Ownership is essential for accelerating agility. The core of agile working is that a successful organization works with small, self-organizing teams. That sounds simple, but practice shows that the transition is not just introduced. In this blog we introduce you to YOWYO! an abbreviation for the English language 'You Own What You Observe'.
Ownership is essential
for accelerating agility
When introducing agile working, there is often a lot of enthusiasm among individual employees. It is important to find the right balance between enthusiasm among employees and good cooperation within the organization in general. Enthusiasm quickly diminishes during the transition to an Agile way of working if decisions from other departments have to be waited for a long time, due to existing poorly functioning organizational structures or the inability to function independently as a team. A lack of involvement from management can also be disastrous.
Agile working means daring to continuously innovate
Keywords of an agile way of working are that organizations have a high degree of openness and collaboration with the customer. The organization is constantly developing and individuals and teams must be able and dare to give feedback to each other in order to achieve continuous growth. We work with top teams who work independently and who, more importantly, dare to take ownership of their actions, both as a team and individually.
Ownership is essential
working with agile
This ownership is therefore also described as YOWYO! We will focus on the different 'brains' that we recognize in individuals and teams. Creating a YOWYO! brain is crucial to make all parts of an organization work together and to achieve an effective way of working agile.
What is an OWW brain?
In Dutch, an OWW brain can be called an AUW brain. Characteristic of the possession of this brain and the thoughts that arise from it are that you have fixed thinking patterns that you can hardly deviate from. You have no motivation to improve your life or thinking and experience feedback as personal criticism. If you can't do something (yet), you won't do it.
That's how it is
with the WOW brain
Then we recognize the WOW brain, or WOW brain the Dutch way. People with a WOW brain dare to push their limits and can make mistakes to learn from them. Feedback is necessary for self-assessment and people and teams with WOW brains can thus progress.
A YOWYO! brain is a new way of thinking
The YOWYO! brain goes one step further. If you and your team have this Agile way of thinking, you are able to take ownership of the observations you make and you therefore have a high degree of responsibility. This thinking method gives you the opportunity to create new opportunities and to tackle and execute challenges.
Wondering what YOWYO! can do for your organization? With an Agile way of working, the individuals who form teams can create independent teams that achieve goals with a positive mindset. Also, a YOWYO! brain is crucial to teach management and teams an agile way of thinking.
Karin Disc | Agility Coach – Cultural Change of YOWYO
By observing and coaching teams, I have learned how to get everyone into the 'do state of mind'; it's by teaching them how to YOWYO! A shift in mindset and behavior is always challenging and a bit scary at first, but once shifted, the added value is immediately felt. I have recorded this self-promoting team journey in a book specially developed for coach the coach trajectories.
Want to boost your team?
I'm happy to explain how this book will take your team to the next level and be 100% accountable!
Just…YOWYO!
