Fault and accountability

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on February 22, 2010

© wharman

Is there a difference? Are they the same thing? And where do these things rest for bootstrappers?

In small entrepreneurial ventures, it seems like it should be easy to determine accountability... there are few people involved who can potentially be at fault for anything. But sometimes, that just makes it more difficult and more acrimonious when things go wrong. And something will always go wrong.

The more positive word seems to be accountability, but fault is often what comes out of a failure instead. And it's surprising where entrepreneurs point the finger when there has been a failure of some sort. Suppliers, employees, partners... it's easy to find places to assign the blame.

But who picked the supplier, the employee, the partner? Who is ultimately calling the shots in your start-up? Is it your start-up? Then you need to be accountable for everything that happens in it. Which is not to say that you should hold others accountable as well; you have contracts, formal or informal, with each of them, and it's important to maintain both sides of that contract. But the way you make that accountability happen is important. It should be done by looking forward, rather than backward. And that's ultimately the difference between the terms. "Fault" is for something that has already happened, and cannot be recalled. "Accountability" is for something that is still coming up, and can still be managed. You can discuss faults in terms of things that someone will be accountable for once again, but there is little point in picking out faults for faults' sake.