Choosing Accountability In A Culture That Fears Blame

Sometime around 2008, a small church in central Oregon decided to call 'time of death' on their committees. No more committee for grounds keeping, for fellowship and coffee hour, for welcoming new members. 

From then on, the council and staff had a new way of responding to requests and suggestions for what the church should do next or do differently: "Cool idea - you should go do it!"

The response over the next two years was amazing.

First, a couple of the volunteers who mowed the lawn pointed out to the council that the water and effort it took to grow grass on the four acres of high desert the church sat on could be better used to create a "food forest".

Some on the council wondered how realistic it would be to grow trees that produced fruit on the high desert. But then someone pointed out that, worst case scenario, they had a bunch of pretty trees that didn't produce fruit and were still better stewards of the land by using much less water. Put that way, the objections fell to the side. 

Those initial volunteers would go on to recruit 75 community members, less than a third of which were church members, to gather on a Saturday morning to plant a half acre of fruit trees, berries, nuts, and vegetables along side a 4,000 square foot community garden - all of which was open to the public (eventually adding bee hives, chickens, and a greenhouse).

Most of the volunteers never stepped foot in the church, but that wasn't the point. Those volunteers made their community better by choosing to be accountable for creating the world they wanted. The original church members felt empowered to live out the mission of their community without concern over how it would be justified by new members or increased donations.

The food from the garden and food forest helped supplement their expanded food shelf, and complemented the long-standing "firewood ministry" that was co-run with local houseless folks who chopped wood each Saturday to be given for free to those in need of wood for heating their houses. 

A labyrinth, prayer garden, weekend backpack program for children with nothing to eat outside of school, support for the local LGBTQ Pride celebration, and many more ad hoc projects started - each injecting new life into the church.

Most noticeable was the transformation of the community's sense of agency and mission. Rather than complain about what leadership was or was not doing right, people realized their power to embody the mission of the community they wanted. 

Inclusion, empowerment, and an invitation to dream big was the consistent message from those in leadership. Soon, they became leaders among leaders rather than leaders of followers. Together, they blurred the lines of leadership, stopped recruiting members, and started inviting the community at large to join the mission they felt called to. 

In turn, the church's members decided to step out in their own moments of leadership, setting off a cascade of catalytic acts. The church members decided to hold themselves accountable for the task of practicing their values. And in so doing, remarkable creativity was unleashed.

This is an example of what the Transformative Community Leadership (TCL) principle of "Chosen Accountability" looks like in practice. Leadership is offered in turns, and comes from a multitude of sources. 

During the food forest project, 15 or 20 different people were empowered to offer their expertise and skills: from a forester who helped design a deer fence, to a community-college student with burgeoning insights in permaculture, to a community organizer with a contacts in a diverse network - and so many more.

Choosing accountability is a counter-cultural act in a time when so many of us seek to avoid responsibility and only demand accountability of other people. When teams of lawyers are employed just to argue why their clients are not responsible for the outcomes of their actions, and politicians refuse to admit error in order to confuse truth in service or personal and political gain, volunteering one's responsibility is an unconventional choice.

But, as Peter Block has articulated, we ourselves are the only people we can hold accountable. Legal responsibility or retributive justice may be doled out by institutions - but claiming responsibility for our actions is a personal choice. 

In Transformative Community Leadership, the work of the leader is not to assign responsibility, but to claim it and hold oneself accountable for the things we say we will do. And in so doing, we hope to model and inspire a cascade of chosen accountability. 

In the process, TCL requires us to give up control and predictability. In return for the relinquishment of our attempts to command and control people, we see our communities come alive with diversity and creativity that we could never design or mandate from the top.

As in so much of Transformative Community Leadership, the core practices behind the principle of "Chosen Accountability" are the act of inclusive convening, the pursuit of generous integrity, and the practice of powerful vulnerability (more on these in the coming weeks).

These practices have the power to transform our communities even as they transform us. 

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