Story 19: Ownership
The story: The monthly theme was ownership. He rewrote her report. She asked what gave him the right. He said he was taking ownership. Of my work, she said. To him, ownership meant stepping in wherever he saw something worth improving. To her, it meant being responsible for your own patch and staying out of everyone else's.
What it means for organisations: Ownership is one of the most loaded words in team culture. It can mean accountability, autonomy, initiative, or stewardship, and it points in two directions at once. Inside your own work it means take responsibility. Outside it, the same word means keep out. Adopt it as a value and you have handed every person a mandate whose edges only become visible when two of them overlap.
Where next?
Read the comic as text
The Alignment Gap, Story 19
by Stavros Stavru, Ph.D. (weallagreed.com)
Scene 1: The office wall
An empty office with a hanging lamp, bookshelves, and potted plants. A yellow poster on the wall reads "Monthly theme: OWNERSHIP." No one is present, and no one speaks.
Banner between scenes: “What could go wrong?”
Scene 2: In front of the poster
The same office, with the "Monthly theme: OWNERSHIP" poster behind them. Ally stands with her hands on her hips, upset. Axel faces her with one hand on his hip, gesturing at the poster, pleased with himself.
Ally: You rewrote my report?!
Axel: I was taking ownership!
Ally: What? Of my work?
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