Delegation

May 4, 2020

Deep and deliberate delegation

I re-read this book by Dave Stitt over the weekend, and frankly, it made me jealous.

It is just so good.

Clearly and simply written, sharing tools and techniques I’ve never seen before, it delivers a really powerful combination of thought and action, insight and how-to, theory and process.

All of which makes it a much deeper, more thought-provoking read than most business books, yet still one that prompts you to get on and have a go for yourself.

If you are taking stock of how you delegate in your business, with a view to doing it much, much better, I thoroughly recommend this book.

Deep and deliberate. Pretty good rules to do business by.

April 1, 2020

Outsourcing

Last October I decided to write a book. In a sense I had already written it – my idea was … Read More “Outsourcing”

March 25, 2020

How to quickly capture a business process/procedure/work instruction

With teams suddenly dispersed, all that tacit knowledge of ‘what it is we’re trying to do, and how to do it’, is much harder to access. You can’t simply shout across the office “How do I do X again?”

It will be very tempting to start automating everything. But you need to think about what you’re automating first, else you can get trapped in the software manufacturer’s model of how your business should work.

So here ‘s a quick guide to capturing ‘What we do round here’ that will work over Zoom, Skype etc.

Key Principles:

Assume competence.
The quicker you test it, the quicker you can improve it.
If it feels like you’re trying to fit too much in, you probably are.
It’s a prompt, not a novel.
Practice makes perfect.
It’s about the process not the people.

How to go about it:

Start with the most critical process.
Get someone else to help you.
Sketch the whole thing as a series of bubbles – 7 plus or minus one should cover it.
Start with the 80% case.
Start at the very beginning.
Carry on right to the end.
Think ‘Get Outcome’.

Follow the rapid improvement cycle:

You tell a colleague how it works, they write it down
They do it, following what you told them.
You observe, and where it goes wrong, between you, you modify the instructions to get the outcomes you want.
You clarify how it really works (not how you think it works).
They suggest ways to make it easy for them to do.
They write up the improved version.
Save the latest version where everyone can get at it.

Repeat until you have a work instruction/procedure/process that can be run reliably by anyone who needs to.

Automate the bits humans shouldn’t be doing. Then let the humans get on with the rest.

March 19, 2020

Quiet reading

Following on from yesterday’s post, here are some suggestions for reading when things are quieter. Hopefully the weather will also be fine enough by then to do this out in the fresh air:

What to Do when It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn). Seth Godin. Available from Porchlight books.
The Three Ways of Getting Things Done. Hierarchy, Heterarchy and Responsible Autonomy in organizations. Gerald Fairtlough. Available from the Triarchy Press.
Change the Game: Share the Work. Building a business that works better for everyone (especially you). Kirsten Gibbs. Available from The Endless Bookcase. Or come to my virtual book launch on the 7th April, and get your own signed copy!
The Checklist Manifesto. How to get things right. Atul Gawande. Available from Profile Books.
Holacracy. The revolutionary management system that abolishes hierarchy. Brian J. Robertson. Available from Penguin.
A Beautiful Constraint. How to transform your limitations into advantages, and why its everyone’s business. Adam Morgan & Mark Barden. Available from Wiley.

Especially though I like today’s post from Corporate Rebels. The Ultimate Remote Work Policy?

Everything above is about supporting and enabling that, on both sides.

September 27, 2019

Commuting

Get a bunch of small business owners together where I live and they’ll wax lyrical about no longer having to commute to London to work. For some it means as much as 15 hours a week to spend on something else – family; sleep; self-care or productive business.

There are good reasons why teams sometimes need to get together to work, but to me at least it seems odd to see bigger and bigger white collar factories go up in London, when most people would be more productive working from home. After all F International cracked how to do this successfully way back in the ’70s – long before the technology we have now made remote working easy.

In which case the need to commute must be about something else. A need for community perhaps? Cross-pollination? Status? Control?

I don’t know the answer, but it might be worth asking the question for your business.

September 25, 2019

Asking for help

We’re not trained to ask for help. We’re meant to be knowledgeable enough and competent enough to manage everything ourselves. We like to present as swans, serene on top, paddling madly underneath.

Independence is overrated.

Sometimes the quickest and best solution is to ask for help. And your accountant can be a good place to start.

June 27, 2019

Decisions

One of the easiest ways to overcomplicate a process that is designed to be run by humans is to spell out every possible decision.

That’s not to say decision trees like the one above aren’t useful in helping people to think through options or scenarios, they are. But often it’s impossible to pre-identify every possible scenario – especially where other living things are involved – and the attempt to include everything we can imagine in a process simply slows down its execution.

For the most part, simple, black & white, truly binary decisions can be automated.

For everything else we want people to think before they act. In which case the best instruction starts with “Use your judgement and experience, together with your knowledge of our purpose and values”.

June 19, 2019

Why do I need process if I have good people? Responsibility

Why do I need process if I have good people?

Having a process to follow while they learn, gives people confidence that they are doing the right thing.

Once people are confident that they know what they are doing, they don’t wait to be made accountable – they take responsibility.

With the confidence of a process behind them, your good people can pretty much manage themselves.

April 25, 2019

Distance

At home, if I burn my hand on the handle of the grill pan on my cooker (because I’ve forgotten that when the oven is on, the grill also gets hot), I don’t have to report that to my boss, who’ll report it to her boss, along with all the other mishaps of the kitchen. I don’t have to wait for a decision from them on how best to avoid that next time.

Of course not. I’m a grown-up. I say to myself “stupid woman, of course that would be hot!”, and remind myself to use an oven-glove next time. And I do. I don’t need a notice on my grill pan handle saying “Caution – may get hot”.

If I keep burning my hands, then I need to find out why. Are my oven gloves getting lost? Am I rushing things too much? Should I buy different oven gloves that are easier to use? Should I invest in a different cooking arrangement?

Of course this is fine for me, I don’t share my kitchen with other cooks. But I think the principle is the same.

Given the responsibility and the means, the people in the kitchen are probably best placed to solve most kitchen problems.

April 10, 2019

A quick trawl of the internet found me these definitions of the verb “to delegate”:

to give (part of one’s work, power, etc) to someone else.
to send or name someone as a representative, as the one to do a job, etc.
to entrust to another.
to appoint as one’s representative.
to authorize and send (another person) as one’s representative.
to commit or entrust to another.
to entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.
send or authorize (someone) to do something as a representative.
to give or commit (duties, powers, etc) to another as agent or representative; depute.
to send, authorize, or elect (a person) as agent or representative.

In most cases the meaning is not ‘doing your work for you’, but ‘acting on your behalf’.

In other words, the key relationship is not between you and the person you delegate to, but between you and the clients they serve as if they were you.

Not employees. Agents. Or ambassadors.

People you can trust to do the right thing.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Category: Delegation