Do we really know ‘Ownership?’

It is one word in the corporate world that’s over exposed and obviously unclear. It is sad when you think about it especially since it is the only thing that really gets things done and makes stuff happen? Anyway some recent experiences motivated me to contemplate on ‘ownership’ and the rest was this essay.... it is funny how that happens.

So what really is ownership? Every organization I have ever consulted with asks its employees to ‘Take OWNERSHIP’, ‘Be a player’, ‘Don’t be a spectator’ and yet… I am not saying anything any further? What does it really mean to be a player, to take ownership? Every day works is getting done, tasks are being completed, we are sending out emails, printing pages of reports, creating billions and billions of bits-bytes of data. I was at dinner recently with some dear friends and in conversations we started to talk about juggling and somehow the concept of OWNERSHIP was loud and clear in my mind.

When the juggler juggles there are many things he or she has to be aware of, anticipate and respond to. Everything from the wind drag if her or she is outside to making sure the object being juggled don’t hit into each other, the synchronicity with which the items are swung up in air, ensuring the receiving hand is in position to accept the descending item and so on. In so many ways similar to how organizations operate. Every task has an element of marketing, sales, product supply, financial control, reporting and logistics and yet when individuals complete their deliverables and hand-off they often miss the coordination of the juggler. Resulting in the items falling to the ground!

Ownership has to be holistic an unfortunate irony of the word itself while still ensuring that there is no power grab and everyone over compensates ensuring a flawless delivery. I am proposing shared ownership but with a grain of salt “a common yard is never swept”!