. And the most frustrating thing is that I really can’t put my finger on the key issue. I know I can handle the board, and I know that this new CFO won’t be a problem if I can get the business moving.
“Kip, the business is there for the taking—but I can’t do it alone. Believe me, I’ve thrown money, programs, staff, and outside experts at it, but the problems aren’t going away. I’ve even tried restructuring our manufacturing divisions. I did that before the new CFO came on board and before we entered the optics market. It was tough sledding, restructuring the plants and shuffling around our leadership. I thought I’d really cleaned up our problems, but that’s not how it’s turned out.
“About a year ago I did the unthinkable—I took the risk of consulting with our partners on our quality issues. Among our partners is one of the best-run Japanese companies in America, and when I approached them on helping us sort out our quality problems, they were great about it.” Pete shook his head. “I thought I’d lose some of my top guys over this. Kip, you wouldn’t believe some of my peoples’ egos! Admitting to outsiders that we may not know everything was too much for some of my key managers. Instead of seeing our partners as partners—true partners—my people saw these folks as the enemy.
“But even with all this spent energy and the feather ruffling, the end results are the same: we still can’t get people to be accountable for their performance, even though our systems and procedures have improved. And this problem is felt at every level. It isn’t just in the hourly ranks. It’s everywhere!5
“People seem to lack the will,” continued Pete, “to take personal responsibility for the goals we set and the deadlines we establish. They sit in the conference rooms with my top managers and me. They agree to the goals and the timetables in the meeting, but once outside and back to their own areas, they complain about how unfair we are.
“I believe in giving everyone a chance to speak—but most won’t.” Hesitating, Pete decided to share one last tidbit of information. “We’ve threatened folks with their livelihoods, not something I liked doing, but not even that worked. We’ve spent millions of dollars on incentive programs to no avail. Frankly, I’m at my wit’s end.”
Kip could see that Pete was feeling the pressure. It showed on his face and in his body language.
Pete didn’t know why he was unloading on this stranger, but this older man seemed to listen with the ear of an experienced problem solver. “Kip, I apologize if I’m dumping a load of woes on you, but for some reason, you seem to want to hear about it—I mean, truly hear about it.” Smiling broadly, he added, “I hope you don’t call the conductor and have me thrown off the train!”
Kip appreciated Pete’s sense of humor yet understood the weight of his remarks. He wanted Pete to know that he was eager to listen. “Pete, I do want to hear about it. From my experience you’re not alone. Your problems, it seems to me, are common. Most of what you’re relating has happened to me.” He turned to Pete with a mock smile and crooked his head in a Clintonian posture. “I feel your pain!” The tension broke as both men laughed at the reference.
“But seriously, Pete, in board meetings I attend and in private conversations with workers and supervisors, everyone at every level shares similar complaints. People seem to be into the blame game. No one wants to listen any more. Managers place too much pressure on the staff, and the staff feels powerless to do anything about it. People resent the pressure. They resent being asked to perform without being listened to.”6
Kip sensed that he had Pete’s attention now and his confidence. “We live in a time when e-mail has become a contact sport. We shout at each other demanding our rights, thinking if we shout loud enough that we’ll be heard. And we all seem to feel disconnected from our own organizations, even the best spirited of us.
“Many companies falsely think they’re solving their people issues by letting people work at home so that they won’t have to interact with each other on a daily basis. But these organizations are only putting their heads in the sand. It’s like the doctor who shoots up an athlete’s knee with novo-caine and sends him back into the game without considering the long-term effects.” Pete laughed, really understanding what Kip was saying.
“Workers complain about their bosses not having the guts to step up to the tough issues. Supervisors tell me they feel like they’re standing in the middle of a minefield with no confidence in their next step. And the top executive’s predicament is the saddest of all; they have no one to talk to. Talk about feeling isolated!” Pete identified completely.
“In fact, most of the senior executives with whom I’ve spoken over the years feel like they’re victimized by their own organizations. They feel overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility that goes with the top job.…”
“Tell me about it!” interjected Pete.
“… And they feel frustrated that others in the organization don’t seem to share their passion for the business or support the goals that’ll make the company successful.
“Pete, you said it earlier. They, like you, feel they’re walking a plank with alligators waiting open-mouthed in the water below. It seems everyone at every level is struggling to identify the problem. Some think it’s a lack of commitment by employees to their jobs or a lack of involvement. Others say it is people not wanting or willing to take responsibility. Some are convinced it has to do with the generation gap. Still others see it as an organizational structure problem or system weakness. But to me, it comes down to one issue.”7
Pete leaned toward Kip and broke in. “OK, if it’s that simple, what’s the issue? What’s the one thing that I’m facing?”
Kip responded immediately, picking up his pace. “Pete, you mentioned it when you said that you couldn’t get people to be accountable for their performance.” Kip held up one finger on his right hand and said, punctuating his comment, “Accountability is the issue! If you can’t find a way to get people to be accountable, you’re going to find it hard to make anything work, let alone your business.
Accountability is the issue! If you can’t find a way to get people to be accountable, you’re going to find it hard to make anything else work, let alone your business.
“But, getting people to be accountable requires that you stop trying to impose accountability on them. If you try to force them to be responsible, they’ll only resent your demands, and I guarantee they’ll fight back, sometimes in ways you can see, but most often in ways you can’t.”
“You’re right about that,” nodded Pete.
“Pete, here is what it comes down to. When you force people to do anything, the human tendency to resist kicks in. I resent someone forcing me to do something, and I’d bet you do, too. So why expect this approach to work on anyone else? Forcing someone to do something is just another way of controlling them. The key is to find a way to lead people without ruling them!
The key is to find a way to lead people without ruling them!
“I’ve come to understand that trying to control people just doesn’t work. But getting this concept through my thick Scottish skull hasn’t been easy. It’s taken years,” smiled Kip. “I’ve learned that getting people to be accountable requires adopting a totally new philosophy about people: people want to be great; in fact, they need to be great!8
“Pete, we all want to work with people who are accountable. Even a frontline worker expects those around her or him to be accountable. But getting everyone to be accountable isn’t easy. I’ve come to accept an approach about this whole subject that in my younger days I’d have rejected out of hand. I would have called it crazy! I now know that when people are free to own their jobs and to take control of their results, responsibility is placed in the right hands. It comes down to something really simple: are we going to control people, or are they going to be free to make choices?
“I was the boss for many years. In the old days I thought I was a darn fine boss. Now, I know I wasn’t because I was trying to force results by using controls.” Kip paused, and Pete could see that Kip was serious.
The silence was broken by a knock at the compartment door. The conductor slid the door partially open and said, “Excuse me, gentlemen, but we’ll be departing in just a moment. May I see your tickets?”
A few moments later, the train inched forward. The weight of the train caused the wheels of the three great engines to churn ever so slowly. Most of the passengers settled in their compartments as the train’s pace quickened and the vista changed to a more rural, snow-covered landscape.
Pete Williams, a CEO with lots of troubles on his mind, and Stan Kiplinger, a man willing to listen and to share his insights, began their journey together. And maybe, just maybe, Pete’s time with Kip would forever change his thinking about accountability.