{"id":7543,"date":"2019-03-19T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gutenberg-atl.staging.breakingmedia.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?p=7543"},"modified":"2019-03-19T11:50:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T15:50:17","slug":"confusing-accountability-and-blame-is-killing-your-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2019\/03\/19\/confusing-accountability-and-blame-is-killing-your-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing Accountability and Blame Is Killing Your Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most lawyers and law firms, their business strategy is three words long: \u201cDo good work.\u201d The assumption is that individual effort and intelligence are all that it takes to succeed. If it were ever true, it isn\u2019t anymore. Today there\u2019s a breakdown in trust and an uptick in blame that\u2019s getting in the way of \u201cgood work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Culture without Trust<\/span><\/h2>\n

Law firms use fear and blame to command conformity and discourage any form of risk-taking. This breeds lack of trust within peer groups, which stymies experimentation and the free flow of information, and turns learning opportunities into potential blame games. Lack of trust and fear of blame also breeds lawyers who are detrimentally risk-averse and believe that they\u2019re not trusted with resources, information, or decisions. This culture without trust has real business consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trust Tax \u2014 or Dividend<\/span><\/h2>\n

In <\/span>The Speed of Trust<\/span><\/i>, CEO Stephen M.R. Covey, argues that there\u2019s a \u201clow-trust tax\u201d and a \u201chigh-trust dividend\u201d based on trust between managers and employees, and companies and the people they serve. Trust affects two measurable outcomes: speed and cost. High trust means low cost and high speed; whereas low trust means low speed and high cost. This shows up on the bottom line. High-trust companies outperform <\/span><\/span>the S&P 500 by <\/span>25%<\/span><\/a>\u2014they also lead in revenue <\/span>growth<\/span><\/a>. (This boost is the high-trust dividend.) <\/span><\/p>\n

The low-trust tax should be unsurprising. Research shows that employees <\/span>don’t feel trusted<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by their managers. Workplace productivity <\/span>suffers<\/span><\/a> because these employees who don\u2019t feel trusted\u00a0<\/span>exert less effort<\/span><\/a>. Low effort and low engagement combined with high-turnover is an obvious recipe for poor business outcomes. But the reverse is also true. Employees who feel trusted <\/span>exert extra effort<\/span><\/a> and perform at a higher level thus contributing to higher revenues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Killing Trust with Blame<\/span><\/h2>\n

So how do we empower employees to be forward-thinking, knowledge-sharing, and innovative? Empowerment starts with trust. And trust comes from the top.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, firm managers have largely been raised in the traditional management model, which is focused on <\/span>paternalistic rules enforcement<\/span><\/a>. This focus on rules has caused us to conflate accountability with blame. Though both involve responsibility, they come from different sources and work toward different goals. <\/span><\/p>\n