Building Accountability in Economic Development

Economic development should be accountable for how they spend public money and how programs are working or not working in their community. Many economic development organizations have no formal system for accountability and in the end it will catch up with them. Here are five ways to build accountability into your daily routine.

Make your goals public – This works on a number of levels. In terms of your organization it means publicly announcing your goals and objectives for the year. In terms of your board, it means clearly defining your goals and providing regular updates on status. In terms of yourself, it means holding yourself accountable for getting the job done and working with your team to motivate and lead.

Share your planning documents and action plans – Many of your economic development projects will have timelines and milestones. By sharing your action plans with your team, board and other key stakeholders you build trust and increase accountability. It is another way to publicly state your agenda and create a powerful accountability mechanism for getting things done. If you are constantly missing milestones, questions will begin to be asked. Alternatively, when you are constantly meeting milestones, you begin to build a strong sense of accountability.

Build in short-term goals – If every goal is long-term it will be difficult to show results. Make sure every goal has smaller or short-term goals built in. Then communicate with others when the smaller goals are met and how they work towards and are accountable to the larger goals.

Encourage discussion and debate – It is often easier to quietly go about business and work towards your goals. However, by encouraging discussion and even debate with staff, board and stakeholders about what you are doing will help to stay accountable. It will communicate your goals and provide another level of understanding of what you are doing and why.

Schedule regular updates – Some organizations meet on a weekly or monthly basis while others it’s quarterly or annually. Depending on when your organization meets develop a regular routine of providing updates. This can be through emails, newsletters or scheduled meetings.