Three Questions to Improve Accountability and Autonomy

Do you want to improve accountability in your organization? Do you find yourself wishing your team was more autonomous? As a leader, you can steer your entire organization toward more accountability and autonomy—and it all starts with asking some simple questions!

To learn more about how leaders can use questions to improve accountability and autonomy, I recently spoke with Jeff Nally on my Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast. Jeff is a coach and leader who uses neuroscience-based solutions to help leaders improve their workplace interactions. On the podcast, he shared his favorite questions for leaders, and broke them down into three categories.

Accountability Questions

Instead of just telling your team what to do, you can encourage autonomy and accountability by asking curious, open-ended questions to spark productive conversations. Rather than making a statement like “finish this task by this afternoon,” consider questions like:

Are you finished with this task?
How close to completion are you on this task?
What do you need to finish this task?

“Feelings” Questions

To improve your organization, don’t be afraid to embrace your feelings! While feelings might not seem like the best fit for the manufacturing floor, talking about feelings and emotions is a great way to foster a stronger sense of accountability and autonomy in your team. Some feeling-based questions include:

How do you feel about the work you’re doing?
Do you have any apprehensions about this task?
Do you have any concerns about this task or your work?

Support Questions

Finally, ask how you can help! Even if you’re working toward a more autonomous team, you still have a valuable role to play as a leader. Check in with your team about their work and their tasks, and let them know you’re still available to guide and support. You can do this by asking questions such as:

What do you need to finish this task?
What are your goals for this task?
What can I do to help you finish this task?

Bonus Questions for Leaders

To improve autonomy and accountability in your organization, there are also some questions you can ask yourself as a leader.

What is the “end game” for this project or task?
What is my vision?
What is my mission?

By asking yourself questions like these, you’ll have a stronger idea of your goals, mission, and vision. Then, you can weave your mission and vision into your everyday behavior and interactions with your team. By communicating the “end game” and mission to your team, you’ll ensure you’re all working toward the same goal, which will increase productivity and promote a greater sense of accountability and autonomy for all.

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more great insights from Jeff Nally, check out his episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing here.

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop floor. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website