All principles

Principle 3

Ownership must be clear and fair

Ownership must be clear and fair.

Ownership is one of the most important ideas in this guide.

But it must be used fairly.

Ownership means one person is responsible for keeping the work moving.

It does not mean that person takes blame for every problem.

For ownership to be fair, the owner needs enough power to act.

That means the owner should know:

• what the goal is
• what choices they can make
• who can approve changes
• who can help
• what the deadline is
• what to do if the work gets blocked

Unfair ownership

A person is told, “You own this,” but they cannot get access to the system, cannot change the process, and cannot get a decision from leadership.

That is not true ownership.

That is blame transfer.

Fair ownership

A person is told:

You own the weekly blocked order report. You can work with operations and pharmacy leads to gather data. If a department does not send an update by Thursday noon, escalate to me. The report is due Friday at noon.

That gives the owner a clear path.