Do I Need an Accountability Pod?

Why Create a Pod?

Having an Accountability Pod normalizes mistakes, promotes/models best practices, and reduces shame around consent incidents. It is a safety net for when you miss something or mess up. It eases the social friction in a community from the harm we inevitably do to each other.

It holds leadership to a high standard while encouraging the adoption of a transformative justice culture. It means moving from a Disposability Culture of excluding those who are caught being harmful, instead promoting a culture of Accountability.

Should Everyone Have One?

It takes energy, time, and work to build an informed Pod. Having a group of informed people who could form a Pod on hand is a good plan.

However, only people in leadership roles likely need an ombudsperson or whole Pod.

If you’re still interested in making one and need some help, you can check out my resources section on Accountability to start doing some reading on pitfalls or email me to inquire about personal or team consultations.

What Might Your Pod Be?

I’m available for consulting work in helping teams create an accountability pod or process.

I think pods need to look after three stakeholders:

the person reporting harm
the company or community at large
the allegedly harmful person

Ultimately post traumatic growth, healing, and safety are important goals.

Looking after those stakeholders are three Roles in the pod:

The Coach helps the allegedly harmful person identify potentially harmful behaviours and grow.
The Liaison helps the person who reported harm and functions as a point of contact.
The Coordinator watches for burn out and holds meetings of the pod. They schedule and do administration. They are responsible to supervise and steward the Process itself.

Custom processes function best but these are the bones as I see them for an Accountability Process. No matter how you decide to create your pod, I genuinely hope it helps decatastrophize situations and reduce the trauma in our communities.