Our values: We take Ownership

As this series outlining, exploring and learning more about our recently unveiled company values comes to a close, we turn our attention to the final of our five core values. Last but by no means least: We take Ownership.

Taking ownership is about driving execution and not assuming that it will get done by someone else.  We don’t wait for others to deliver. We take initiative, even with imperfect information and do our best to execute to the highest possible level.

Taking ownership means that:

• We deliver work we’re proud of.
• We care deeply about both the speed and quality of execution.
• We see things through to the finish, whatever part we have to play.
• We feel empowered and know our contribution is important. 
• We own both  success and failure.
• We prefer to make new mistakes, not the same mistake multiple times!

It does not mean that:

• We neglect our daily responsibilities whilst working on additional projects.
• We have to lead every project we work on. 
• We hoard responsibility or fail to involve others.

Jessica Spillett, Strategic Enablement Manager:

Ownership is hard to talk about without sounding smug… but it’s not about being smug! It's about believing in yourself, and in your own team and getting it done.

We build on that by getting to know each other and how we work, and communicating with each other on a daily basis. Taking responsibility for keeping up to date with current projects, asking questions, and tuning into different aspects of the business means we give ourselves more understanding and opportunity to use our own voices and contribute.

It’s about collaboration, which for me in particular is very important in enablement because I rely so heavily on the knowledge of every other single function of my job to support how we succeed as a business. By collaborating and taking ownership, we help drive change and push the closer to achieving our mission.

There are tons of current projects ongoing which need tracking, so for me a good example of taking ownership personally is how I record things using the RACI Framework – which outlines who is Responsible, who is Accountable, who is Contributing, and who is Informed about each project. So regardless of whether it’s an idea I come up with or it’s something I’m just contributing to, I can keep track with what I'm responsible for driving as well as everything that’s going on. It also means I get to work with people who have the know-how to see the project through; from spec, through activation, right through to completion.