The development of a sense of ownership is critical in every environment. People who have a sense of ownership tend to be excited and inspired about what they do. We have discussed in considerable detail the connection between a teacher being inspired and her (his) ability to impact the lives of young people. A similar opportunity exists within corporate and family structures as well.
Unless employees literally own a piece of the business for which they work (are stockholders or are part of a profit sharing program), often they feel detached from their work and consider it to be drudgery. It is dramatically obvious when someone clearly holds their job as important. When was the last time you went to a retail store and had the experience of being truly served? Cashiers in grocery stores are trained to say hello to each new customer in the line. When was the last time you were greeted as if the employee was truly glad to see you? I hope today and often the greeting is mechanical and without feeling. Were you simply “handled,” processed and dealt with?
Were your goods treated as if they were important? Did the way they were packed make sense? When you walk into a building, regardless of age, does the floor shine? Are the rest rooms clean? Well stocked?
One of the first exercises in the “What One Person Can Do” conversation is to pick the chore you least like doing and do it this week, at least once, with energy, enthusiasm and as if it were the most important job in the world. Participants quickly discover that it is possible to do any task, even the most onerous of them, with energy, enthusiasm and as if it were the most important job in the world. The most dramatic demonstration of this was in a New Horizons Academy Program that we did in the Maine State Prison. Initially, participants were cynical about their ability to do the things they were required to do in prison with energy, enthusiasm and as if they were the most important jobs in the world. Cleaning a bathroom in a prison is often a huge challenge because inmates who are upset or angry use bodily fluids as a vehicle for communication. Image yourself being asked to clean walls, mirrors (polished steel) and floors covered in human waste with energy, enthusiasm and as if this were the most important job in the world.
One of the most negatively oriented participants did just that. Like the chore? No! Easy? No! And this man discovered that he could do even this chore quickly, on purpose and thoroughly. The inmate who mastered this task with his attitude also realized that he no longer wanted to respond to the “knee jerk” taunts of either fellow prisoners or corrections officers (COs). His ability in that regard was so effective that it spread to other inmates to the point where the warden took me aside and asked me why the inmates who were participating were no longer responding as they had for years. I told him that they had decided it was no longer in their enlightened self-interest to respond at all. They have simply decided to do their work, keep their noses clean and not respond. From that point forward, these inmates truly owned the quality of their own incarceration.
Let’s go back to a standard work environment and assume I have a menial job paying the minimum wage. There are two ways to do this work. I could act as if the job makes no difference, simply get the job finished. Treat people as if they were a hindrance and of no importance. What might happen if I decided to act as if this were the most important job in the company? Would people sense that I wanted to do an outstanding job? Might it lead to a promotion or at least a strong, positive recommendation when the time came? What is the likelihood that customers will remember this experience? To which store are they likely to return? At that point, who has taken responsibility for their own work experience? Am I really ever working for the store or company owner? Until people realize that these are choices only we can make and that we are powerful enough to make them every second, there will be no ownership. On at least two occasions, when I needed help in our own business or around home, I have gone to employees, who demonstrated a sense of ownership and hired them for additional, good paying part time work.
When children are small, they want to “do the things that big people do,” such as running the vacuum, doing dishes or operating the lawn mower. What happens to that interest by the time they are twelve? Where does the enthusiasm go? Perhaps it would be useful to look at the attitude we bring to chores or tasks that we are requested to do by our significant others. Do we see those things as an opportunity to contribute to one and other? As a way of demonstrating, “I love you?” How many of us, children or adults, pop in the door and ask, “What may I do to be of help?”
As adults, we often attempt to establish 50/50 relationships where the household chores are shared on as equal a basis as possible. Often, on any given day, one person puts in 60% and the other 40%. And often the pattern is repeated consistently, creating a resentment about the “fairness” or “appropriateness” of the agreement. Aside from the fact that most 50/50 partnerships don’t work in business, they are unreasonable in terms of expectation. My friend, Jim Rayburn, who created a wonderful business to pass along to his wife and sons, left Leann, his wife, with 54% of the business. “You have to have someone with the last word. It’s not that the decisions will always be right, but there is a clear place where tough decisions get made.” Though Jim wanted the boys to run the business, he knew that Leann was tough enough to make the difficult decisions in a timely fashion.
What might happen if we established a 100/100 partnership for taking care of the running of our homes. Instead of trying to establish a certain percentage of work for each family member (30% for the adults, 20% each for the children if there are two), how about if people were asked to put in 100% all the time, simply doing whatever was wanted and needed at the moment. Not everyone would be able to give 100% every day and with four people, you would have 400% energy available on any particular day? Doesn’t everyone benefit in this circumstance? The other ground rule that makes this process work really well is that no one leaves any place in worse shape than when you found it. Why would you leave dishes in a sink waiting for someone else to do the cleaning? Why would you leave crumbs on a counter? Because you wanted to feed the ants? Why would you leave toys scattered throughout the house? Why would we leave magazines all over the dining table after a school project? If kids got that they contributed to the quality of their parents lives and their ability to do their work in the world, wouldn’t that contribute to children’s sense of their own value and worth?
What would happen if everyone realized that we all can take responsibility for the splendid running of a house? Not just one or two people, everyone, according to age and ability. What might happen if everyone connected with a business acted as if they were the owner and treated every customer that way? What might happen if we decided to create inspired environments everywhere? What effect might that have on people’s enjoyment of life? What might happen to our profitability?
After the founding of our pilot project for Upward Bound in Sedalia, NC, the federal government took over operation of the program. They did away with chores, kitchen committees, and art committees and anything that students were asked to do that was of a menial nature. The rational was that these chores would be demeaning to students. They also established a stipend to be given to every student. I wonder what messages that sends to people about the environments we create?
by Bill Cumming
