Ownership in the team: we wear the jersey.
Ownership means you don't wait until someone becomes responsible. You are. For us that applies to every problem that lands on the table, even if it doesn't sit exactly in your position. Nobody points at someone else.
What does ownership mean?
Ownership means standing up for your own actions and their outcome, without anyone checking up on you or giving instructions. At work this means you take on a task fully, make the decisions that come with it and speak up early when something goes wrong.
Personal responsibility and working autonomously mean essentially the same thing.
Why ownership is often missing.
A lack of ownership is rarely a character problem. Usually it's a result of how a company is built. When five people are responsible for the same thing, in the end nobody feels responsible, that's diffusion of responsibility. And when effort isn't seen or is even punished, people eventually stop doing more than asked. Then a team ends up working to rule.
Ownership emerges when roles are clear, decisions sit with the people doing the work and a mistake isn't a career risk.
Ownership or diffusion of responsibility?
| Diffusion of responsibility | Ownership |
|---|---|
| Everyone is responsible, so nobody is | One person owns it, everyone helps |
| “I thought you were doing that.” | “I'll take care of it until it's done.” |
| Problems get postponed in meetings | Problems get tackled or handed over clearly |
| Mistakes get hidden | Mistakes get raised early |
| Working to rule | Thinking beyond your own task |
What makes ownership possible.
Four things that work in any team, however big.
One owner per task
A name, not a team. The owner doesn't have to do everything, but makes sure it gets done.
The open question
At the end of every meeting: “Who's taking this?” Until someone says yes.
Decide where the work happens
Whoever does the work makes the decisions about it. Without three approvals.
Make effort visible
Doing more gets noticed, not punished. Otherwise it stops quickly.
How you recognise ownership in a team.
Ownership: Tasks have a name, not just a team
Missing: “The team will take care of it.”
Ownership: Problems get raised before they escalate
Missing: Problems only show up in the status report
Ownership: Someone says: “I'll take that.”
Missing: Everyone nods, nobody volunteers
Ownership: Mistakes get discussed openly
Missing: Mistakes get explained away
Ownership: Help comes before anyone asks
Missing: “Not my area.”
The jersey: never outsiders, never spectators.
Anyone who works with us notices by day two at the latest that we're not outsiders. We wear the jersey because we want to, not because the contract says so. And when someone is out, we cover for each other, just like on the field. All our ground rules are in the Playbook.
Ownership goes by many names.
- Personal responsibility
- Working autonomously
- Taking responsibility
- Accountability
- Own initiative
- High agency
- Hands-on mentality
Whoever wears the jersey doesn't point at others.
What you want to know about ownership.
In everyday use they mean almost the same thing: standing up for your own actions and their outcome. Personal responsibility is often used more privately, for example for health. Ownership shows up more at work, when it's about tasks, decisions and results. In a team the same thing counts: someone takes it on and sees it through.
By making it possible, not by demanding it. Give every task an owner instead of a team, leave decisions with the people doing the work and ask at the end of every meeting who's taking it on. And make effort visible. Anyone who gets punished for doing more stops doing it quickly.
Ownership means standing up for a task. High agency goes one step further: not waiting for someone to give you a task, but spotting problems yourself and tackling them. Someone with high agency takes ownership almost automatically. For us the two belong together, in the Playbook it's the jersey.
Want a team that takes ownership?
Read how we work, or tell us where things get stuck for you.