Sample Accountability Toolkit

This toolkit is a general, somewhat formal, sample of what an accountability process could look like. It’s intended to be a starting point for you to craft your own accountability plan that fits your circumstances. Give your process your own voice.

Sample Plan
This is an example above is one idea of what an accountability plan might look like. This one is fairly formal. You can create one that meets your needs. There are other formats people may use too. Common plan topics may include what you are being accountable for, what the plan is, what the timeline, who is involved, a statement about confidentiality, and determining what is out of scope. Your plan should be agreed to be everyone in the pod in their kickoff meeting, discussed thoroughly when the pod meets with the person going through the accountability process for the first time, and can be shared publicly or privately with those who need to know what your plan is

Feedback Templates
Gathering feedback is important to determine where there might be patterns and possibly identify others who have been harmed so repairs can be made.

Proactively reaching out to others (former partners, etc) that have been involved with the person entering an accountability process. This work should be undertaken by the Pod with a promise of confidentiality (information should be distilled down to key points before sharing with the person going through the accountability process, in order to preserve anonymity). The spreadsheet linked above is an example of how you can organize and track who has been reached out to and what their response was.

It’s also often a good idea to create an anonymous form that allows people to give feedback on their own. This allows you to capture the feedback of people who hadn’t been identified previously or people who feel more comfortable doing so in this way. Be sure to set the form to email the pod lead when a response is submitted.

Sample Progress Report
This is a sample of a progress report that can be created on a regular basis to make sure the plan is being followed, as well as track what has been learned and what changes have been made in actions and mindset. This could also be the basis of communication that the accountability pod or the person undergoing accountability may create for posting publicly or giving to identified stakeholders in this accountability process who wish to receive such communication.

Sample Pod Communications
For transparency, the Pod may want to send out their own communications throughout the accountability process so that the process is transparent. These can be posted or given directly to stakeholders. Communications about what the plan and its timeline will be, regular progress reports, and a final report will help create trust that the work is really happening and being taken seriously.