Analysis & Reflection Paper + PPT
Miyoyo
LDRS400SampleAnalysisReflectionPaper2_SAMPLEONLY.pdf
Running head: CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 1
Crucial Accountability Analysis & Reflection Paper
STUDENT NAME
LDRS 400 Managing Conflict
Professor Brenda-Lee Sasaki
Trinity Western University
DATE
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 2
Crucial Accountability Analysis & Reflection Paper
“It may seem obvious, but accountability is probably the single most important element
fueling truly successful organization” (Gleeson, 2016). As the leadership speaker said in his
Forbes article, he indicates that how important the accountability would be in leadership. I think
this might be the reason why accountability becomes one of the significant contents in leadership
class. At the beginning of this unit, I thought that accountability might be a complex thing, then
after the past few weeks’ studying, I confirmed my thought. As I learned from this course,
accountability could be defined as “holding another person accountable or responsible, face to
face, for broken promises, violated expectations or bad behavior because there is a gap between
what is expected and what the person is doing” (Sasaki, 2019). As my understanding, it has lots
of similar traits with conflict, and they are also connecting with each other. In another word,
accountability problem could lead to raise a conflict and some kinds of conflicts’ sources are
from the accountability problems. Both of them happen in everyone’s life, either privately or at
work place. The difference might be that accountability problem might not happen frequently
compare with the conflict, but if people could not handle it well, the consequence is more serious
than the one conflict caused in general. Learning how to deal with the accountability problem
would help people avoid the serious consequence and be close to the success at workplace.
Combining the textbook contents and the materials which learned from class, I started to know
how to deal with the crucial accountability problem, and I also realized that it really need time to
become proficiency on handle this kind of problems.
The textbook divides the problem-solving process into three part: “work on me first”,
“create safety” and “move to action” (Patterson, 2013, p.11). And Professor Sasaki uses another
way to summarize the model as “before the accountability crucial conversation”, “during the
accountability crucial conversation” and “after the accountability crucial conversation” (2019)
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 3
which is clearer and more direct to understand. After taking the self-assessment from the
textbook, I found out my top two areas out of the seven which have the most “yes” responses are
“choose what and if” and “master my stories” where half of the total “yes” came from. The
interesting thing is that both areas belong to the same section which is “work on me first”. In
other words, it means that I am struggling with those two areas and need to pay more attention
on them when face the crucial accountability problem.
The first area is “choose what and if”, at the beginning, I thought there might be
something wrong with the result, but when I saw the example from the textbook about the desk
clerk always being late for work, I tried to put myself into the situation of the owner, and I used
almost the same response that the owner did to tell her I don’t like my employee to be late for
work (Patterson, 2013, p.34). But the result showed that she did not change a lot and after a few
days she came late again, this situation was not what the owner wanted to see, what the owner
really wants to see is she could keep her commitment and come to work on time every day. From
this example, I find that I too could not discover the real problem to deal with. If I want to her to
keep her commitments, I need to discover the real problem. The textbook does not give any
information about the real problem in this case, but as my understanding, I think the right thing I
could do is paying more care towards her, asking if she has anything wrong in her life which
may lead her to be late for work, etc. This might make her feel more open towards the owner and
that in showing respect for her, even she is late for work, she may be more willing to take the
time and explain what is really going on.
Therefore, discovering the real problem in the first step. The next step is about thinking
rational manner to express before speaking it out. And this is also the second part I struggle with.
This part reminds of a famous Chinese saying, “think carefully before you act”, which some
people also translate it in English as “look before you leap”. The meaning is straightforward, it
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 4
reminds people to think carefully and completely before speaking and acting. The textbook says
that “anyone who has ever held others accountable realizes that a person’s behavior during the
first few seconds of the interaction sets the tone for everything that follows” (Patterson, 2013,
p.52). I agree. I can see how important the first few seconds are for a conversation, it influences a
lot for the person’s judgment. Most of the time, our emotions play a determining factor which
dominates the attitude for having the solution.
The textbook also presents the path people almost always use, “we see what that person
did and then tell ourselves a story about why he or she did it, which leads to a feeling, which
leads to our own actions” (Patterson, 2013, p.54). In this chapter, the textbook is focusing on the
idea of “story”. People sometimes tell “ugly stories” for many reasons, such as a bad emotion,
they are biased, have been hurt before or they are reacting out of fear. These “ugly stories” can
often lead to silence or violence, both of them are not a positive outcome. Silence would make
the problem hide and never get solved, violence would not solve the problem and it might make
the problem become worse. The right attitude is essential for holding others accountability. If
one person discusses the accountability problem in a rude mood, his or her impolite attitude
shows no respect for others, so why would the other person want to return such harsh behavior or
listen to them? To motivate people to keep their accountability comitments, “don’t rely on
power, perks or charisma to motivate – they won’t work” (Sasaki, 2019).
Daniel Pink, author of books on business and behavior, speaks about extrinsic and
intrinsic motivators, all those outside powers could be seen as extrinsic which do not motivate
people (Pink, 2009). He suggests that the best way to motivate people is from inside, letting them
feel that they really want to do it. For those reasons, I think the right way is being respect, open
and honesty to others, it would build a safety environment which could make others feel relax
and they are more willing to keep accountability and the problem might be solved at this point.
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 5
Previously in this course we studied and took the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI)
assessment. My results showed that I am a GREEN MVS (Autonomizing-Analytical) person
with B-G-R conflict sequence. To be a GREEN person means I am autonomous person who is
good at analyzing things, and I like to consider concern a lot before taking action (Scudder,
2011). But it seems like a little inconsistent with the self-assessment that I mentioned above.
This assessment’s result shows that I need to do some improvement on “before the accountability
crucial conversation”. I think this differential might be caused by my B-G-R conflict sequence, if
there is an accountability problem coming to me, the first thing I would do is thinking about the
person who causes the accountability problem, he might face something he could not avoid
which lead him to cause the problem. Therefore, most of the time, I would keep silent or just
mention it lightly without any personal emotion. Even though I know that might not be a good
way to hold others accountability. But a typical GREEN MVS person should be good at keeping
others accountable, because of their cautious attitudes for doing anything and their clear logic.
Beside MVS, I also think my personality would influence me a lot on my behavior for holding
others accountable. As my personality tells me that I need to show my respect and trust for
others, if not, I do not have qualification to suppose others to hold the accountability. What I
wish is that they could feel my honesty because I pay attention to the relationship with them. If
they have the same thinking as mine, they would correct their mistakes which could cause the
accountability problem. But it also has another affect in which they might not correct the
mistakes and keep making the problem, in my sight, I would consider that they are not showing
any respect for me, and I would not show any respect for them which I think they are not
deserving my respect.
From my analysis and reflection of my crucial accountability struggle areas and MVS, I
think I have increased my understanding of how I could improve my skills to deal with
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 6
accountability problem in my life. First thing I would improve would be my attitude, as I
mentioned before, my B-G-R conflict sequence impels me to the silence responding when I face
the accountability problem. This kind of response always hides the problem and sometimes it
might indulge the person on his or her bad behaviors. I need to be more open to say what I really
want to say and come up with the real problem need to deal with to discuss with them.
The second thing I would pay more attention is my emotion, even I did not talk about
anything about my emotion and I can control my emotion in most of the time. No man is perfect,
and sometimes I also put my anger on others when I face the accountability problems. I know
that the emotion would not help in deal with accountability problems, so I need to control my
emotion better when I am dealing with accountability problems.
The last thing I find that I might improve is keeping myself accountability to others
which I do not want to let others down because of my mistakes on accountability problems, I
think I could do better.
In conclusion, learning the theory and skills of how to deal with crucial accountability
problems has significant benefit for all types of people because many of us, especially leadership
students, face this problem regularly. In the future, leaders will face these kinds of situations
regularly. And if people want to be better leaders, accountability problem solving skills are
necessary skills to master. It would take time to become an “expert” on solving the
accountability problems but on the road to success, while there might be some setbacks, do not
give up, believe in ourselves that we can master these skills and behaviors well.
CRUCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ANAYLSIS & REFLECTION PAPER 7
References
Gleeson, B. (Dec 8, 2016). Why Accountability Is Critical For Achieving Winning Results.
Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2016/12/08/why-
accountability-is-critical-for-achieving-winning-results/#2c639ee845e1
Patterson, K., Grenny, J., MaxField, D., McMillon, R., & Switzler, A. (2013). Crucial
accountability. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.
Pink, D. (2009). The puzzle of motivation. TED. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en
Sasaki, B. (2019). Week#5 Lecture #5 Slide 3 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://learn.twu.ca/course/view.php?id=6924§ion=6
Sasaki, B. (2019). Week #5 Lecture #5 Slide 6 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://learn.twu.ca/course/view.php?id=6924§ion=6
Sasaki, B. (2019). Week #6 Lecture #6 Slide 17 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://learn.twu.ca/course/view.php?id=6924§ion=7
Scudder, T., Patterson, M., & Mitchell, K. (2011). Have a nice conflict: How to find success and
satisfaction in the most unlikely places. John Wiley & Sons.
