Thoughts on Delegation

This article, titled Delegate or Die: The self-employed trap, is directed to solo managers in small organizations, but the message applies to workers everywhere.

For teams to perform efficiently, it helps to have a guidebook - something that captures the group's "tribal knowledge".

When a group is small, say 3-4 people, it's easy to communicate about methods and come to an agreement on how to handle [this kind of thing] or what to do in case of [insert your favorite crisis here]. 

However, as teams grow, passing on that tribal knowledge becomes a hit-or-miss proposition, dependent on the story-telling ability of the more senior workers. For organizations that *do* take the time to document their processes, maintenance becomes a pain point - it's just too difficult to build and maintain SOPs for every situation.

That's why I like the advice in this article so much - it's about empowering staffers to make decisions and take actions, safe in the knowledge that they are acting as the group leader would. Not because they have a ginormous SOP guide, outlining every possible scenario, but because they've been given guidelines that can be used in any situation.

The guide would evolve to contain the philosopy and culture of the organization, describing methods to make decisions and take actions. Knowing that, even a new team member can be effective on day one.

Originally posted: February 24, 2011 at  8:26 PM