Fixership

In my normal workday I will ocassionally stumble over some small problem in our systems or processes that is an irritant and gets in my way but is not a major stumbling block to getting my work done.  After a while the problem becomes a known problem and we develop work arounds to the problem, since we are either "too busy" to fix the problem or the resolution of the problem belongs to someone else.

I think this is an area many organizations should closely consider.  In every organization there are hundreds of small work arounds and "short term fixes" that became long term process detours because there was not enough critical mass to fix the problem or no one claimed ownership of the problem.

Well, who's going to claim ownership of a problem anyway?  Most days people want to do their jobs, not someone else's, and no one wants to claim ownership of something going wrong.  However, there is a big issue with jumping in and "doing" someone else's job.  That will raise the hackles even more than simply leaving a problem alone.  Although no one wants to claim a problem, God forbid if you attempt to fix a problem you don't "own", because then the turf wars begin. 

An alternative to "ownership" is what I call "fixership" - that is, when you encounter a small problem that can and should be fixed, you take action to fix the problem rather than skip it or build work arounds.  These actions should entail:  1) identifying the problem, 2) confirming it is a problem that other people face 3) attempting to identify if someone else is working on the problem and then 4) if it IS a problem and NO ONE else claims to be working on it, then announce you'll fix it.  If no one complains about your attempt, you are now the "owner" and "fixer" of the problem.  If our cultures provided for more "fixership" we'd have simpler processes and fewer work arounds and major and minor irritants to the way we work.  Fixership would also bleed over into things like customer service, whether those customers are internal or external.  A culture of "fixership" will mean that more consideration to doing things well, and less consideration of who owns what will exist.

Fixership will mean changing the corporate culture and rewarding people who attempt to make things better.  In many firms we call these people targets.  In a fixership organization, we call them leaders.