Accountability

Episode 28:  For The Good Of The Outfit

Henry:      This poop sheet’s just come in from General Clayton’s office down in Seoul.  The army has started rebuilding Taidong.  It’s going to be better than it ever was.  All new housing, a temple, a town hall with inside toilets, a shopping centre and they’re getting the first soft-ice-cream stand in all of East Asia.

Hawkeye:   That’s terrific.  I’m glad.  Now, what about rebuilding the truth?  This is compensation.  Where’s their admission of responsibility?

Henry:      Well, soft ice-cream is a pretty good admission!

Hawkeye and Trapper discover that a local village was accidentally shelled by the US, while operating on South Korean wounded.  As they try to get the Army to be accountable for their actions, they are confronted by a cover-up and are urged to keep quiet about the incident.

There is much discussion about the difference between responsibility and accountability and whether or not they are interchangeable terms. As a father of twins, I see responsibility and accountability as being like non-identical twins, similar in nature, but unique in personality. While they are closely related, they are two distinct expressions of the same paradigm with one fulfilling the other. To accept responsibility without any accountability is like making a commitment or confession without any consequences.  You could say that accountability is responsibility with skin on. Organisations or leaders who avoid accountability are diminishing the value of responsibility and vice versa.  When I accept responsibility for a task, I expect to be accountable for that task and when I admit responsibility for a failure, I expect to be accountable for that failure.

Who's To Blame?

Episode 15:  Tuttle

Trapper:  Listen, how did you come up with a name like Tuttle   anyway?

Hawkeye:  He was my imaginary childhood friend.

Trapper:  You had an imaginary friend?

Hawkeye:  Yea, if anybody said, “Who knocked over the garbage?” I said “Tuttle”. If they said, “Who broke that window?” “Tuttle.”  Who wet the bed?”

Trapper:  Tuttle.

In an attempt to help out Sister Theresa from the local orphanage with money and medical supplies, Hawkeye invented Captain Tuttle as a fictional scapegoat to credit the blame for the unauthorised philanthropy. 

There seems to be a default setting within human beings that automatically passes blame onto someone or something else when things go wrong.  Maybe the childhood rhyme “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?” planted a seed for what has grown into a significant ‘denial and blame’ epidemic in adulthood.  Leaders understand the challenge of discerning responsibility when those we lead play the denial and blame game.  However, for a leader to blame others for their own actions is to abdicate responsibility and risk the credibility of their leadership. Author Reggie McNeal acknowledges that, "All of us make mistakes and exercise poor judgement occasionally. The key is to get in front of critics by owning mistakes quickly." I find it refreshing when a leader steps up and accepts responsibility for their actions by saying, “I messed up” or “I got it wrong.”

We Win Some, We Lose Some

Episode 6:  Yankee Doodle Doctor

Hawkeye:   Three hours ago this man was in a battle.  Two hours ago we operated on him.  He’s got a 50-50 chance.  We win some, we lose some.  That’s what it’s all about.  No promises.  No guaranteed survival.  No saints in surgical garb.  Our willingness, our experience, our technique are not enough.  Guns and bombs and anti-personnel mines have more power to take life than we have to preserve it.  Not a very happy ending for a movie.  But then no war is a movie.

The 4077 is chosen for the filming of a documentary focusing on the surgical skills of the doctors in the war effort.  Outraged by the propaganda, Hawkeye and Trapper create their own version of the film revealing the truth about the war.

Leadership on the front lines of life recognises that no matter how hard you try or how experienced you might be, people don’t always follow your lead.  This has been a hard reality for me to face when I’ve invested enormous time, energy and resources into developing leaders to have some make unwise choices that damages the relationship or derails them from their position.  I have come to realise that my “willingness, experience and technique” is sometimes not enough.  While I can’t control other people’s choices, I can choose not to allow their decision not to follow discourage me from my responsibility to lead. Leaders are responsible to faithfully “lead with all diligence” (Romans 12:8), despite the outcomes we cannot control.