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>I don't take it to mean that you are supposed to be the Atlas of the organization, but rather that when you see problems and issues that might arise, you don't
by jklinger410 8y ago
>I don't take it to mean that you are supposed to be the Atlas of the organization, but rather that when you see problems and issues that might arise, you don't ignore them because it's "not my job" or "not my problem" - you embrace it, escalate or forward it to the correct people, and then go back to what else you have to do.
Trying to really educate around this at my workplace.
I call it "throwing your hands up." If you run into a problem, or notice that something isn't working, what-have-you, if you throw your hands up instead of working to fix it, or find the person who should fix it, you are on my shit list.
It's hard to explain this part of ownership. But it's very obvious when you see someone doing it. Their first response is often to say something like "not my job," and they often think that Extreme Ownership or Question Behind the Question mentality covers it, but after it all shakes out in the wash, it's actually the opposite.
Maybe people need to do a better job of explaining ownership up front, or choose different words. IDK
- afarrell 8y ago> on my shit list What would you tell a junior engineer who feels so overwhelmed with the tasks he is supposed to be focused on that he decides not to switch task to solving this other thing that may-or-may-not be a real problem? Also, are the phrases “Extreme Ownership” and “Question Behind the Question” from a US Navy SEAL book by Willink and Babin? Would you generally recommend that book?
- pchristensen 8y agoI can highly recommend the book "Extreme Ownership" and Jocko's podcast. I haven't read his subsequent books but I assume they're also great.
- matwood 8y agoI’ll second the Jocko book recommendation. His podcast is also good. Pick out the QA episodes if you want mostly leadership questions.
- jklinger410 8y agoCorrect on the book for extreme ownership. The other book is "QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life" by John G Miller.
- jodrellblank 8y agoI call it "throwing your hands up." If you run into a problem, or notice that something isn't working, what-have-you, if you throw your hands up instead of working to fix it, or find the person who should fix it, you are on my shit list. My problem with this is that everything is always not working, or barely working, and nobody wants to hear about it. You're going to say "of course I mean important things", but wherever you look, if you look for problems, you see problems, there aren't a few things which are problems, there are oceans and oceans of problems and potential problems. The only coherent response to this is blinders - do what everyone else does, and pretend everything is fine - until an incident forces people to face it. Then face the smallest possible case of it, and reassure each other it's fine now. I think you really mean "intuit the same judgement of importance that I have", but either you're so used to not-seeing-problems that you don't see how many there are, or you aren't willing to say that outright because it leaves the person with an escape from you putting the blame on them, and you don't want them to have an escape and you need someone to shitlist for .. I dunno what reasons. Why /do/ you have a shitlist instead of a "training" list? "Everything broken, or barely patched together" is the norm. Cynical people reading this, give a couple of minutes thought how many things you've experienced just today, which aren't right or could be a problem. I bet you'll pass a dozen in that time, right?
- Angostura 8y ago> and nobody wants to hear about it Then the rest of the organisation, including leadership hasn't embraced the approach. You can't do it unless the culture really baked in, or else you will break yourself.