The complaint:

“We're not set up right.”

That's what people say. What they usually mean is:

Someone's going to take the hit when this fails, and it won't be fair.

The real question: Who carries the weight when this doesn't work?

Ownership isn't about org charts or RACI matrices. It's about whether consequence has somewhere to land—or whether it disperses until no one can be held accountable and everyone feels vaguely blamed.

When ownership is clear, hard conversations become possible. When it's murky, the weight piles up quietly until it can't be ignored.

What to notice:

• People — Who actually absorbs the consequences? Not who's listed on the project plan, but who feels it when things go wrong.
• Process — Do your processes expose ownership or hide it? Some workflows make accountability invisible until failure forces it into view.
• Tools — Do your tools show the real state of things? Or do they let people stay comfortable by not showing what's actually happening?

Ownership is not about stability. It's about making sure consequence has somewhere to land before it lands everywhere.