SEEKING AMBROSE BIERCE. If he were alive, he might define accountability as taking time away from doing the things you're supposed to be doing to explain to people who might not understand what you're doing that you're doing the things you're supposed to be doing.

I'm pleased to report that the external reviewers of the economics and physics programs at Northern Illinois told headquarters both departments were doing a great deal of work, effectively, with the few resources they had.

I'm less pleased to discover, via Newmark's Door, that some managers see the accountability fetish as a feature.

Communicate more, in order to meet less. Be proactive in your communication. Don't wait for them to call a meeting. Tell them what's going on. Produce regular reports. Don't "promise" to produce regular reports -- just produce them. Let them listen in on some of your day to day chatter. If you have daily standups, bring the manager in. Stop baffling them with technical mumbo jumbo. Feed them edible slices of information. Walk them through it in bite-sized chunks. Give them documentation tasks to keep them feeling important. Give them communication tasks. Draw pictures for them to stick on the wall of their office.

I believe the barnyard epithet about the steer not getting fatter any faster if it's weighed more frequently applies here. The one management fad that hasn't made its way from the private sector, where middle managers who existed to be given documentation to feel important went in the late 1980s downsizings, into higher education, has been the proliferation of middle managers.