The Accountability Ladder
Reference Document · AL-001

The Accountability Ladder

Eight canonical rungs of professional accountability. Climb at your own pace. Most do not.

  1. 8

    Prevent It

    Adding monitoring, alerts, and never doing that again.

    Rung 8 / 8
  2. 7

    Own It

    I caused this. Fixing now.

    Rung 7 / 8
  3. 6

    Ownership Lite™

    I am involved, but let's not jump to conclusions.

    Rung 6 / 8
  4. 5

    Acknowledge Reality

    Okay… something might be broken.

    Rung 5 / 8
  5. 4

    Delay & Deflect

    Let's take this offline and regroup.

    Rung 4 / 8
  6. 3

    Excuse Engineering

    There are many factors outside my control.

    Rung 3 / 8
  7. 2

    Blame Others

    This is clearly someone else's system.

    Rung 2 / 8
  8. 1

    Denial

    Nothing is wrong. The alerts are lying.

    Rung 1 / 8
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