# Chapter 228

Accountability = ownership. - Masterminds

I worked for a company for 23 years that viewed ownership only and exclusively as agreement with current policies and processes. There was no input and there was no allowable pushback. They even created a made up phrase specifically for this tyranny that they created. I always imagined they did this so that they did not have to call themselves dictators and despots, but “constituted authority” was their made up phrase and it was their whip and lash. Having stated all of this accurately and factually, the system worked surprisingly well because everyone signs off on this constituted madness right at the begin of their tenure with these folks, and its nearly impossible to put the bull back in the barn once its been let out. Heck even I stayed there for 23 years! Astonishing.

But few can stay this course and thus they remain a small organization, and largely a feeder org for other groups. If everything comes from the top down, ownership is impossible and there is no way I can take up the mantle of responsibility (accountability) for what happens. You can state on paper that I am responsible for these outcomes XYZ, but unless you give me some power or control or input into the what how and where of these objectives, there is nothing to hold me, to bond and bound and hold me to the results. Thus there is little ownership because there are only rules and demands. There is no accountability, for how can you hold me responsible for your dictates? If you want an org with high ownership, then you invite them into the process of decision making and decide who you are going to be, when, and how. Then you can sit back and watch accountability do its magic.