Acerius' Guide: Community Ownership

Ownership

- it can seem as though that there are as many ownership theories, practices and processes being developed as people are taking on ownership. Many of these practices are very solid and credible but there is a danger that these can over-complicate what owning a community is about - being inspiring; being trusted and, most importantly - being YOURSELF. Use this Steam guide to:

• Get to know your true self - your strengths and weaknesses as a community owner.
  
• Learn how to be an effective owner based on your traits and not someone elses.
  
• Understand these traits and behaviours and how they can support you in your position as a community owner.

This guide could not be any more practical in the way it guides you in easy steps to become an inspirational owner.

The Role of an Owner (Part 1)

1: THE ROLE OF AN OWNER

Originally posted by Acerius:

Ownership means different things to different people. Whether you are running a small friend-based group, a 'quality' server or a large multi-server community, the principles of ownership are the same. In this first section you can explore what ownership is and how it can positively impact on a community's performance.

Introduction

Sometime's you may be asked to do an activity at school or in a course where by you will be asked to list a number of well-known, successful owners and/or leaders. Responses are usually along the lines of: Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and so forth. These are all great owners and leaders, there is no questionable doubt about it...

Participants are then usually asked to create a spider-diagram or thought cloud (whichever you wish to call it) and add similarities in the styles of ownership and leadership between each of the examples in the hope that these will provide clues to possible characteristics and styles that might correlate to success.

Having done this activity a number of times, I think that (most likely) the only message of relative significance that can be drawn from it is that there isn't just one method or style - in reality, there are many different styles of ownership that can, in their own way, be highly effective.

It's important to be yourself
Being an excellent owner isn't about attempting to emulate or copy someone else's style. It's most definitely not about trying to adopt a new style of ownership that's out of sync with your own style and personality. I want to encourage you to spend time learning about your own personal self, your weaknesses and strengths, then to develop a style of ownership that works for you. Remember: being an excellent owner is about being you, not trying to copy other excellent owners.

As you flick and read through this guide, don't just take the ideas and concepts that are described at face value - don't follow the techniques robotically as they are written. Do something more effective; instead, stop and ask yourself how they can specifically work for you. Ask yourself these questions:

• Are these techniques or ideas ones I should be trying out?
  
• How well do they fit with my own personal values?
  
• How do these ideas fit with my personality traits?
  
• If it isn't something than I can picture myself adopting, how can I manage using different solutions?

Comfort zone
As much as I encourage you to question the points made in this guide, in order to understand how they'll work for you, don't use this as an excuse not to try things out; to continue with your current style or to convince yourself that your methodology is simillar anyway. Tip: Be prepared to experiment with new techniques. You may not get things perfect first time round, but always perservere.

You may very well be tempted to stick wihthin the boundries of your comfort zone and either avoid trying something different/new or try it briefly and then return to your old ways. Some of the techniques may prove easy to implement. Except that more 'underlying' changes - especially to deep-seated behaviors - may take longer to sink in and, as a result, initially feel awkward to perform.

Owners Are Critical

You must have heard it. Staff members saying how they feel they would be so much better off without their terrible owners or team leaders... 'What value do they add to the entire process of administration?' 'Why do we need an owner?' 'Administration would be so much easier if they could just get on with helping us... after all, our owner doesn't even know what we do half of the time..'

Alarm bells
These complaints from your staff members/regular community members could be valid or not but they're certainly not an indication that ownership isn't needed! They are more likely looking towards being an indication of other problems relating to an owner's style and that this needs reviewing. Danger: If people complain that owners in the community are not adding value, it probably means that there is something wrong with the way they are applying themselves as owners.

In favour of ownership
Let's look at some of the key reasons why having owners is so important. Excellent owners will:

• Provide direction and focus at both individual and group levels.
  
• Ensure that appropriate resources are available and applied to the corresponding activities.
  
• Make sure that the climate in which their staff administrate is positive.
  
• Inspire staff and community members so that they remain motivated and committed.
  
• Reorganize and develop individuals.
  
• Ensure decisions are made effectively so things happen.

Direction and focus
Providing these two key resources is a critical part of ownership. However well-intentioned individuals appear to be, without someone to decide and put forward the direction in which the team is expected to be going in, there is a strong chance that people will channel their energies in less than productive ways.

Without ownership individuals can find themselves overlapping their activities with each others' and duplicating effort or they could leave gaps in processes. Some individuals may choose their own direction based on personal motivation. At worst, a whole team's activities could go off the rails in a completely opposite direction.

Climate
Put in simple terms, climate can be described as 'how it feels to administrate, socialize and do work around here.' The owner plays a key role in ensuring the climate people work in is positive. A positive climate is the underlying key factor to delivering peak performance.

There are many different key points that impact climate within which people work together, each of which can and should be measured. Tip: As an effective owner and leader, focus your attention on trying to ensure the climate in the community is positive.

Decision-making
This is a critical function of being an effective owner. Poor or slow decision making can lead to:

• A rather clear lack of confidence from the individual awaiting a response.
  
• The wrong decision being made leading to exposure which risks potentional reputational loss.
  
• Missed opportunities within gaps of processes.
  
• Members or staff being misdirected to work on non-appropriate activities.

All these are very likely to have a large impact on the performance of those working under an owner.

Why All Communities Need Owners

Anyone who's experienced having a most certainly excellent owner will understand what a great and motivational experience it can be. Rather than feeling that the owner is a drag on their ability to get things completed, they see their owner as someone who inspires and brings out the best performance from them. If the owner has created the perfect climate, they may not even need to be very perceptible in their role as owner.

Positive benefits
Here are a few of the ways in which people can benefit from working underneath a brilliant owner. They will:

• Understand their role and how the tasks they perform contribute towards the overall milestones.
  
• Feel a sense of worth about their given role.
  
• Have been encouraged to take their own development in that role (mainly personal) seriously.
  
• Be confident they can ask questions, contribute suggestions and provide reasonable feedback knowing they will be listened to.
  
• Feel they can take appropriate risks and feel they're supported.
  
• Know they are trusted and given the power to act effectively.
  
• Feel an appropriate level of stretch and challenge in the things they do.

The Role of an Owner (Part 2)

Taking a Step Back

It's always important to remember the next time you are about to get involved in the detail that you can make a concious effort to step back and focus on the big picture and whether what you're about to do is absolutely nessecary to the outcome of your staff/communities performance and the end product.

Leading from the front
It is often said that owners should be prepared to lead from the front but this commonly used phrase 'leading from the front' can be rather ambiguous and needs some clarification.

This expression conjures up a war-torn battle scene with the head honcho leading his army into the firey battle; deep into enemy territory and lands beyond. This is some way off the reality of most ownership situations.

This type of ownership suggests a very hands-on approach or directorial style with the owner getting stuck in with the actual process alongside the rest of the staff or community. This isn't really what an owner is expected to do unless they truly need to be a 'player-owner'.

However, too much direct involvement can take an owner away from the things they should really be doing. Members or staff are most likely to replace their energies towards trying to copy their owner rather than be inspired to develop themselves and their roles. It can also discourage any sense of responsibility or power.

The owner's perspective
As an owner you may need to take yourself away and pull back from interfering with the actual processes (unless this truly is a part of your role) and, instead, focus on getting the very most from those responsible and experienced at that process. This isn't about being a cold-hearted elitist but it is really about giving people a crisp view of their direction and the support to help develop and take responsibility.

Effects of Good Ownership

The impact of providing good ownership and skills is not just a bucketful of blurry 'warm and fuzzy' feelings. The outcomes should be very tanggible and, far more importantly, measurable. A direct link can be made between ownership behaviours and practices and the hard, bottom-line performance of the community. Remember: truly excellent ownership results in tangible and measurable perormance improvements.


Ownership and processes
As I've already suggested, ownership behaviors have a direct impact on a community's climate. You will see from the above flowchart that an owners' behahiours also have an impact on the community processes involved - an example would be hows people talk with one another; how people make decisions; how people know what to do etc.

Individuals' motivations
Of course, individual team members will have their own personal motivations and these in turn will impact overall performance. It's up to the owner to understand individuals' motivations and thus work with each member of their staff to ensure they remain energized and motivated whilst simultaneously contributing positively towards the community goals. Danger: However excellent the ownership is and no matter how perfect the processes are, the human factor of individuals' own motivations should not be underestimated.

Clarity of roles
Delivering high performance at a consistent rate within a community requires more than just recruiting effective and motivated people. It is also essential that every single individual is clear about their role and that they understand:

• How their role contributes towards the delivery of the community's goals.
  
• How their role needs to interact and communicate with others' roals in the community.
  
• How their role impacts on others' roles (i.e who is dependent upon the output of their work).
  
• What they need from others in order to perform their role (inc. support from their owner)

Part of the clarity comes from having well-defined structures and role definitions, the other part comes from how the owner communicates with individuals and gives responsibilities.

Gaps and overlaps
Without sufficient clarity, there is a real danger that some roles will, to a certain extent, overlap. This can result in duplication of effort and wasted resource. Tip: Ask people to review their own roles and ask them whether they experience any duplication of effort due to overlapping.

From a motivational point of view, individuals are likely to feel they've wasted their time and so may think twice about putting in so much effort. It can also lead to unneeded friction between the individuals involved who may feel their work or responsibilities are being high-jacked by each other. Tip: Ask people to review their own roles and ask them whether they experience duplication of effort due to overlapping roles.

Something that's just as bad - especially from a regular member's point of view - is for any lack of clarity in roles to result in gaps between roles where processes/responsibilities are not picked up by someone or only get picked up by chance.

Creating a Positive Climate

You'll note from the previous flowgraph that the community's climate combgined with the processes used are the most significant factors affecting performance in any community and both of these are linked to an owner's behaviors. We'll explore ownership behaviors in detail in the next section. When we refer to a community's climate we're talking about things like:

• How clear people are about their roles and their contribution to the overall goal.
  
• How empowered and trusted people feel in order to be able to work effectively within their roles.
  
• How well people are recognized for their contribution towards achieving the community's goals.
  
• How defined and how flexible processes and structure are to support the work people do.
  
• How people are developed to meet the needs of the organization as well as individuals personal aspirations.

In communities where people are clear about their roles; empowered to do what they have been asked to do; recognized for their work and contribution as well as being supported and developed, the resultant climate will be positive and, as a result, community output has been maximized. Tip: The best owners look out for opportunities to recognize and acknowledge high performance by their people.

Getting it right
All this sounds quite logical and straight forward. Yet, so often, owners don't get around to doing these things. This can be due to an over-enthusiasm to get things done; because they don't recognize the need to do these things or because they just plainly haven't got a clue how to.

Translating the vision
Some owners are described by others (or sometimes even by themselves!) as visionaries - an important ownership attribute, I'm sure - but unless they're able to translate and talk their ideas to those that are going to deliver that vision, their visions will be wasted.

Similarly, once owners have talked about their vision, they must be able to motivate, empower and energize people so that they work with the owner towards achieving said vision. Beware: Being a visionary is more than just having inspirational ideas. They also need to be able to talk these so that others can help turn them into a reality.

Confidence in others
One of the most important lessons to learn as an owner is to have confidence in those that work with you. Being an owner doesn't nessecarily mean having all the answers. The higher up you are in a community the less you're likely to nneed to know about the day-to-day details and the more you need to trust others to focus on this and instead keep you informed of progress.

The Role of an Owner (Part 3)

Being an owner doesn't need to be a lonely role. Although final decisions and the vision may be signed off by the owner, they're likely to benefit from consultation with others who can bring a number of different perspectives. This is something we'll explore in more detail later on.

Developing yourself and others
There is a direct connection between those who take personal development seriously and top performance. People who are encouraged to take responsibility for their own development are more likely to be engaged, motivated and energized in everything that they do. These are all factors that contribute towards creating a positive climate.

Measuring the Impact

The fact that the impact of ownership behaviours can be traced

Leadership Behaviours

MORE COMING SOON. KEEP A LOOK UP ON THIS GUIDE TO SEE CHANGES AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS!

Empowering People

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Valuing Others' Views

Maximizing Performance

Ownership in Practice

Decision Making

[✪ SquishyFlumpp]

Wow, this sure is taking some time!

[Acerius]

30/12/2014 - Guide has been published to Steam community (specifically Garry's Mod)! It's not quite finished as there are many more sections to be covered, however, I thought the first section had been done to a certain extent that it could be so far published as a credible guide. I hope you enjoy and am looking forward to some feedback!