Ownership

If you build it, they won’t come

The U.S. Army Counter-Insurgency Handbook contains a powerful sentence. “Them doing it tolerably well is better than us doing it very well.”  In other words, having the local population participate in building projects, even if the final result is inferior, is better than having U.S. experts sweep in and create a perfectly constructed building and then present it to them. The value of ownership and the pride that comes from building something yourself is immeasurable. That has certainly been the case here at Far Away Ranch. Things like our barn and lodgepole fence, where we all participated in the construction, have more perceived value than those done for us.

This Christmas was another example of this principle. My wife came up with the fun idea of building a slide out of moving boxes going down our basement stairs to surprise our youngest kids on Christmas morning. We were proud of how well it turned out. But, unfortunately, they only slid down it a few times and instead played with their other toys the rest of the day. It wasn’t until we returned home from church the day after Christmas that they really began playing with it. What had changed? It had become damaged, and they repaired it themselves. The challenge of that endeavor captured their imagination, and they spent several hours reconstructing it. In retrospect, the gift would have been more appreciated if we had just given them the boxes and let them help in the initial construction. Parents, occupying powers, and business leaders should never underestimate the power of ownership as a motivational tool.