Chapter 18: Holding the Poor Accountable
(This is chapter 18 of "Up and Out," a book condensing my long experience about how to best help poor people. I pledged earlier to get it up online as soon as possible, so it would be available for free to everyone trying to cope with helping the Katrina evacuees.)
(These are not things that need to be done during the first part of this emergency. Rather, this is for the time after that, when Katrina evacuees will be moving from getting immediate emergency assistance to trying to normalize their lives. That is when good programs to help them "up and out" of their situation need to kick in. The following is for that time.)
(For other chapters, look under "Categories" and click on the chapter you want.)
UP AND OUT: A GUIDE TO TRUE COMPASSION FOR THE POOR"
PART II: MOVING UP AND BREAKING OUT OF POVERTY
Section 2: Attitude Adjustments for Poverty Workers
Chapter 18: Holding the Poor Accountable
Words trigger pictures in our minds. And the words “be held accountable” make many of us think of a large adult leaning over a small child, shaking a finger and yelling. We bristle, thinking of paternalism and invasion of privacy. We remember people who are controlling, interfering and domineering, trying to run someone’s life. The idea of being held accountable can make us pretty uneasy.
That is a healthy kind of unease. Normal adults should have a drive to be independent. We should want to make our own decisions and control our own lives. Being held accountable is not an attractive idea at first glance.
Still, accountability is so essential that no society can last long without it. All civilizations have learned that laws without “teeth” are flaunted. That rules that can be broken without penalty are usually broken.
Many top executives and successful people have learned how much it can help if there is someone who will hold them accountable. They have learned this lesson so well that many hire personal trainers to help them perform better. The trainer sees them often and regularly, checks on their performance, fusses when they are lazy about their program, encourages them and pushes them to do better. For this, they charge a high fee. Their clients gladly pay well to be held accountable. They already know it works.
Most of us would agree that a sports team needs a coach. The coach plans strategy, trains the team, arouses them to a fighting mood, says terrible things to them when they do not perform—all to help them succeed. They may not always like it, but they recognize that is what it takes. Without the accountability provided by a coach, there would be no championship teams or athletes.
Many adults seek accountability for losing weight. Just knowing someone is going to measure and weigh you once a week can provide considerable help in staying on a diet. People are willing to pay for such accountability.
Students who are not tested in some way usually learn very little. When I taught at the university level, I never knew of anyone auditing a course who ever finished the course. Faculty members discouraged students from auditing, because it would be a waste of time for both student and teacher.
Auditing a course sounds good, especially for a student who is studious and highly motivated. But just sitting in the class without having to take tests almost always means the auditing student gets behind the other students and so eventually drops out of the course.
Even to be good workers, we all need such things as having to show up at work, having to be there on time, and having to meet deadlines. We need to have to prove in various ways that we are performing. Without such demands, most of us would show up less and less, arrive later and later, leave earlier and earlier, and not do our work very well, if at all. Trying to do good work in the absence of such accountability is much harder than people who have not tried it would believe.
Accountability is even more important when drastic life changes are needed. For example, for alcoholics who want to stop drinking, it may take weekly AA meetings. For some, it may even take daily AA meetings. Having to account to someone else makes all the difference. It can help more than any amount of persuasion or good intentions.
There are even accountability systems designed to help us after we have done something really wrong. Such systems can help bring us forgiveness and restoration to the community.
For instance, when the pastor of a church yields to some temptation and does something wrong, most major religious denominations have an accountability process for that pastor. It is used to deal with what is wrong, and if advisable, to help that pastor be a pastor again at some point.
First, the pastor must be willing to be under the full authority of that accountability system. There may be forgiveness and if advisable, restoration of the career of the pastor, but only after the pastor follows the process fully to the end.
Whether there is remorse is a factor, and also whether there seems to be an earnest determination never to repeat the behavior. Whether the pastor is willing to make amends for the wrong done is also considered.
The process usually involves keeping the pastor out of active ministry for at least a year. During that year the pastor is counseled and checked on. There are interviews with the pastor and perhaps with others. At the end of that year, a decision is made as to whether to restore the pastor to ministry.
If the pastor is given a church, it is usually a different, smaller church. The pastor is essentially “on probation” until it is clear that the lesson has been learned.
This process is so valuable and essential that pastors who follow it usually return to ministry, forgiven and accepted. New levels of success may be reached. But pastors who refuse to follow the system usually do not make it, and eventually leave the ministry.
One good example is the case of TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggert. When he fell very publicly in the 1980’s, he was part of a denomination with an excellent accountability system. Unfortunately, he refused to submit to it. If he had, he might still be preaching.
Many leaders—including pastors—want a situation in which they are essentially accountable to no one. If they have a governing board, they may pack it with people who owe them or idolize them and think they can do no wrong. The board members are essentially “yes men” and “yes women.” They always say “Yes.” They never disagree with the leader, or hold the leader accountable in any way.
With that kind of structure, a scandal or other disaster is just waiting to happen. Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakker’s scandal, also in the 80’s, came out of that kind of structure.
Wise leaders make sure they are surrounded with capable and dedicated people who will speak their minds. They want people who catch their vision and are supportive, but who also will be critical when needed. They avoid “yes men.” And if there is no system of accountability in place for them, they typically will build one.
They understand that we all need people around us who will dare to say “No!” or “That stinks,” or “That is going to be a disaster,” or “You do that and I’ll quit.” Sometimes the most treasured employee—or friend—is the one who will dig in their heels when it really counts, and insist on accountability from that leader or friend.
One reason the American system of democracy has endured so long is all the careful accountability that the founders built into the system. A President who abuses his power is accountable to the courts, the Congress, the laws, the press, and eventually, to the people. So are judges, senators, congressmen and women and all other officials.
The system does not work perfectly and there are many flaws. But it is terrible to think how bad it would be without all that accountability.
Business, too, has a built-in accountability. It is known as the “bottom line”, or profits. If a business does not please its customers or does not treat them well, eventually it shows up in the bottom line. If its products are shoddy, sooner or the business goes broke. If a business gets lazy or does not perform well, some up-and-coming new competitor will eat its lunch.
Reality eventually will hold us accountable for what we do. That bottom line does it for businesses. The need for a good job and a paycheck does it for many of us. Reality, sooner or later, will hold all of us accountable for our actions.
No one can talk the bathroom scales out of registering the truth about how much we have been eating. Successful athletes cannot negotiate their way out of staying fit. Coming to the end of life and facing death is not something we can talk our way out of. If we eat a lot of fatty food, we cannot even get out of having clogged-up arteries. Reality does eventually break in.
But the problem with depending on reality to hold us accountable is that it is the way of suffering and futility. Crashing up against a hard reality is the tough way. Unfortunately, it may come much too late. By the time we realize that we should have acted very differently much sooner, it can be too late to make any difference.
Using accountability as a tool, early enough, is one of the few ways we can make reality turn out differently.
The poor need accountability as much as the rest of us. Poor people who want to stop being poor are looking at major life changes. These are hard changes that take great effort. They cannot continue as they were and still achieve freedom from poverty. They need accountability, just as we do, to make their efforts work.
Programs for poor people will work only when there is accountability built in. They need a good program to follow in order to move up in life as they want. They need to be required to follow the program in order to continue to receive help. They need some checking on to assure compliance. When they do not comply, there need to be consequences. They also need training, coaching, mentoring, friendship, encouragement and pep talks. It is not all of one and none of the other, but both together.
The help-givers need to check on themselves to avoid being too demanding on one hand, or too permissive on the other. Experience in holding people accountable will eventually bring the skill needed to be a successful help-giver.
The accountability a good program requires of its clients will serve them well. It is the only way to get them ready for the accountability the work world is certainly going to demand of them. Being held accountable is not bad for them, but good. What they learn from it will continue help them long after they leave your program.
