How Do You Embrace More Ownership as an Organisation?

As an organisation, you sometimes get stuck in patterns that nobody really wants. The intentions are good, but processes don’t work, decisions face unnecessary delays, and new ideas don’t get a chance to flourish.

Sometimes these patterns are remnants from an earlier phase of the organisation. For example, if the organisation has remained relatively small and flat for a long time, like a start-up, everyone knows each other, there’s often a ‘can-do’ mindset to tackle challenges with and for each other, and the founder or director will make all decisions.

When the organisation subsequently grows rapidly in a short time, the culture, organisational structure, and processes don’t always change at the same pace. Sometimes this is because no time is made for it, and sometimes because old patterns offer comfort and stability in times of change and uncertainty.

Whatever the reason, when you find yourself as an organisation in such a situation, the old patterns no longer fit the new context. If you continue to cling to these patterns, chaos emerges and the organisation eventually gets stuck.

For example, a management team that continues to be tempted to focus on operational problems instead of taking on a strategic role and empowering managers at the next level down, contributes to a lack of strategic clarity, direction, and guidance for the organisation. This also makes it difficult at other levels of the organisation to take appropriate ownership .

The ‘old guard’ who continue to apply their can-do mindset to tackle challenges symptomatically, create difficulties for new colleagues to work in a systematic way and thereby take ownership.

When you find yourself in such a situation, it’s not always immediately clear how you can turn the situation around for the better. As a team leader or middle manager, you may also feel that you do not have the mandate to change the situation. It can then be tempting to accept the situation for what it is and wait until a real leader stands up who breaks the old patterns.

Fortunately, leadership is a behaviour and not a position. Waiting is therefore not necessary. To turn the situation around for the better, you can take a number of simple actions:

• Organise informal future conversations where you dream with colleagues across all layers of the organisation about what the organisation would look like if everyone contributed optimally
• Share successes where new ways of working in pockets of the organisation already make the desired difference as inspiration for what is possible
• Sincerely ask how you can help senior management to create more space for organisational change. By positioning yourself as a partner, mutual trust develops

Ultimately, we all want the same thing: a thriving organisation where people take ownership and together achieve a result to be proud of. By approaching each other with compassion, old patterns can be broken.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​