Co-ownership & the power of autonomy
When you engage employees in co-creation, you give them a sense of ownership in which they feel that their work and ideas belong to them as well as the business. This then gives them the freedom to drive creative change and develop their skills.
Here are a few guiding principles to establish a powerful culture of co-creation and co-ownership in your organization:
🕵️ Enlist “accomplices"
We can’t achieve sustainability alone, separated between siloes. Look around your team and organization and identify who you can engage with to co-create ideas and solutions to big problems.
🖌 People support what they create
Anyone can be given a task and complete it without much effort and energy. It’s much more impactful to co-create an idea or solution with the larger group. Imagine how far you could go if you gave people the reins (and autonomy) to drive change themselves and in collaboration with other team members.
🎡 Deliver at scale
Working on sustainability is a huge, world-defining challenge. In order to make real progress, the work cannot fall solely on an organization’s leaders. The entire company – whether it’s 10 or 10,000 people – needs to be engaged. Without everyone, strategy is only words; people (at scale) can turn it into action and eventually, a reality.
How to foster (co-)ownership in your employees
1️⃣ Share your vision and explain the “why.”
2️⃣ Delegate authority, not just tasks, to empower people to drive big initiatives and make important decisions.
3️⃣ Include your employees in decision-making.
4️⃣ Hold everyone (including leaders) accountable.
5️⃣ Don’t be afraid to give (and receive) critical feedback.
6️⃣ Give people the opportunity to continuously learn and upskill, allowing them to make better decisions and grow.
At the end of the day, what makes your people tick?
Walk the talk 👉 Here at Limelights, we specialize in inviting, uniting, and mobilizing large groups towards a common goal. We work closely with our client organizations to build a strategy, align all stakeholders, and co-create solutions by setting goals and engaging with the organizations’ employees through a variety of formats – from hands-on workshops to learn & do sessions to six-month programs.
We are not consultants. We get our hands dirty and work jointly with employees, helping to light their fire and bring sustainability goals to life together.
👉 Get in touch with us if you’re interested in building a culture of co-ownership in your organization to accelerate sustainability!
