3. Accountability (definition)

NOTE: if you’re new to Ground-Up Governance, or are finding anything a bit strange or confusing, you might want to START HERE.

Accountability is basically another way of saying that actions have consequences.  Let’s say that you had a job in high school pureeing bananas for a banana puree store, and your boss was named Mr. Bananaman (pronounced “ba NA na min”).  You liked your job – pureeing bananas was soothing and oddly satisfying.  So, when Mr. Bananaman wanted you to do something, most of the time you’d probably do it.  Why?  Partly because Mr. Bananaman – as nice as he was – had the authority to punish or even fire you if you messed up. In this story, you were accountable to Mr. Bananaman, which meant that your actions at your job had consequences, and it was part of Mr. Bananaman’s job to make sure that the consequences happened.

So, when Mr. Bananaman said “I think we should cover the floor with banana puree so that we can slide around the store and get things done faster. Get to work!” …then get to work is exactly what you did, and it was so much fun that you accidentally left some extra-slippery chunks of banana peel on the floor. Now, what if a customer, happily and safely sliding around in the puree, encountered a nefarious peel chunk, fell down and hurt themselves. It would be completely reasonable for Mr. Bananaman to be disappointed in you for not being more careful. Had this happened, he might have even fired you for being so negligent.

In fact, having authority means you’re at least partly responsible if things go bad. As for Mr. Bananaman, this whole ordeal would have been partly his fault. As the owner of the store, and your boss, he’s accountable for the consequences of the slippy peel incident, even if you were the one who left the chunks there in the first place. After all, Mr. Bananaman didn’t really give you any proper peel screening training. In other words, authority always comes with accountability. Good thing this was only a hypothetical and nobody actually got hurt when you spread banana puree on the floor. In fact you did such a great job that you got a one-banana-per-week raise!

In general, most people are accountable to other people in their jobs (and in other parts of their lives) – even Mr. Bananaman probably had a boss (Mr. Bananaman Sr.?).  In a similar way, most of us are accountable to the law, meaning if you break the law you might have to pay money or go to prison. 

Sometimes we’re just accountable to our feelings just like Mr. Bananaman would have probably felt like a big jerk if you slipped in the banana puree and sprained your pureeing hand.

Accountability basically just means that if you have authority, you have to be ready to take responsibility if things don’t turn out very well.