The Unknown

Accountability is a hot topic in business and management. My clients want to become more skilled at holding others accountable, and seek out accountability for their own goals and intentions. I’ve been marinating in the question of what we, as individuals, are accountable for, in particular given the complexity and diversity of our environments and the expectations placed upon us. I was taught to be accountable for what I know. For example, once I know a rule, I’m accountable for following it. Once I know that a colleague feels dismissed, I am accountable for any behavior of mine that is (if even inadvertently) dismissive. Once I know that a certain path is dangerous for me, I’m accountable for the results of going down that path. Once I know what I genuinely need, I’m accountable for getting that need met. Even though my understanding may be tenable and shifting, I’m accountable for using the information available to me to make better choices for myself and for others.

What, then, about all the things I don’t know? It’s easy to infer that I’m not responsible for what I don’t know. The problem with this deductionist logic is that it allows us to too easily punt on what we could come to know if we took care to do so. Here’s an alternative: We are accountable for what we don't know because we have the innate capacity to be curious and to learn. From this perspective, curiosity and learning are not “added benefits” in our lives but rather core responsibilities to ourselves, one another, our organizations, our communities, and society as a whole.  In an organizational context, for example, if we don’t know what a team member needs to be successful, might we have a responsibility to wonder and to ask? When we don’t know what’s causing conflict with a colleague, might we have a responsibility to stay curious until we have greater clarity? Clearly we can’t be curious about everything, nor can we learn everything. I’m not suggesting that we should seek to know it all, but rather that we are accountable for stepping into the vast unknowns that surround us and that may very well be influencing the impact we have on both our own experiences and the experiences of all we touch. So I’m curious…what would change if you lived as if you were accountable for what you don’t know by treating curiosity and learning as a duty?