This post is a WIP.
I don’t claim to have a whole deal of experience with this concept, it’s a new area I’m exploring with other colleagues at work. Certainly it’s been game changing even just reflecting on how I’m approaching ownership, where it begins and where it ends.
The concept of extreme ownership comes from the book written by Jocko Willink — former US Navy SEAL leader. I’m currently going through this with others in a book club style, so this post will be updated as I learn more.
Why Extreme?
The idea of taking extreme ownership was radical even to the Navy SEAL. From the primitive remains of our human brain, there’s a natural tendency to protect what you have, from the fear of losing it. In every day environments, this translates to protecting your status and other’s perception of you.
This is what we term as ‘ego’, and this sometimes kicks up even when there isn’t actually any real threats.
Taking the stance of ‘extreme’ means to break that habit of letting our primitive tendency to take over and decide our actions.
And Ownership?
Taking ownership to something means caring deeply about it’s outcome. It’s a form of commitment — to own something is to be committed on doing the best to ensure it reaches whatever the desired outcome is.
Taking extreme ownership to is about applying that on whatever you’re involved in. It’s about holding back that natural tendency to protect yourself.
Once someone takes extreme ownership, it completely removes the time and energy spent in finding the answer to “who’s responsible?". It shifts the focus onto “I’ve got responsibility on this” and changes the thinking to “how am I committed to making this work out?”
What it’s not…
It’s not about doing everything yourself. Having ownership of something doesn’t mean you’re always the one doing all of the work. You may have others that help you complete the task. The ownership comes in to make sure that the task itself is done and the desired outcome is achieved.
It’s not about blaming. Blame and ownership are 2 very separate concepts.