Recently I was reminded of a fantastic anecdote regarding the value of cohesion and mission. The story is set in the early 1960s. The world was a different place then. America was enjoying prosperity while fighting the Cold War. And a NASA janitor was about to meet an American president. Or so the story goes.

While visiting the NASA facility, President Kennedy witnessed a janitor working. He walked over and introduced himself and asked what the gentleman with the broom was doing.
“I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

Now there are people who will tell you that this never happened. They may tell you about schedules or security. What I will tell you is they completely missed the point.

Everyone Has A Product

Perhaps there will be a time in the future when entire nations are united to achieve a single goal. A time when any person can respond like our anecdotal janitor. Until then we have goals that are much more down to earth. We work for companies that provide services or produce products.

In service of those goals we all do our jobs. We are engineers, accountants, waitresses, and so forth. That means when asked what we “do” we say things such as “… design phones,” “… handle accounts payable,” or “… serve diners.” Still, the products of our individual efforts serve the overall purpose of our employer. Our individual products come together into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Don’t Mistake Another Person’s Product

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our jobs that we get a bit of tunnel vision. We mistakenly assume that we are all working to produce the same product. Moreover, we may become frustrated that others do not seem to be helping with the output of our product.

I am working as hard as I can to pay these accounts and shipping isn’t helping me.

But isn’t the shipping department is doing its job? They are sending out boxes of widgets as efficiently as possible. And chances are, when things are tight, someone in shipping is thinking similar thoughts about the accounts payable department. Why is that?

It’s simply because we often lose sight of the fact that we all have our own product. Each group may assume that everyone in the firm is working to produce the same product, but in today’s world that isn’t the case. Accounts payable has a product, “paid accounts.” And shipping has a product, “packages sent.”

We each are working to produce a single facet of a gem. And we have to not only remember that fact, but respect the fact that all those facets contribute to form the overall gem. But that isn’t to say we are making gems. Because we aren’t. Our individual product isn’t “whole gems,” it is “gem facets.” Or rather phones designed, accounts paid, and diners served.

And … So What?

What is the point of all this? Simply that too often we think we are making whole gems. And we get upset that it seems like the other people in the company aren’t making whole gems also. But the fact is, they were never supposed to be making whole gems, and neither were we …