A lot of you will know that delivering projects and programmes involves a lot project collateral, whether that’s risk logs, plans and schedules, business cases, change impact assessments, procurement strategies and the like. And yes, all of this is needed to give the best chance of success.

Success is rarely a product of the amount of collateral you develop as part of building out the programme and travelling through the lifecycle of the stages.

There is another layer, an almost invisible but powerful layer, one that taps into the emotions and status of people in and around the programme. It’s the key to unlocking progress, making connections and achieving success. Some people call it the stakeholder layer, which I don’t think gives it the right gravitas. Others call it the ‘wetware’ that wraps around the programme and operates in complex organic ways.

For me, I call it the accountability layer. It’s the layer that not only includes the people in the programme who through their connections, influence and role make things happen but also the people in the organisations around the programme who through their role, personal power and influence are able to get things done.

This is kind of an accountability map across the landscape that helps identify the pools of activity and leads you to the people that can help clear blockers in those areas.

I found a method that actually has the ‘accountability map’ as a core part of its delivery - it’s called ‘Business Integrated Governance’ (BIG for short) and I’m using and growing my knowledge of how useful it is every day.

To learn more about how you can use Accountability and to get the BIG model get it touch by clicking the button below.