Responsibility and ownership are essential to a productive and effective team. They are the cornerstones of meaningful work, team morale, and pride in accomplishment. However, there is a third piece to this architecture and without it ownership and responsibility can turn poisonous and destroy a team from the inside out rather than build it. The third corner stone is authority. Authority empowers team members to move forward in effectively owning the test act and to bear the responsibility that comes with it.
Poor management will sometimes delegate responsibility or ownership without authority thus giving the team all of the load and none of the power to handle it. This is crippling to both management and the team because it causes stress on ends of the structure.
Rather, when these three cornerstones are properly put into place. You will see and experience one of the most powerful and effective teams that can be built. Stress and load will be evenly spread throughout the team. Meaningful work will begin to be commonplace rather than the occasional surprise, and you will find above all that the team moves forward together rather than as individuals.
Responsibility – Ownership – Authority: move the ship forward towards a unified goal.
