The language that kills accountability


I've been in a lot of planning meetings over the past few months. Kickoffs, quarterly goal-setting, initiative launches, and I keep hearing the same phrase (or variation of): "We should..." "The team should..." "The team will..." The team will handle the rollout. The team will follow up with clients. The team will figure out the details. Which, at first encounter, sounds like delegation but it's actually diffusion. When no one's name is attached to an outcome, no one owns it. "The team"...