President Biden said that he would use the “whole of government” to fight the pandemic and that saying has stuck with me. Put politics aside and consider the coordinated effort toward vaccinating 100 million people in two months. It involved mobilizing National Guard troops and members of the military, securing funding through Congress, engaging the Department of Defense in supply chain procurement, working with the CDC, Human Services, and OSHA; directing FEMA to set up community vaccination centers, mandating masks on public transportation, improving data dashboards and addressing health equity. No one person or entity could coordinate a project of this scope alone.
Think about what you could achieve if you directed the “whole of [your organization]” toward a singular effort. Universities could mobilize various factions toward a true push for student retention. Nonprofits could engage various constituent groups in a pervasive membership drive or fundraising campaign. Cities could coalesce around ending poverty or homelessness in their town.
Not only does “the whole” provide more labor and financial resources but bringing together diverse units provides the added bonus of new perspectives and solutions that would not be possible individually. We often are so busy being busy in our individual “cylinders of excellence” (Lisa Bender’s euphemism for silos) that we forget about the synergy and exponential gains that can be achieved by deep partnering toward a single goal.
