Frustrated

Rick -

Have you done some root cause analysis to understand why there is this perceived lack of accountability?

There could be many reasons for this:

1. Disengagement due to a low sense of autonomy or connection to the work's purpose
2. Too much work on their plates
3. Confusion about what needs to be done

Without understanding what is causing the symptoms, any corrective action you take might create more problems.

Kiron

A tool will allow you to assign responsibility, but it does not ensure those assigned will be personally accountable. They can be handy for reports and alerting people to when things come due, but people also tend to try and use them to avoid talking to other people. It's easy to hide when all you do is feed the machine.

Some groups will "chase" the tracking system rather than planning in advance. If they're only looking 2 weeks ahead and a task takes 4 weeks, they'll probably be 2 weeks late unless we as a team do a look-ahead to remind people of major upcoming activities.

With important tasks, I make sure to personally contact the people responsible. It takes more time but it is harder to ignore than an automated email or a distribution list when I address their issues directly. I also make sure that I push for the important stuff and not on the trivial stuff so that when people get my attention, they know it's a priority and I'm not merely being an annoyance.

If team members are not being accountable, I will talk to them directly, and if that doesn't work, I elevate the issue. I have had daily meetings requiring all 1st and 2nd level managers on critical milestones. If they're not attending or responding, I ask for help and when the director attends the meeting and starts asking direct questions, people respond quickly and know that my own requests are being heard.

Another important aspect to being accountable, is people committing to the due dates. You can't really hand people due dates and expect the work will get done. If they don't own the plan, things will get done when they get done regardless of the due date.

A RACI matrix tool would be adequate to resolve this project's needs. You can search for a Miro RACI template.

Some great advise from my fellow colleagues. I beliefe Microsoft Outlook and Teams have a good components were you can schedule activities with reminders for deadlines. I think it's Microsoft Planner!