Who owns this?

Last Saturday, I woke up to a lot of noise down the road.

When I stumbled over to the window, I saw an excavator busy digging up our newly paved street. Flashing lights and people in high-vis clothes everywhere.

The type of stuff I could have watched for hours as a little boy.

I didn’t understand what was going on, so shrugged my shoulders and headed for the shower to wake up.

And when I turned the shower on, it hit me. Or rather, it didn’t hit me.

No water.

“Ahh, that explains…”

The alternative way to wake up without a shower or a cup of coffee is to go out and get some fresh air. (November in Norway means fresh is -10c)

So after I put on every jacket I could find in the house, I headed out and strolled over to the scene to satisfy my curiosity.

As I walked passed, I witnessed every project leader’s nightmare…

When I looked at the jackets the people were wearing, it was obvious that there were a lot of different parties involved here.

The city council, the water company, a plumbing company, the state, some engineering firms, and the list goes on.

They were all looking down into this pit where water was gushing out of a pipe.

But instead of discussing how to solve it, they were having the kind of chat that you never want to hear within your project:

“Who owns this problem?”

They were all talking in circles, pointing at each other. “You made the specification” - “you signed off on valve being correct” - “You put…”

It reminded me of a client a few years ago who edited my document to fit 3 names in the “issue owner” box, and wondered why it didn’t get fixed.

That was a fun conversation…

You see, ownership is an interesting thing. It means taking ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of something.

It’s more than doing what is required.

It goes beyond doing your job. It means making it your mission to see it through, while you take full responsibility for your actions and decisions.

Taking something by the horns and finding a way to make it work.

And that can only be done by one person.

It’s like that colleague who sends a complex question to a group of 8 people. Everyone thinks someone else will answer it, and deletes the email.

Shared ownership equals no ownership.

I’d rather have no owner than have more than one. Why?

Because if there’s no owner, everyone knows it won’t get done. And when you have multiple, everyone assumes the other will take care of it.

So we all think it gets done, until it doesn’t.

This is where old-school project management falls short. You have to go beyond managing the work. Beyond organizing the tasks and making a pretty spreadsheet.

You distribute the work, and you explicitly share with your team what you expect from the owner of a task or goal.

You give them direction, clear the roadblocks, provide the resources, and get the heck out of the way. Your role is to provide feedback, give support, and cheer them on as they execute.

That’s project leadership.

Next time you’re dealing with a task that didn’t get done in time, ask yourself:

• Is there a single owner?

• Have I explained what ownership means?

• Did we agree up front what the expectations were?

If the answer is 3x yes, you can give the person constructive feedback and figure out together how you can get the task back on track.

But if one of those questions is a “yeah.. maybe?” then you now know why it happened, and what you can change to prevent that from happening again.

Talk soon,
Jasper

PS: speaking of taking ownership…

A lot of readers would like to take ownership of their project success, but many missed the last opportunity to join my course Project Management Unraveled.

If that’s you, keep your eyes peeled for a short Black Friday sale later this week.