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I'm reading former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' new book, Duty. In it he tells the story of touring a factory that was building MRAPS for our military (vehicles that can withstand IEDs--bombs in the road). Here is an excerpt:
On January 18, 2008, I visited the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, South Carolina, where MRAPS received a final fitting out before being shipped to Iraq. I toured the factory and talked to the workers, many of them veterans themselves.
These men and women were skilled salt-of-the-earth patriots who were passionate about what they were doing. Each of those I talked with knew that the vehicle he or she was working on would very likely save the lives of soldiers.
One of them, a bearded, heavyset fellow in jeans and a plaid shirt, invited me to sit in the driver's seat of the MRAP he was just finishing. He reached into the glove compartment and brought out a laminated card that would accompany the vehicle to Iraq. It had the signatures of the team that had worked on that vehicle.
He said they knew lives depended on the quality of their work, and they wanted the soldiers riding in that vehicle to know that each member of that team took personal responsibility for that specific MRAP. He said such a card went with every MRAP. (Underlinings are mine)
When I read this I thought what if...
In my business my name goes on everything. It has to. I'm the product. And it fills me with a personal vehemence to be as professional and as perfect as I can be in all I do because my reputation is at stake. If I make a mistake there is no one to be embarrassed but me.
When a company puts their name on a product that's a good thing, but it generalizes the responsibility and diffuses the personal professional pride. When a mistake is made the company's reputation takes a hit, but not necessarily an individual's. Shoddy workmanship can hide in a general name and embarrassment is deluded in a multitude.
But if your own name is on a product there is nowhere to hide; it's your own professional reputation that's at stake...personal responsibility is driven home.
You own it.
So wouldn't it be interesting if we took our cue from the Systems Center in South Carolina that served the "boots on the ground" soldiers in Iraq? What if every person put their own name on every product they worked on before it went out the door?
Would it drive up the employee's professional pride? Would it increase each employee's personal responsibility to do his or her job to the fullest?
Should our work not be our resume?
Too often employees don't see the company's name as their own. It's a misidentification that is unfortunate.
But in South Carolina, by including their names they wanted to communicate the pride they took in their work and the personal responsibility they were taking for the quality of their product and each soldier's safety.
That's as it should be...don't you think?
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