Netguru Values #2: ?? Take Ownership and Question the Status Quo in a Constructive manner ??

Our organizational culture at Netguru is based on seven values. I’d like to tell you a little bit about each of them. Let’s talk about “ Take ownership and question the status quo in a constructive manner” today.

The content below is a 1:1 copy of a post I shared on our internal blog in 2019.

Enjoy the read & share your thoughts in the comments.

Take ownership and question the status quo in a constructive manner

I’ve split this into 3 sections for every Value:?

1. general thoughts;
2. “over”: examples were we are going too far (as you can take everything to the extreme and damage its true meaning);
3. “under”: examples where I’d say we can’t say we are living up to the value.

General thoughts ??

Taking ownership is core to leadership. I’d even consider saying that, in most cases, those two terms can be used interchangeably – ownership IS leadership and leadership IS ownership. I like to call people who take ownership proactively “champions” (and I'm proud we have so many here at Netguru, check out the #champions channel for some inspirations). You need neither a permission nor a title to do it.

We started Netguru more than 10 years ago, and we had NO IDEA what we were doing. Every single process, best practice, service line, pretty much everything you see in this organization is here because someone took ownership. A lot of people had the courage to do it even before we “officially” nominated ownership to be one of our values.

Over ??

Examples where we are going too far (as you can take everything to the extreme and damage it’s true meaning):

1. Trying to change too many things at once. Larger organizations and complex systems need more time, but eventually done right the change comes. Every change needs an owner (i.e. a champion) and a lot of work.
2. Starting revolutions instead of evolutions – most revolutions are rough, bloody and often fail or we end up falling back to old habits. Think “Lech Wa??sa” or “Nelson Mandela”. Create consensus rather than fight to the last bullet. That said,?sometimes, we clearly need a revolution!
3. Not assuming that people have good intentions and challenging something without asking “Why are we doing it this way?” first.

Under ??

Examples where I’d say we can’t say we are living up to the value:

1. Clearly: responding to questions “Why are we doing it this way?” with “I don’t know and you shouldn’t bother either – just follow the rules”
2. Complaining* or questioning the status quo just for the sake of it. This is why we feel it needs to be constructive. Not only is it a problem/challenge but also: What are we trying to accomplish? What are some solutions we can look at? How can we measure progress? Can we make it sustainable? Who needs to be involved? You don’t need to know all the answers but at least show you did take a shot at finding them.
3. Questioning without taking ownership (if not for fixing the issue than at least for seeing through and following up with people responsible for fixing it)
4. Assuming that posting a proposal on Slack or via “one-pager” is enough to make a change. There is much more to it.
5. Saying “it’s not my job”. If there is one thing I learned about leadership it’s that no one is going to “give you” leadership. You have to “take it”.

What do you think about our #2? Anything you would add? Something you disagree with? Comment below ??

*) A few people that gave me feedback on this mentioned that I should define complaining. For me, complaining is “questioning without taking ownership”. And how do you define “complaining”? ??