Let's Dump "Accountabilities"

"Accountable" is the language of violence.

The notion of “accountabilities” in the Scrum Guide makes my skin crawl. The word “accountable” means that heads will roll if you fail. People in the Scrum community try to cast it in a better light (usually quoting the definition of “providing an account of”), but that’s just not what the word means in standard usage. When people say they want to hold a corrupt politician accountable, they don’t mean they want an accounting of the politician’s corruption. It wouldn’t go over well if you told your spouse or partner that you’ll hold them accountable for doing the dishes. The word implies a strict control hierarchy in which those who hold others accountable are at the top and are not accountable at all to the people beneath them. It is not the kinder, gentler thing that the Scrum folks want to turn it into. The word was deliberately removed from the Scrum Guide for years, then added back, much to my disgust. The cynic in me says it was done to appease the huge, not particularly humane corporations that buy Scrum certificates and “Scrum Transformation” consulting services.

Let’s replace the entire notion of accountability with the Drive (Self-Determination Theory) principles of connectedness, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Where would you rather work, somewhere where you’d be punished because you were being held accountable, or somewhere where people wanted to excel because they loved their work and respected and trusted the people they worked with?