Subject: Laurie Ford and Werner on Accountability From: LHanawalt@aol.com Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 21:36:52 EDT

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Partners -
The Sunday night calls were outstanding.  We talked about what accountability
really is, and our observations from doing our own homework and from being
with others in our homework parties.  Here's the nutshell:

We have noticed that "accountability", in a field of partnership, has never
been spoken in our originating circles before.  There are lots of places where
we think we are accountable, but are not.  
Example: "I am accountable for my well being."  Well, not really - there is no
promise to impact anything, no giving one's word as action.   
Example: "I am accountable for doing my job."  Well, not really - there is no
future being carved out in that statement.   
Example: "I am accountable for my friendship with you."  Well, not really -
there are no specific measurable results to be accountable for there.   

We are asking the question, in our circles, "What COULD we be accountable for
with each other?"  These are like Interviews - with the intention of
discovering how we could add accountability to our relationships (now that we
know it isn't there already!)

We are learning so much - accountability in partnership is created in
conversation, making promises from a stand, with a commitment to impact the
future.
Accountability in the field Partnership is being distinguished as we speak.

Thank you all for your willingness to play and practice in this game.  We are
creating a future.
Laurie

Ray Fulcher forwarded this Werner Erhard quote:
Accountability is the opportunity to live at choice rather than
accidentally. Accountability is the opportunity to carve out the future
rather than to sit back and have it happen to you. Accountability held
from a stand, as one's word is the ground from which one's own
transformation is created ongoingly.
Transformation lives in accountability. Without accountability, without
committed speaking, without promises and declarations, there is no
transformation; there is, at best peak feelings.
A promise made from the stand that who you are is your word engages you
as a participant. You actually impact the world.
With a promise, you create a condition that supports your commitment
rather than your moods. When motivational dialogue comes up about your
preference versus your commitments, and you disregard the dialogue in
favor of doing what you said you would do solely because you said so;
you distinguish yourself from your psychology. In that moment, you are
your word as an action, rather than only as an idea you have.
In that moment, the promise becomes who you are rather than something
you said; and your relationship to the world shifts. You find yourself
producing results that seem discontinuous and unpredictable from the
point of view of the spectator. The experience is one of joy,
fearlessness, irrepressible energy and satisfaction.
Transformation exists not only when we speak about it but when we
empower others to speak it. The success of our work will be measured by
our ability to penetrate the prevailing conceptual reality with the
possibility that the transformation is. That environment is carved out
and strengthened in participation and in engagement by the people who
have taken part in the Forum.
Joining together to speak for the possibility that transformation is
generates a momentum that empowers all of us and all of the work.
*************

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