here's what we found when we studied accountability in organizations here's the hallmark of a low accountability organization it's a steep rigid hierarchy where whatever the boss says goes that is lack of accountability that means only bosses get to hold people accountable and in today's workplace we need peers holding peers accountable and we need peers employees holding their boss accountable if you can't hold your boss accountable if your boss gets away with this you live in a low accountability organization where you're going to have all the kinds of problems you identified earlier does that logic make sense it's a challenge so I want to begin with one sort little skill that would help Michelle in this situation okay so here's the here's the logic behind this skill we live in a culture where people tend to go to silence or violence it's a low accountability culture it's countercultural to speak up right and yet here we are in this environment and you've decided to speak up to your boss this is your boss so here's the question is your boss gonna see this as silence or as violence when you speak up violence right so you've got to have a way in the first words out of your mouth practically in the first few phrases to be able to say this is not an attack right how do you communicate this is not an attack and I want to draw from an adage you get we're here in the military always salute the flag before you disagree with your commanding officer now does that make sense as advice what does it mean to salute the flag before you disagree show respect right show respect for their role their position right for who they are so it means show respect what does it mean different from showing respect what else does it mean to salute the flag before you disagree you're on the same side you're on the same team right we serve under the same flag so we call that mutual purpose I want what you want I'm here to help you right and we call the other mutual respect if you can communicate respect and purpose right that's how you say this is not an attack