Just go and do what you want

(but first read this article about ownership and drivers)

A year ago I send the final version of my first management book ’De aard van jouw beestje’ to the printer. A few weeks later I have a stack of copies in my hands. A fine moment. I am going to celebrate it that very evening at my wine course. I can take a copy along straight away for a business contact. I promised her one.

My management book does the rounds. But then …

My business contact receives the book with pleasure. ’Well done. You must be proud. My compliments. I am going to read it. And thank you, of course.’ The book soon does the rounds and eventually ends up with a senior consultant. He leafs through it quickly, closes it and then pushes it demonstratively across the table with the remark: ’I passed that stage long ago.’ Usually I am quite good at responding on the spot. Not this time. Perplexed. That is what I am.

Ownership, you feel it

To be honest, I do everything I can to hide my frustration. In the weeks after the wine evening too. But why, actually? A few days ago, while preparing a study day about ownership, the answer comes. I worked for a year and a half on writing my book. Put my whole heart and soul into it. I stumbled, fell and got up again. And kept going, consistently. Because I wanted to. More than anything. This has taught me the following. When you exercise a great degree of ownership over something, you genuinely feel it. The reverse applies equally. Suppose I had taken someone else's book to that wine evening. Then I probably would not even have heard that irritating remark from the senior consultant.

Ownership within an organisational culture

Ownership therefore starts with yourself. The basic condition, as I have said, is that you genuinely want to do something. Many of my clients tell me they see ownership as a logical and natural part of their organisational culture. What exactly do they mean by that? To answer that you first have to find the answer to the questions: what is that culture? How does it arise?

Why do you do things the way you do?

My answer: an organisational culture is in fact nothing other than the collective behaviour that employees display. How we behave is steered, alongside the environment we find ourselves in, by our norms and values and even more by our personality. That personality is therefore decisive in how an organisational culture comes about. If we want to develop ownership in ourselves, it is important to understand our personality. The question that goes with that: why do we do things the way we do them? Broadly there are three reasons. 1) Because we have to 2) Because others do it and 3) Because you want to yourself.

Drivers analysis

Because you want to yourself. That third reason is decisive if you want to lead a free and happy life. That is where I am talking about your intrinsic motivation, about your drivers. The good news: the drivers of individuals and teams can be made very clearly visible through a drivers analysis, precisely. It shows razor-sharply what your personal motives are. And which people give you energy or instead take energy away from you. What it ultimately comes down to is that your personal drivers fit completely with the activities you undertake. Is that the case? Then you have met an important condition for creating ownership in yourself and then making it part of an organisational culture.