Often the notion of ownership is reduced to individuals, rather than the collective - not in this case. The 'ownership journey' has three stages, which could be seen as sequential in nature, since the one builds on the others. This type of journey is very important when you work within an organisation that serves and addresses social issues. And there can be no social issue in South Africa bigger than our crisis in Education. These stages focus firstly on the individual ownership, then the social ownership and then the collaborative ownership. To often, we want to 'run' to the last one in education, without cementing the first two stages.
The individual ownership stage focuses on the self-awareness of the leader in relation to the responsibility of the position, title or trust, as well as the sense of personal ownership of the challenges and responsibility to turnaround the current situation in the school. Although it focuses on the individual, the leaders will constantly understand that he/she has numerous resources at his/her disposal like the values, education, experience, family background, network, etc he/she has built up over time. These are all valuable 'leadership capital' available to be utilised in the problem-solving process. The focus therefore in not on the usage of these capital to the benefit of the individual, or individuals and groups, but rather to the benefit of the entire organisation. In this process, although the resource might be located with or within an individual, the access and utilisation of it is far beyond the individual. It is within this stage, that the 'willingness to give' comes to the fore. One will therefore be prepared to 'throw' whatever is available, at the problem in order to solve it, even if it involves giving up 'positions', 'status', 'titles', etc. What becomes important is not the individuals, but the commitment to solve the problem.
The social ownership stage involves the forging of relationships with others who have an equal stake in the solving of the problem. This can also be called the 'co-ownership' stage, where different stakeholders who can contribute towards the solution, be involved in the process. During this stage, the collective will get a deeper understanding of the challenges, origins and possible solutions to the problem. It is important that the conversation during this stage is constructive but honest, sensitive but truthful, non-judgemental but in-your-face. If you 'water-down' the tackling of the problem at this stage, you will not solve the problem in total. Although this process can be very difficult and full of tension, these are necessary ingredients for successful solutions. By building common ground, trust will be cemented among different stakeholders. In this way, the ownership of the problem will be expanded to the group and collective leadership.
The collaborative ownership stage is about co-creating the processes and ways the problem will be tackled, as well as what and how the resources will be utilised. Everyone in the process will therefore have a common understanding of the 'map' from problem-to-solution, without one or a group of people driving the process, or having the 'secret'. This stage involves a strong sense of communication and sharing of ideas, in order that different actions and strategies can be evaluated and tested. So, we therefore have the same destination in mind, but we open up the process to alternative ways of 'how we could possibly get there'. Everything is transparent, all are accountable, participation is guaranteed, and resource-sharing is willing. The leader therefore has to ensure that this common commitment to the end-result be maintained.
Finally, the crucial part to ownership, as captured in the steps of 'awareness' (see http://muavia-gallie.blogspot.com), is that when you commit yourself to traveling the ownership journey, you must open yourself to the opinions and suggestions of others at a later stage, while grappling with your individual ownership journey.
