Taking Ownership of Something...

Written on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 by Siddharth PV

Taking Ownership of Something...

Typical statement from the manager-
Why dont you take ownership of this and get this done?
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Talking of ownership…..
I remember taking 'ownership' of something once.
That was during the Kerala trip - back in college.
Back then - the Kerala trip was all that I used to think about.
It was almost like I had a Parallel processor running all the time - thinking only about the trip.
God - what all questions we had come up with.

Almost gave Jeetubhai the nightmares.

Now - having done that once I know exactly what 'Taking ownership' means...

The Kerala trip was a great success - mainly because the committee had taken 'ownership' of the trip.
Though there was a trip manager who was supposed to be responsible – the committee was taking no chances. We guys had everything planned out – right from room allotments to arranging the junta into various train compartments…..

Committee ke ‘vat’ ka sawaal tha.

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Now drawing a parallel for professional life –

My guess is - for any project at work to be successful –

The guys who are doing it have to take ownership - They have to hold themselves responsible for what happens to it.
They have to live the project - day in and day out.
They have to be paranoid about its success.

The only questions running through their head at all times should be -
What are the potential problems we could face?
What else can I do to ensure that we dont screw up?
Just not screwing up is not enough - we need to go that EXTRA mile to ensure that the end client is "WOW"ed.. What do we do to achieve that"?????

The muted point here is -
Why would somebody take ownership of something?
Just because your boss told you so?

As far as I am concerned – I personally felt responsible for the trip because I saw personal growth coming out of it. Maybe you can say – I had a personal motive.

Let’s accept it - nobody is going to put his heart and soul into the project unless there is something in it for him.

Maybe it is the manager's job to make sure that the guy finds that 'something' – to ensure that the guy puts in as much heart as he expects.

Maybe it is the guy's job to find that 'something' for himself.
Having a bad manager is no excuse for not doing a stellar job.