Owning the Whole
“Owning the whole” is a phrase I learned some time ago and I love the idea. What is it? It’s when you go all in and understand not only what you’re doing but why you’re doing it. I submit that if we can convey the idea of owning the whole, our workplaces can become the place where we get to go to work, not where we have to go to work. Why is that important? Simple, when we believe in and enjoy what we do, we start to own it. That’s the point when we start to do our best work.
What it means
The concept is pretty simple. It means understanding that your actual job is only one part of your role in the organization. I retired as a city employee after working in three separate divisions. I started in the Police Department, processing crime scenes, moved over to Parking Compliance where I enforced parking violations, and ended my career in Animal Services as the call center manager. Regardless of my day job, I never forgot that I was also a city ambassador and my job was to be the best representative of the city that could be.
What it Looks Like
As you can imagine, the work could be tough. I can’t count the number of times people called me names, cussed me out, and reminded me that they paid my salary (when that happened, I usually asked them for a raise). Didn’t matter, I loved every minute of it. There were days I wrote a ton of tickets but there were also many days when I found a stolen car and it was returned because I checked the registration. Then there was the time an elderly couple of visitors couldn’t remember where they parked their car. It took a few minutes but I found it. Yeah, they probably still think San Jose is the friendliest city in the world. Owning the whole felt good.
Owning the whole meant picking up the trash as I walked into a building. Yes, people were hired to do it but I was the one that was there at the moment and it was my city. It also meant making sure the citizens saw that I did my job without favor. When I became a supervisor, I would often take calls from irate citizens about their tickets. If a ticket was issued in error, I dismissed the citation.
On the other hand, I would routinely get calls from citizens who informed me that they would call the mayor. My response: “when you talk to him, ask him if he ever paid that ticket I gave him”. Yeah, I really did ticket the mayor’s car. You see, owning the whole means not giving my fellow citizens a chance to say, “the mayor parked illegally and she did nothing”. It wasn’t about the ticket, it was about the perception.
How to Do It
Owning the whole means understanding what your organization is all about. It may start with the company mission but we all know that mission statements can be difficult to internalize and put into action; especially if they’re more than 5 words long. Don’t believe me? Ask your team to recite the company’s mission. If you want to make it meaningful, ask them to explain it in their own words. Ask them what it actually means to them and how they will live that meaning day in and day out. Once they connect with why the company exists, they’ll start to own the whole.
It’s not about making the best widgets or being the best at whatever. It’s about believing in the organization and understanding how daily show the overall company’s heart. It requires conversations about what lies beyond the job description. I’m not talking about blind loyalty or company pride – I’m talking about owning a place in the organization and taking responsibility for walking the talk. Owning the whole is teamwork at its absolute best.