Accountability vs Responsibility

Accountability and responsibility are clearly related terms - so much so that they are often used interchangeably. But, while they may be related, they are most definitely not the same thing and the differences are important.

Responsibility is about how we respond to things and take action to get things done. It’s a pledge to do something. It can be shared. You can work with a team of people and divide responsibilities among them.

Accountability is literally the ability to report on or monitor activities, tasks and experiences. Accountability cannot be shared. It has to be the domain of one person per task, process, activity or KPI. In other words, accountability is a very specific kind of responsibility - the responsibility for accounting for how something is done.

This distinction matters. While we might all have responsibility for something, the accountable person is the one who keeps track of how we’re going. They let us know when things are going right or wrong. If they don’t do that, they have failed. The responsible people fail when they don’t get it done the right way or fix what’s wrong.

Put that into the context of any number of current global debacles and you know where the heat should be applied and why.

To understand the real difference, for every task, ask two questions: what are we responsible for doing and who is accountable for how we do it?