Ownership
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The other day I was getting my 5-year old daughter dressed and she wasn't co-operating. I picked out some shorts and her favorite horse shirt, neither of which she wanted. So I got some skirts and she wouldn't choose, so I picked one and wrestled it on her. Then found out it was a little big, so I went to switch to another one. I figured since she didn't want to wear it in the first place, she'd pick something else.
But she didn't want to take it off. It was her skirt now and she wanted to wear it.
It's funny that I see the same thing from the 20, 30 and 40 year olds that I've worked with over the last decade. I see people asked, or perhaps not asked and assigned, to systems or applications.
And they take ownership. Even pride.
They won't give up working on them and don't want anyone else to intrude on "their" system. It's amazing how much loyalty, pride, and really ownership that we take in our work and how strongly we feel about them working well. I've known many people that took it as a personal insult when something didn't work correctly. Even if they hadn't built it or were at fault. It was their system and they were going to fix it.
I think it's great to see people being professional and taking pride in their work. The last few years seem to have spawned lots of bad attitudes in IT. Lots of employees feeling the companies weren't loyal to them and so they were not going to take any pride in their work.
It's hard when people are not professional. When they cannot separate the emotional responses to events at work from the job they were hired to do. I don't think that we owe huge amounts of loyalty to corporations, but we should be professional in the job we are being paid to do. Not taking pride mostly hurts ourselves and our co-workers. Do a good job and if you need to find a new job, do that, but do work you are proud of while you are being paid.
And my daughter with her too big skirt? Fortunately my wife was nearby to rescue the morning with a safety pin 🙂
Steve Jones
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Now this is a good parallel projection
As is the final solution ... bringing in another person can help you fix your problem in a way you couldn't see due to "problemownership" or stress
Johan
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An interesting read.
As a developer who does a bit of freelance on the side for various companies I often go into places where they have a system in place such as a confused mess of spreadsheets and access databases that they struggle with. Usually someone will have taken ownership of this and taken pride in it and received respect for the work they have done.
Undoubtably this has streamlined business process but usually the people who put these systems in place are not really technical or developers and usually the systems have grown out of need and desperation.
I find that when I have to go in and replace these 'systems' with a more robusts software solution I have a hell of a job getting 'buy in' to the new system. However I battle through and eventually get there.
The funny thing is that in these type of projects my experience is that usually the person who developed the original system will put up the most resistance but eventually it is them who takes on the new system and become the authority on it and it becomes their new baby.
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Everything in life in moderation can be good, but too much of something is usually bad. As was eluded to by the article and the few posts that have been made, a small amount (or rather, a reasonable amount) of ownership can spawn quite positive consequences (IE one's pride in what they are doing can make them more apt to work hard on the piece of software, business system, etc.) Too much ownership can mean misplaced pride, misplaced anger when the system is replaced, etc. When it comes down to it, yes it is YOUR job to keep the system up and running (or develop it as the case may be), and yes its YOUR responsibility to do those things, but oftentimes its not YOUR system.
Aleksei
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Concur! If anything, I have only seen the "excessive pride" where people turn into prickly pears (have been guilty of that myself at times..
) and are impervious to any/all suggestions that their system could actually do with some fine tuning etc..as Dan said it's the "owners" who put up the most resistance...and oftentimes have to be dragged away kicking & screaming before anyone else can get their hands on it...
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I once read the following quote that always stuck with me:
"If you do a good job for the sake of doing a good job, then you'll always be working for yourself."
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"...people being professional..."
Too many have no idea what it means to be a professional. Nor is professionalism tied to how and employer treats the employee. When folks work in a professional manner regardless of the circumstances in which they find themselves, their employment situation will take care of itself.
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One of your better editorials.
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