Building Collective Ownership

Insight

Collective ownership is a concept where multiple departments or organizations share responsibility for key decisions and resources within an initiative.

The big difference between collective ownership and co-design is that collective ownership is about shared accountability for outcomes while co-design focuses on shared creation of solutions.

Even when you’ve come up with a great solution, the more complex implementation is and the more you’re aiming for system-level change, the more collective ownership matters.

But just because it matters, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to build:

• Different teams often come in with their own mandates and timelines, making it hard to align around a shared solution, even when everyone agrees on the big picture.
• In a complex environment, control feels safer than co-ownership.
• Often, there’s no shared definition of success among different teams and organisations.

So how can we build collective ownership despite these challenges?

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Insight in Practice

Here are five principles to create effective collective ownership in your initiatives:

• Shared vision.
  Co-create clear, measurable goals and make progress visible. Transparency builds trust and allows everyone to course-correct together.

• Real-time data.
  Collect up-to-date data from everyone involved. Shared facts keep efforts aligned and effective. They also make it easy for everyone involved to see the benefits of co-ownership.

• Joint decisions.
  Set regular spaces where diverse partners meet, decide, and hold each other accountable. Power is shared; so is responsibility.

• Mindset shift.
  Make sure the mindset shifts from “my end-users” to “our end-users.” Equip teams with skills in facilitation, systems thinking, and conflict resolution.

• Document commitments.
  Use MOUs (Memorandums of Understanding) to formalize roles. Clear agreements ensure stability even when people in organizations change. They also allow you to highlight your organization/department impact if necessary.

Case Study

Built for Zero is a methodology for approaching homelessness developed by the non-profit Community Solutions.

The goal: making homelessness rare and brief.

The Built for Zero methodology requires a set of changes in how communities approach homelessness, including:

• Committing to measurably ending homelessness for entire populations, such as veteran homelessness, chronic homelessness and more.

• Making the shift from addressing homelessness through fragmented services to a system of shared goals and accountability.

• Using comprehensive, real-time, by-name data that enables a complete and dynamic view of homelessness.

When the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative applied this methodology, they were able to help more than 1,874 veteran households move into housing between 2020 and 2024, which equates to a reduction in veteran homelessness in the area by 30% over just four years.

You can read the full case study here.

Question to Consider

Where in your work do you see accountability concentrated in ways that decrease effectiveness, and how might you begin building collective ownership?

Quote of The Week

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

—Helen Keller