Hide and seek for grown-ups

What is the correct answer to “Who owns this?”

Yes, this is a trick question.

The only acceptable answer to this question is one single name. Whether you call that person the owner, accountable, responsible, the Direct Responsible Individual (DRI), etc. It doesn’t matter.

All that matters is that you have one single neck to strangle when things go south.

But you know what’s worse than no owner?

More than one.

Have you ever emailed a question to 9 people and not received a reply? This is why. Everyone thinks someone else will answer, so no one does.

Of course, two people can own a part of something, as long as it’s clearly defined where the line is. Which is where things usually get murky.

Yesterday, I spoke to a friend who shared a textbook example of this. She works at a medium-sized organization, but it behaves like a corporate behemoth.

Complex matrix organization. Corporate politics. Musical chairs at the top - the works. Sometimes I wonder if she secretly works for Dunder Mifflin from “The Office”.

They’re running a big, high-profile project these days. Everyone with manager, director, or VP in their title is involved. But it seems that involvement means having an opinion. It doesn’t mean taking ownership.

They all sit in the same meetings, nodding along. But when push comes to shove, everyone just does it their way.

Sounds familiar?

As a result, the people on the project team are lost. They can’t get a uniform decision. Their line manager tells them to do something one way, only to be stopped in the next project meeting.

It’s just a matter of time until someone shouts “That’s not what we agreed!”

Which means the show starts again. They make a new “decision”, but as soon as they leave the room, it’s as if nothing ever happened.

It won’t surprise you that the cracks are appearing in the project team. People are frustrated and the real work has yet to start.

We had a long conversation about the different issues that are surfacing. They’re all problems. They’re all relevant, urgent, and important.

But they’re symptoms. They are not the root cause.

The underlying issue is a lack of ownership.

Ownership of the project, and ownership of the consequences if it goes wrong.

It won’t surprise you that the sponsor of this project is barely visible. She’s too busy for the details until right before a deadline, when it turns out she does have an opinion on virtually everything.

Classic.

And the project manager? Well… There’s a coordinator. She has all the responsibilities of a project manager, but no mandate or formal authority. She’s trying hard, but you can’t blame her. She’s been set up to fail.

So what can my friend do?

The organization needs to figure out who’s running the show here. The classic hide ‘n seek game of matrix organizations is what’s holding this project back.

So she’ll need to address this in a way that advances the cause, not one that makes things worse. How that looks depends on your position and how your organization works.

Maybe she can talk directly to the coordinator or the line manager to address the issue. Or she could go to the sponsor, or (my favorite) leverage a relationship with another senior stakeholder for a smooth right hook.

Whatever the right approach, she’ll follow the guidelines for giving feedback as we discussed in this previous newsletter.

Fingers crossed - she’s having a conversation about it as I’m finishing up this newsletter.

To wrap things up, there are two things you can take away from this nightmare:

First, remember that whenever you assign an owner to something, it’s one single name. On top of that, everyone involved should understand what it means to own something.

As always, aligned expectations mean half the job done.

Second, whenever you’re in a similar situation where a team is falling apart over communication issues, ask yourself whether it’s a symptom or the root issue.

Because you can only pick so many battles.

Choose wisely and take the lead. It’s scary, but it needs to be done. And if you do it tactfully, it’ll get you noticed in the best possible way.

Talk soon,
Jasper