Accountability: Freedom and Responsibility without Control [Paperback]

Rob LeBow (Author), Randy Spitzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

Authors Rob Lebow and Randy Spitzer show how to transform a business by replacing the control and manipulation that typically characterize the workplace with personal accountability. The book helps readers determine the level of accountability that exists in a company, discusses the "Seven S's of Accountability, " and introduces the "member citizen" concept and the metaphor of the Wise Counsel -- a coach, mentor, and leader who functions as a resource, not a controller.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rob Lebow has built an international organization that serves companies around the globe including Ford-Asia Pacific Operations, Pepsi Cola, IBM-Mid America Credit Union, US Food Service, Aramco Saudi Arabia, Trane International, Goodyear Tyre-Australia, the US Government and literally hundreds of other operations. In the 1980s, he worked as a fast paced senior excecutive with Microsoft. Randy Spitzer is a hands-on master teacher with 30 years of experience in both the public school system and corporate America and is one of the Senior Associates at the Lebow Company, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157675183X
• ISBN-13: 978-1576751831
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One Reader's Reactions, September 24, 2003

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Accountability: Freedom and Responsibility without Control (Paperback)

As I was about to begin reading this book, I was immediately put off by its subtitle: "Freedom and Responsibility without Control." That makes absolutely no sense. Without any control, there is chaos. Lebow and Spitzer seem to use the word "control" with two entirely different meanings in mind. One connotes order and structure; the other connotes manipulation and suppression. In the ideal organization, everyone is personally accountable and in complete agreement about the standards of measurement. Alas, no such organization exists. Never has and never will. Lebow and Spitzer are quite correct when asserting that imposing "command and control" management on others is much less effective than helping them to assume a greater degree of personal responsibility for the quantity and quality of their work. "The key is to find a way to lead people without ruling them!" I agree.

In this book, they offer a fictitious narrative which begins in Denver as thousands of air travelers are stranded by a severe snowstorm. Pete Williams is among them. He meets Stan ("Kip") Kiplinger and they begin to discuss their respective business experiences, sharing their thoughts and feelings about leadership and management as they proceed together on a two-day railroad journey to Los Angeles. This is the context within which Lebow and Spitzer examine what they call a "dilemma": whether to commit to a freedom-based or control-based work environment. Although frequently careless with nomenclature and in their analysis of cause-and-effect relationships, Lebow and Spitzer nonetheless effectively use the extended exchanges between Pete Williams and Stan ("Kip") Kiplinger to explain how and why a freedom-based work environment is highly preferable to a control-based work environment.

I was curious to learn if Lebow and Spitzer view them as mutually-exclusive. Apparently the answer is both "yes" and "no": Yes if the control is established and then maintained over one person by another...No if an individual assumes personal accountability, thereby assuming responsibility also for her or his self-control. If I understand Lebow and Spitzer correctly (and I may not), the core issue in this context is one of ultimate authority. Where does it lie? Is it granted? If so, by whom? Or is it seized? Then what?

Time out. In creating Minds, Howard Gardner examines the lives and achievements of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham, and Mohandas Gandhi. However different they may be in most other respects, they all possessed superior intelligence and exceptional self-discipline. Each illustrates a paradox: the extent to which they were free to achieve what they did was dependent almost entirely on the extent to which they could control their talents and skills. The same is true of peak performers in the business world. For example, Michael Dell, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, William Hewlett & David Packard, Ray Kroc, Steve Jobs, Akio Morita, Ted Turner, Sam Walton, and Thomas Watson Jr. True, all were CEOs and at least one, Ford, was (by all accounts) a tyrant. My point is, they and other peak performers in their respective organizations all demonstrate the importance of personal accountability, of what David Reisman once described as inner-directed motivation. But what about so many others who are unwilling and/or unable to assume at least some degree of personal responsibility for their efforts, even within what Lebow and Spitzer would characterize as a freedom-based environment?

In my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of what Lebow and Spitzer call "Ten Control-Based Ideas That Destroy Accountability." There are countless organizations, ones which have a freedom-based environment, in which most (if not all) of the ten are well-received, indeed deeply appreciated. I am in full agreement with Lebow and Spitzer's core assertion previously acknowledged. Where we part company is the point at which, in my opinion, their cynicism seizes control of the narrative. This is most evident on page 227 when, for example, they assert that incentive programs and pay-for-performance plans "promote cheating and distract people from doing the `right thing' by encouraging the practice of `going for the dough no matter what!'" Or consider their repudiation of employee recognition programs because they "discount the contributions of those who are not recognized, encourage suck-ups, and foster office politics." In some organizations, granted, that may well be true. But of all? Or even of most?

According to Lebow and Spitzer, organizations "get" people to be accountable by granting individual freedom as a right, by asking everyone to be personally responsible, and by having faith in people. Which individual freedoms? Why is each a "right"? Should all effort be voluntary? What if at least some people refuse to be personally responsible, claiming their refusal as a right? How to respond to people who are chronically tardy, careless, wasteful, rude, etc.? Especially those who consider such behavior acceptable, indeed insist that it is an entitlement?

After reading and then re-reading the book, this has been an especially difficult review for me to compose because I agree with Lebow and Spitzer on several key points (e.g. "Attributes of High-Performance Freedom-Based Operations" on page 61) while disagreeing completely with them on so many others (e.g. what I consider to be a worthless "Freedom Survey" on pages 229-235). My rating correctly indicates my ambivalence. I wish a Three-and-a-Half Star rating were available. Allowing some credit for thought provocation, I reluctantly decided on Four Stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Effort!, February 29, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Accountability: Freedom and Responsibility without Control (Paperback)

This book falls into the genre of business parables. Its optimistic theme is that freedom is a better management principle than control. Instead of relying on real-life examples, which might be hard to come by, the authors present a fictitious scenario in which wise older counselors impart the wisdom of freedom to young but amenable auditors. With freedom, workplace antagonisms and conflicts no longer fester. Employees cast aside their suspicions, differences, distrusts and other fruits of oppressive control, cooperating gladly and willingly in an atmosphere of near-utopian productivity. The real reward isn't corporate Eden, but personal accountability, freely given by employees who innovate and work hard because they are trusted. We trust that you'll know just how much freedom to apply before you create chaos instead of conscientiousness.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bright spot on a dismal horizon A bright spot on a dismal, October 30, 2002

By 

Roger C. Parker (Dover, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accountability: Freedom and Responsibility without Control (Paperback)

In the morass of highly promoted, usually content-free "business books," In an area where we've all been let down by government agencies that don't protect us and corporate giants that inevitably flutter to the ground, there is a bright spot. Rob Lebow and Randy Spitzer's Accountability there is the exception that proves the rule. A genuinely helpful easily read book. A book you won't forget.

Accountability adroitly blends together economics, psychology, sociology and management into a coherent view that pinpoints the problem with "fad of the day" business "solutions" and returns to the basic molecules where business success or failure originate: the motivations of their employees.

Accountability takes a lighthearted look at the poor long-term track record of control-oriented firms, and posits a carefully researched alternative, Freedom Based Thinking. Rather than starting with the premise that employees are both evil-intentioned and children in need of direction, Accountability focuses on helping workplaces develop Freedom Based Thinking that empowers everyone in a corporation to work as hard as they can, to establish their own performance standards, and mentor others.

Accountability blends together the pioneering work of Edward Deming with years of careful research. Accountability provides a roadmap to transferring dysfunctional, control-oriented organizations into enthusiastic Freedom-based organizations.

Far from a dry business book, Accountability's lessons are delivered as part of an ongoing narrative on board a transcontinental train. The storytelling genre results in a "fast read" book with lessons that will be imprinted on the reader's mind. Worksheets and resources help readers move on their own.

Each year, numerous business "gurus" produce their biannual "salvation of the day," salvation books that may create great consulting contracts and keynote addresses, but do little to offer businesses long-term solutions. Accountability is the exception. No fluff, no empty promises, just "Freedom and Responsibility Without Control," and how to achieve it.

Did I like this book? I tell my friends: I read it once, I read it twice, and I'm reading it again--and finding myself underlining different passages.

Roger C. Parker