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Julia Miller is a seasoned digital learning professional with extensive experience in both the leadership and operational sides of online learning development and delivery. After receiving her Ph.D. in Irish Studies, she migrated into educational technology. She is currently director of learning design for ansrsource, a learning design company. Dr. Miller’s background features a unique mixture of strategic consulting, curriculum design, program management, and faculty development. She has more than 20 years’ experience as an online and face-to-face instructor, and brings together theory and practice in her approach to creating outstanding, transformational learning experiences.

Julia Miller

A few quotes from famous writers offer inspiration and insight to instructional designers.

An English Major’s Guide to Learning Design

When we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that sometimes we let things slide—a missed deadline, talking over others in a meeting, overcommitting to a new initiative but under-delivering in the end. But avoiding responsibilities hurts overall organization performance, not just the goodwill of co-workers, according to a survey by AMA Enterprise, a division of American Management Association.The survey probed the organizational impact of a widespread "pass-the-buck" culture. Executives, managers, and employees from more than 500 U.S. companies participated in the survey and were asked: In your opinion, what is the impact of avoiding responsibility at your organization? More than two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents say a lack of accountability damages overall performance, more than half (55 percent) feel it is resented by co-workers, and 44 percent report that is diminishes  a sense of engagement. “Employees understandably become resentful when they see co-workers shirking responsibility without accountability—in such a situation, organizational morale and, ultimately, performance cannot help suffering,” says Sandi Edwards, senior vice president for AMA Enterprise. According to Edwards, avoiding one’s responsibilities may be infectious. “A culture that tolerates ‘passing the buck’ alienates those employees who give everything to their job on a daily basis—these employees may rightfully feel they are being taken advantage of as they take on more and more responsibility to compensate for those who are not fully engaged.” Edwards also warns that such a situation “risks the creation of a vicious cycle in which the fully-engaged disengage, having lost the sense of shared responsibility critical to organizational success. A few shirkers can snowball until the dominant culture becomes one of risk- and responsibility-aversion.” While avoiding responsibility is nothing new, the findings hint that the challenge may be getting worse, observed Edwards. And authors of Culture Without Accountability, Julie Miller and Brian Bedford agree. Instilling an accountability culture Culture Without Accountability explains what can happen when businesses, teams, families, and individuals shirk accountability. But how can you make accountability stick? Miller and Bedford offer a few ideas for installing an accountability-based culture. First, they suggest organizations conduct an accountability post-mortem. “Call your team together for an open discussion of the company’s core values and required behaviors and where you’ve dropped the ball,” Miller advises. “Explain that no one will get in trouble for acknowledging their own shortcomings or even pointing out those of others. Ask people to share the negative effects they believe these behaviors had on the business and explain that those negatives will only get worse with time,” adds Miller. Bedford suggests that the best place to start is by taking responsibility for your own transgressions. Next, leaders can’t simply decree an accountability mandate and then expect everyone to fall in line; they need to implement a training and development plan to help employees understand why accountability is important and what accountable behavior looks like. Bedford explains: “In these sessions you should also establish how their accountability mindset and behaviors will affect their pay and progression in the organization. Teach employees how to provide feedback to one another, since this is essential to developing a culture of accountability. “For leaders, you’ll need specialized training and development programs that explain what accountability looks like for them and what they can do to be effective accountability role models. We’ve seen these kinds of programs work many times before. Through our consulting practice, we work with companies from around the world to tailor training plans specific to their needs—we don’t feel a standardized approach is as effective.” Finally, the Bedford and Miller suggest that organizations implement the use of behavior statements that clarify expectations about accountability. Statements will answer the fundamental question of what, precisely, you’re trying to fix, implement, or eliminate. For example, you might establish accountability behavior statements, such as:Always do what you say you’ll do.Always tell the truth.Bring issues up as you discover them. Then, make those even more clear through “dos and don’ts,” such as:  DO be open, honest, and truthful.DON’T make excuses. “Once you’ve established accountability behavior statements and provided “dos and don’ts,” you can revisit them during performance reviews,” notes Miller. “They’ll help drive discussions with employees on how they are doing when it comes to meeting your company’s accountability standards,” she adds. Moving forward To be sure, we’re all guilty of overlooking the little transgressions. The problem is that those little transgressions can easily snowball into big problems. “When left unattended, the negative results that come from a lack of accountability will spread,” reminds Bedford. “Will your organization be able to survive that kind of plague? Maybe? Certainly, not all companies meet the fate of the Enrons and Lehman Brothers of the world. But in the end, what will your company look like? Will it be a place where great people want to work? Will it be able to provide great services or products to customers?” Bottom line: When you commit to making accountability stick, you improve your chances of becoming a great leader in a great company.

A Is for Accountability

How does a global leader turn challenges into opportunities?In our blog, we have been following Tom Rush, a newly promoted global project team leader. When he accepted the position in May, he thought his experience with U.S.-based remote workers would serve as a resource for this geographically dispersed team. He quickly learned that aligning a team across cultural, linguistic, generational, and gender divides was more than just challenging, it was an opportunity to rethink everything he had learned in management training. This was far more complex than he could have imagined. After six months on a steep learning curve, Tom finally admitted that his manager, Carlos, really meant well when he had suggested Tom get a coach.Tom interviewed three global executive coaches from the list that Lee, the Senior HR Director of Global Talent Management, had given him before choosing the coach he felt the most at ease with. This coach clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of the coaching agreement. She actively listened as Tom explained his background, the past six months, and then, with just two powerful questions, almost got him to laugh out loud.First she asked, “In your new role, what does success look like?”Tom realized that if someone had asked him this question six months ago, his answer would have been entirely different. OK, not entirely different because surpassing sales figures was still the driving force behind the strategic success of his new role, but Tom’s personal vision of what success looked like was very different.The coach then asked, “Knowing what you know today, what would you have done differently and what will you do differently in the next six months?Over the last six months, Tom had learned that the words accountability, empowerment, and ownership didn’t even exist in some of the native languages of his worldwide reports. He couldn’t help thinking that if the word didn’t exist, how could the concept? Many of his new reports had 10 to 15 years of experience in corporate cultures that were totally different from that of ISO, the only company Tom had ever worked for since leaving college.Aligning and motivating people whose experience had been more hierarchal, formal, and status-oriented compared to egalitarian, informal, and achievement-oriented proved to be quite the challenge. There has been a lot said about a flatter world or more global mindsets, especially with the millennial generation, but Tom found out the hard way that culture really does eat strategy for breakfast.In the coach’s non-judgmental presence, Tom reflected on what he could have done differently, his recent past and present expectations, and what he had learned from his reports and colleagues—Jack in Hong Kong, John in Taiwan, Saatar in Qatar, Philippe in France, Manfred in Germany, Julia in the United Kingdom, Sven in Sweden, Pascale in Canada, and Bob in California. At first, Tom had thought he needed to change his own behaviors to culturally fit each of these very different people and nationalities, but that made him come across as indecisive and inconsistent. When he thought back to the conversation he had with John, a seasoned global colleague in Taiwan, he remembered asking if there was a list of dos and don’ts. John had replied with a chuckle: no such thing. No list, no magic wand, not even a drinkable potion. That’s when Tom had felt really lost. What would turn him into a global leader?After the sponsor meeting that the global executive coach organized with Tom, Carlos, and Lee, she sent out a stakeholder survey based on the 4R principles. The various perspectives helped Tom to see how he was perceived and even more so, the feedback gave him insights into what his stakeholders appreciate, expect, and want more of. It is only through constructive, on-going feedback that we can learn what needs to shift in us in order to bring out the best in others. This is an often overlooked or underappreciated process in many organizations.During the coaching process, Tom concluded that to understand other cultures, he needed to first understand his own. He completed an online cultural profile that his coach had set up, which was a good starting point for Tom to see how aligned he was with the U.S. profile. He learned that culture is complex—layered like an onion and as hard to melt as an iceberg. Tom’s innate curiosity and relationship-oriented approach were key qualities to success, while his outgoing personality was both a strength and a weakness. He reflected on how informal, solution-oriented, and efficient characteristics were sometimes seen as arrogant by others. To succeed, he had to let go of his drive to just do it, prove it, and wrap things up quickly and concisely. It wasn’t worth trying to control time in some situations, whereas it needed to be managed closely in others. The challenge was how to find the balance. Having this truly global experience and accepting vulnerability—willing to trip up, admit it, and get back up again—was an opportunity. Simply said, Tom needed to take his work seriously, rather than himself.In addition, Tom’s global executive coach was helping him reflect on his own coaching skills. He was learning to apply the 4R principles of human needs: respect, relationships, recognition, and rewards. Research has shown that people will follow you if they find commonalities in the way you do things or who you are. For global leaders, strategically knowing how to frame the why of corporate decisions; when to extend a trip abroad by a day or two to meet up with people outside the meeting room; and how to set the pace and give people the space to vent as well as to celebrate personal and professional stepping stones, not only milestones, have proven to be especially beneficial. Lingering over lunch or around the water cooler (sometimes disguised as a coffee maker or photocopier) should be used to stay in the loop. Understanding that in many cultures outside the United States, a professional and personal division of time and information is often misunderstood by eager, efficient-minded, low context communicators who feel a need to share anything and everything about their personal lives. Above all, learning to laugh more, together, leads to high performance teams across cultures, languages, generations, and gender. On February 11, Maureen will be signing books and presenting the ASTD T&D Area of Expertise Competency Model with the foundational competency model of global mindset at the South Florida ASTD Chapter. Read more and register here.On February 13, she will be at the Space Chapter in Melbourne, Florida. Register today to learn more about coaching with a global mindset.

Learning to Develop a Global Mindset: An ASTD Foundational Competency

Julie Haddock-Millar is a consultant in the fields of talent management, mentoring, and coaching. She is senior lecturer and senior teaching fellow in human resource management and development at Middlesex University Business School. She leads on the development international standards in mentoring and coaching programs for the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Julie Haddock-Millar

Julie Haddock-Millar and David Clutterbuck discuss whether it’s time for HR and talent development leaders to rethink how to best serve their organizations.

Critical Conversations: What to Do With “HR Bling”

July 2016 - TD Magazine

Five types of conversations talent development managers should have with staff.

Let’s Talk: Conversations to Help Talent Development

This issue of TD at Work, “5 Critical Conversations to Talent Development,” discusses the types of conversations managers, talent development professionals, and employees need to have to promote career growth.

5 Critical Conversations to Talent Development

ATD Links Archive - ATD Links

Here’s a useful framework on the various levels of conversation managers should keep in mind as they work with others.

6 Critical Levels of Conversation

Asking good questions can transform a simple conversation about career choices to a strategic staff planning session.

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