Pieces of the puzzle, cogs in the machine

Concerning agency, and fostering a process-focussed sense of ownership on collaborative and hierarchal projects

One of my favourite things about working in the public service is how motivating it is to work for myself, my friends, my family, and my communities. Everyone who pays taxes pays my wages, and that really lights a fire under my butt on days where I might be tempted to putter along or dick around. In fact, I presently have a note stuck to my monitor at work to remind me of that very fact.

Another thing that is very motivating for me is the fact that I am tasked with projects for which I have a great sense of ownership. At the present moment, Eyes Abroad is my file. I work with people all around the world to generate content and tell great stories, but at the end of the day I feel personally responsible for ensuring the quality of the final product.

I have been very fortunate throughout my career in that I have often been assigned to projects in which I was able to invest myself on an emotional level because I had a sense of ownership and substantial influence on the task. From my first “real job” working in a Victorian-themed tea shop years ago to my present position, I always seek to feel involved in the service I deliver. Ownership and engagement go hand in hand; it’s hard to care if you don’t feel like your work matters, after all.

In November 2009, I wrote a blog post titled “The Cheater’s Guide to Giving a Shit”. In the comments, I got into a bit of a debate with some readers in which I asserted the following:


The job does not control one's personal impetus towards progress. If someone has a problem with being too comfortable (in a job, a relationship, whatever), I say do something about it or stop complaining. Take some ownership. Talk about it to people who have an impact. Empower yourself. No one else is going to do it for you.



Today, you might say that my idealism has been tempered slightly by the knowledge of how privileged I have been. Not everyone has a project in which they can see evidence of their contribution in the final product. Some people feel that they do work only to have it undone at a subsequent step in the process. I understand that this can be very emotionally taxing and de-motivating.

The state of my own mental health is greatly dependent on my sense of agency – feeling that I have control or at least can exert influence on my situation and the world around me. So I understand how important this is in the workplace.


“I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.” – Jack Nicholson, as Frank Costello in The Departed (2006).

Sometimes that sense of agency is difficult to maintain. Every day, horrible things happen in the world that we have little – if any – ability to control. Sometimes we feel helpless in the face of the events of our lives. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Well-meaning idiots mess shit up. Efforts are wasted in vain. Good intentions amount to naught. This is sometimes the way of the world, and sometimes the way of the workplace.

It is encouraging to remember that there is always help to be had if you are willing to seek it out. That’s the key to a healthy sense of agency: remember that even though you may not always be able to control your situation, you can always exert influence on yourself and your perspectives. You may not be able to shift your outlook entirely, but even trying to do so demonstrates the emotional and mental capacity to self-influence. That’s what I think, anyway. I’ve said it before: it’s like the fact that choosing to smile can help improve your mood.

So let’s talk about ownership.

It’s easy to feel a sense of ownership for a project for which you are personally responsible. But what happens if your contributions to the final product appear invisible, infinitesimal, trivial or – worse – have been eliminated entirely? It is only human to find these experiences challenging, and to find self-motivation even more so as a result.

On the flip side of the coin, it can be very easy to slip into laziness if you find yourself in a situation where poor performance on your part can easily and routinely be compensated for by other members of the team. Sure, you might feel like an asshole sometimes (and you should), but does anyone notice or hold you to account if the final product meets deadlines and expectations? I’m sure we’ve all dealt with dead weight like this; some people deal with it daily. Perhaps you’ve even been that dead weight yourself at some point.

So whether you’re dead weight or your work is getting lost in the process or you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, obviously we have a problem with fostering a sense of ownership. What’s to be done?

I think that it can be valuable to shift focus away from the final product and towards the process of service delivery. If you have participated in the process, you have influenced the final product; therefore, you can see your contribution where you may not be able to specifically point to your work.

This is especially important to remember on collaborative projects where individuals may not get the credit that they feel they deserve. If you have influenced the process, you have influenced the product. This could be advice offered to a colleague at the water cooler, a blog post you retweeted that boosted morale, an edit that was considered but later rejected. You played a part, and that part was important.

To conclude with an example and a success story, I’d like to point you in the direction of HitRecord.org, an open source collaborative production company fronted by actor-musician-producer-well-dressed-Jack-of-all-trades Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The way HitRecord works is that arts projects are freely produced, mashed up, and remixed. Individual contributions may be modified or erased entirely, but each person who participates leaves a mark on the growth of an evergreen creative product.

Take this collaboratively developed hip-hop track for example. It was the result of Gordon-Levitt adding to a song that employed music from another work… and 14 different new interpretations and contributions have been made since then. Or check out the whopping 119 results of a fun video about a young couple’s date. That’s the way things roll at HitRecord. And they’ve managed to monetize this process too, which makes it all the more worthy of attention, even if the critical acclaim weren’t merit enough.

The moral of the story: acknowledge the impact of your existence and seek to expand it. It’s incredibly motivating.