3 ideas to encourage participation and ownership in your teams.

It is a myth that the smartest ideas come from rungs higher up the organizational pyramid.  The flip side to ‘experience’ can be living within a boundary.  Continued engagement in a role, process or environment can often result in ‘tunneled vision’ where the brain contracts to think within a self-created periphery. Here are 3 simple guidelines to enhance collaboration, ownership, accountability and responsibility in your teams:

1. Work without a title:
   Adopt a coaching/mentoring style and explain the need and the expected outcome. Titles can often be intimidating and hierarchy can create stratified layers that can be a major hurdle to effective collaboration.
2. Draw a wire-frame:
   Throw in the guidelines on budgets, timelines, roles and responsibilities and collaborate to work out the ideal process to achieve the end result. Your teams need to understand why you are asking them to do something. The key here is to draw the wire-frame and invite thought around the process to achieve the goal. This will help create an atmosphere of congenial brainstorming which allow team members to rise to the challenge. You will be surprised with the level of accountability and ownership that comes to the forefront with this approach.
3. Keep it simple:
   Communicate in simple terms. Heavy verbiage can be intimidating and often confusing. If there is a need to add layers or additional checks to an existing process, develop a ‘kill list’ and wipe out process activities which may no longer be relevant. Believe me, housekeeping works here as well.

Please share your experiences around these thoughts and how you get the best out of your teams. 

Amer Nizamuddin is a senior management executive with a demonstrated ability to create collaborative, high performing teams and organizations. He has twenty years of distinguished performance in strategy design, execution and results attainment. His rich blend of experience spans startups as well as large organizations.

Amer's specialties include: Business Leadership, Management, Business Transformation, New/Emerging technologies, Coaching/Mentoring, Leadership Development, KPO, LPO, Operational Leadership, Vendor Management, Project Management, Turnaround Situations, Process Transitions, Workflow Automation based on Lean Six Sigma, Productivity Improvement, Price and Contract Negotiation, Cost Leadership, and Client Relationship Management.

Connect with Amer:
Email: [email protected]
https://in.linkedin.com/in/amers