Christopher Avery > Quotes

“And, if the environment penalizes people for actually taking responsibility—for thinking for themselves, and being proactive in solving the real problem instead of doing as they are told—then even good, smart, caring people will avoid taking responsibility, and the work will suffer.”
― Christopher Avery, The Responsibility Process: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power

“Historically, management has overfocused the accounting aspect of performance management and underfocused on people’s natural willingness and ability to respond. […] The more we focus on driving accountability into the person, team, or organization, the more we thwart people from taking responsibility. […] Accountability is based on a credible threat. Thus it is perceived as a negative, not a positive, relationship process. So with it comes fear. And when fear goes up, responsibility goes down.”
― Christopher Avery, The Responsibility Process: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power