goal is to understand the underlying accountability, social validation aspects for humans
run clubs, marathons, the strava app they are all in the accountability as a service businesses (AaaS)
accountability as a whole can be induced in two ways in businesses/human life
- Direct way (accountability groups and partners)
- Indirect, more at a social interaction and validation layer
we can see accountability in two ways
for those who have a weak will power to take their life seriously and need external checks by people, almost like a teacher-student, mom-kid dynamics
this is more due to the social aspect, its a group activity. your energy and will elevate if your doing any activity with a friend.
and in recent times, this considers the social validation layer, where you get accountability and validation from talking about these things online.
an example for these are the strava's run summaries screenshots that people share online. if you're in a run club or goes to a lot of marathons, high chance you wouldn't touch the same numbers if you go solo.
its the underlying group activity nature that runs these things. joining a run club is somewhat recreational and few join to meet new people.
you hit 10k in a marathon because it solves for all the social problems. you get a medal, you can go with your friends as an event to participate, you get a dedicated path to focus on your run, you get cool pictures to share with your friends.
I call this Organised accountability as a service.
without those aspects, you can barely get your friends to show up for your own run, you now can only hit a 5k all alone if its your hobby.
if you're a beginner, better forget about it.
accountability groups and partners is more straight forward but social aspect of the accountability services could be used to build great businesses.
strava's extensive community, organised activities and a really good social share aspect makes it great product in its segment.
the #buildinpublic trend is also a fruit of the social accountability aspects. you may slack on showing up, knocking on the doors if its only you, not everyone has a strong mental ability to overcome these. instead you blog about it, you share progress, you make your goals public, this acts as an invisible policing from others.
for these people being social is more like talking to themselves or talking to their audience and at the very least the fact that if you promise something and dont show up the embarrassment and the potential confrontations would force you to show up.
I use this possible confrontations aspect for other benefits in my life, that helps me be high agency. if any activity requires a third person's involvement, i make sure to put them in a place of vulnerability which makes me to act fast to avoid the confrontation.
ex: i always book a uber ride then get ready to go out, solving my laziness by forcing myself to be and act quick in order to avoid a possible confrontation.
these only work at a personal and social levels. most online accountability groups fail, even if the upfront promise is the same, a group is a confined territory, you can always quit the group, ignore it to feel better.
the key here is to make sure you're not feeling better, if you share any goals online, its out there for everyone. you can fear judgement from unknown person, even if you delete its already out there, people have seen it and they know that you're not showing up.
you will have that very little fear of embarrassment if you talk about other things, nor can you move away from the platform. hence accountability here works.