We often hear the phrase, “We gave them ownership and look what happened” as if the fact of giving ownership was pure and perfect but the ungrateful workforce deliberately undermined the attempt.
The real obstacle is the perception that ownership is a physical thing that can be bestowed on the workforce by a generous management.
It cannot be done.
I can give someone a car but I cannot give them ownership of it.
The colour could be wrong, the engine is too big or too small, there are not enough or too many doors or the level of trim is wrong.
These choices that we are allowed to make by the manufacturers about our new car are there deliberately to allow us to make them.
We will then get exactly what we want, and most importantly, we have made our own choices and having chosen we can take ownership.
When the ability to make these choices is denied to us we cannot take ownership of the car for two reasons.
The first is that bearing in mind the huge number of choices that the manufacturers make available for each model it is extremely unlikely that the choices someone else makes will be the right ones for us.
The same thing can be said at work.
The man on the shop floor knows how to do his job and it is extremely unlikely that a manager making decisions about the shop floor environment, in which he does not work, will be able to make the right decisions
The second reason is that unless we are allowed to make our own decisions we will not be able to take ownership because it will feel as if we are being told what we have to do.
