An industry friend of mine recently stated: “We need to give teams the tools to take ownership.”
This is such a powerful statement.
Many of our processes are extremely prescriptive. As we ask our teams to “own quality” on their project, we fail to realize that an overly prescriptive quality process is exactly what prevents them from being responsible for quality. When a process is too prescriptive, it is too rigid for teams to utilize.
As organizations seek adherence to a corporate standard (assuming positive intent), this adherence becomes unbalanced, preventing teams from thinking critically and applying their knowledge to their specific project. This also stunts growth.
To promote critical thinking, we must trust our teams to get the work done in a manner that works best for them while monitoring the difference between a performance problem and a process problem.
Teams can own a flexible framework; they can’t own a cumbersome process.
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