Metadata
- Author: Mandy Brown
- Full Title:: Accountability Sinks
- Category:: 🗞️Articles
- URL:: https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/accountability-sinks
- Finished date:: 2024-12-10
Highlights
In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies argues that organizations form “accountability sinks,” structures that absorb or obscure the consequences of a decision such that no one can be held directly accountable for it. (View Highlight)
For an accountability sink to function, it has to break a link; it has to prevent the feedback of the person affected by the decision from affecting the operation of the system. (View Highlight)
It’s worth pausing for a moment to consider what we mean by “accountable.” Davies posits that:
The fundamental law of accountability: the extent to which you are able to change a decision is precisely the extent to which you can be accountable for it, and vice versa. (View Highlight)
to be accountable for something you must have the power to change it and understand what you are trying to accomplish when you do. You need both the power and the story of how that power gets used. (View Highlight)