with Alec Pearson

What happens when everyone follows the process, does exactly what they are supposed to do, and the problem still isn’t solved?

That is where ownership gets interesting.

In this episode Alec Pearson explores what happens when responsibility is spread across teams, functions and organisations, but nobody is truly accountable for the outcome.

A recent experience with a serious mechanical failure brought the issue into sharp focus. Everyone involved appeared to have a role. Everyone had a process. Everyone could explain what they had done.

And yet one question remained: Who actually owned the outcome?

It is a pattern that appears inside many organisations more often than we might like to admit. Problems are handed over, escalated, logged and passed on. Everyone can point to their part of the process.

But the problem itself can remain unresolved.

In this episode, I explore:

• The difference between responsibility and genuine accountability
• Why following the process is not the same as owning the outcome
• When judgement and leadership need to take over from process
• What leaders should ask about ownership across their organisation

Because organisations can become very good at processing problems.

The real test of leadership is what happens when somebody recognises that the process is no longer enough.

And if everybody owns a piece of the process, there is always a risk that nobody owns the problem.

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