Sharing and comparing “believable accountability processes”: Peer sharing on what has worked and what hasn’t worked

What is accountability? A social check

• Accountability buddies
• How are we setting up the expectations that provide for accountability?
• Are we walking the walk and working in our praxis?
• Accountability should be baked in, not something we do when something goes wrong.
• Indivudualism v. Collectivism

speaking out & professionalism are both synergistic in either direction. if we ignore abuses, they will multiply. if we address them consistently, they are less likely. when people see others being disciplined, they up their game. when they see other people slacking they let themselves off the hook

importance of social aspect, development of trust, using a back channel to check what's going on with someone who is blowing deadlines

i have a daily coworking videoconference with a couple freelancing friends. we check in west coast style (and if something comes up spritually, politicall, emotionally) we can go there. but mostly we say what we're working on for the day and then stay on screen. sometimes we checkout with our accomplishments or update the next day

Shame -> Guilt -> Accountability

"Resilience Engineering" social element of teams

"When the systems are not visible"

a channel on what i'm doing today OR what i'm procrastinating/avoiding this week

importance of navigating your & their relation to shame & guilt

Analogy to test-driven development - expectations can be set ahead of time and be agreed upon

Restorative Justice Accountability

Allegations are sometimes equivalent to endictment

What metric are we using to evaluate the allegations? "values"?

How do organizations work in coalition with difficult decisions?

what are models for holding the accusee accountable but not giving in to unproven accusations

Accountability processes that start from a place of negativity - someone isn't meeting expectations - is almost always weaker than one that starts from a place of "everyday accountability".

It's really hard to confront people - even when their behavior is clearly wrong. Restorative Justice requires confrontation, which people are often unwilling to do.

establishing a culture of honesty, authenticity, so that we are always in the process

vs ejecting people too hastily who have been accused of sexism, embezzling or incompetence

culture of procrastination shadow bottomliner (roses/benefits, thorns/problems, buds/opportunities)

Restorative Justice <-- --> Project Management - they intersect!

transition towns and a couple other resilience/social justice models have intentional room for unlearning racism, personal development alongside practical skill building

DARCI Deciders/Accountable/Responsible/Consulted/Informed https://medium.com/@IliyanaStareva/how-to-use-the-darci-framework-in-project-management-694f756680fa

any organization model can have a single point of failure which produces mounting dysfunction

accountability process vs tyranny of structureless

"We don't make it easy for folks to call out when they're out of capacity or outside their skill level."

"social technologist"

We came here to talk about restorative justice but now we're like: "that's way too late, we need to be thinking about accountability measures from the jump, especially in decision-making"

Is there a better word than professionalism?

resistance to striving for that in leftist circles competency Reclaiming discipline! reliability rigorous professionalism, militancy, disclipine, practice, "joyful militancy"! responsibility = response + ability (duh but also WOW)

"joyful militancy" Joyful Militancy by carla bergman and Nick Montgomery. Foreword by Hari Alluri, published by AK Press, in collaboration with the IAS. https://joyfulmilitancy.com/

making accountability a habit. conflict resolution is a muscle that needs to be kept in shape/strengthened

James Scott: Anarchist Calisthenics https://harpers.org/archive/2012/12/anarchist-calisthenics/ break a rule every day

can we hold each other accountable if we aren't committed to continuing in relationship?

what communities are you accountable to and how do they hold you accountable?

Jaime's example: being in an inidigenous community where one person might be respojnsible for a thing, but everything has community impact. "We collectively feel that responsibility" "My cousin screwed up, don't punish him, punish me because i should have been the one to be there to support him" indigenuous framing restorative circle justice

"if something goes wrong, it's everyone's responsibility" high context vs low context cultures shame vs guilt i'm gonna wear a mask to protect my relatives who i live with and i take pride in respecting my elders & protecting people in my community

VS i dont feel like wearing a mask as an atomized individual, survival of the fittest, they have weak immune systems, let them die