By Allison Dalton, Yvonne Pelling and Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano.
2. Yvonne Pelling (biography)
3. Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano (biography)
How can teams demonstrate accountability in two different collaborative environments?
Accountability refers to the ways, both tangible and intangible, of showing up for ourselves and the rest of the team throughout a collaborative project. It gives rise to trust and forward momentum which impacts team functioning and ultimately the outcome of the work.
Here we look at accountability in two different collaborative environments, which we refer to using the metaphors of the jigsaw puzzle and the collage.
A team tasked with assembling a jigsaw puzzle deals with a finite set of clearly distinguished pieces, each to be fitted together in one correct way, and a reference image to demonstrate what the outcome will look like. Jigsaw puzzle teams work in unchanging environments with clearly measurable success criteria. Accountability in these environments is relatively straightforward (although not necessarily easy).