Ownership: Who Carries the Weight?

Ownership: Who Carries the Weight?

The first question—and often the most uncomfortable one—is about who truly owns outcomes.

What Ownership Really Means

Ownership isn't just having your name on a document. It's a felt sense of responsibility:

- You notice when things aren't working

- You act without waiting for permission

- You feel the consequences of outcomes

- You're accountable to others for results

When ownership is clear, things move. When it's unclear, things stall.

The Symptoms of Unclear Ownership

You can recognize ownership problems by their symptoms:

- Decisions languish without resolution

- Everyone's waiting for someone else to act

- Problems get reported but not addressed

- "That's not my job" becomes a common refrain

- Success has many parents; failure is an orphan

These aren't character failures. They're structural signals that ownership hasn't been established.

The Ownership Spectrum

Ownership exists on a spectrum:

Nominal Ownership: Your name is on the org chart, but you don't feel empowered, informed, or supported to actually own outcomes.

Genuine Ownership: You have the authority, information, and resources to affect outcomes—and you feel the weight of that responsibility.

Absorbed Ownership: You've taken on ownership that was never assigned to you—because someone had to, and you couldn't watch it fail.

Many organizations run on absorbed ownership: people stepping up to fill gaps that no one acknowledged. This works until it doesn't—until people burn out, leave, or stop absorbing.

The Courage Ownership Requires

Real ownership requires courage:

- Courage to decide when the path isn't clear

- Courage to surface what's not working

- Courage to ask for what you need

- Courage to own outcomes you can't fully control

The last point is crucial. You can't control everything that affects your outcomes. But you can own your response, your communication, and your commitment to navigating honestly.

Clarifying Ownership

When ownership is unclear, these questions help:

- Who can make this decision?

- Who will feel the consequences most directly?

- Who has the context needed to decide well?

- Who is accountable to stakeholders for this outcome?

Sometimes the answer is "no one yet." That's not a failure—it's useful information. Now you can have the conversation about assigning ownership.

Ownership Without Authority

What if you feel ownership but don't have formal authority?

This is one of the hardest positions—and one of the most common. You care about an outcome, but you can't direct resources or make binding decisions.

In these situations, your ownership shows up as:

- Clear communication about what you're seeing

- Proposals rather than unilateral action

- Escalation when needed

- Influence rather than control

Informal ownership isn't second-class. Some of the most important stewardship happens from these positions.