Following Taylor, we have sliced up the larger goal of the organization and handed it out to individuals and teams. The entire organization has been cut up into parts with each one of us having a role to play. But who owns the common spaces? How many people show up when they are asked to do things beyond the call of duty again and again (normal par for the course in an emerging, fast growth economy)? And how do the separate pieces get stitched back up together in a world operating on Taylor’s principles?
Every organization faces such situations where well planned strategies run amiss because of things falling between the cracks in No man’s land. Is a forward supposed to save the goal when it’s under attack or does she just wait until the scare is over or the deed is done? Is a sales person also responsible for quality? Isn’t that production’s job?
The same person at home will take responsibility of every aspect that affects his/ or his family’s life from getting the bathroom flush repaired (its not Maintenance’s job, its mine), to getting the drapes changed (not Purchases’ job), to changing the nappies and cleaning up afterwards (it’s not Admin’s responsibility, it’s my house, after all!)
We believe these gaps in ownership in large organizations (and not so in smaller organization units like a family) arise because we hand over tasks rather than the spirit of the organization to the individuals. In the way the system is set up today, the organization’s owners are its shareholders. People who will never set foot in the organization, folks who could be called investors at best, punters at their worst. They may own an asset but certainly don’t have psychological ownership of the space.
Shouldn’t at least the psychological ownership of the organization be with the people who live in it and make meaning out of it? Isn’t an organization a community first and only a thriving community can become a great and sustainable profit making platform?
Vyaktitva initiates these discussions with industry experts and Arjun Shekhar (Partner at Vyaktitva) the author of a book that’s been winning many accolades from its readers - ”A Flawed God’.
