Seth Godin had a great blog post the other day entitled ‘All I Do Is Work Here’ about how some people don’t take collective responsibility at organisations – they say, ‘oh no, that’s nothing to do with me, all I do is work here’.
It reminds me of a company that I worked with. They had this really great culture where everyone from the CEO down took full and collective responsibility for what happened at the company. Everyone answered the ‘phones; when a courier turned up anyone who happened to be around would sign for a package; people in finance and admin roles stayed close to the core of the business and ‘got’ what the business did, they knew who the customers were, so they could engage with them too. This created a really strong culture that came to be at the heart of the organisation. But as the company grew, it was decided that there needed to be more organisational structure so workers could be more focused on their respective roles. A mantra of ‘that’s not my job’ was encouraged to focus on individual responsibility.
I don’t like the idea of ‘it’s not my job’. Whatever the size of an organisation, if every part of it can be encouraged to live and breathe what it does; rather than be head-down and siloed in their own role or department, that kind of culture will shine through and can really contribute to a company’s success both internally but also externally.
It reminds me of a company that I worked with. They had this really great culture where everyone from the CEO down took full and collective responsibility for what happened at the company. Everyone answered the ‘phones; when a courier turned up anyone who happened to be around would sign for a package; people in finance and admin roles stayed close to the core of the business and ‘got’ what the business did, they knew who the customers were, so they could engage with them too. This created a really strong culture that came to be at the heart of the organisation. But as the company grew, it was decided that there needed to be more organisational structure so workers could be more focused on their respective roles. A mantra of ‘that’s not my job’ was encouraged to focus on individual responsibility.
I don’t like the idea of ‘it’s not my job’. Whatever the size of an organisation, if every part of it can be encouraged to live and breathe what it does; rather than be head-down and siloed in their own role or department, that kind of culture will shine through and can really contribute to a company’s success both internally but also externally.
1 comment:
great article. In my opinion, the roots of "its not my job" attitude came from the job scope.I've experience working with my subordinate which very particular in giving their contribution.One thing that im sure of is that most people with this kind attitude did not understand well their roles in the company.
Post a Comment