Re-delegation
Category: Knowledge
Published: 11/25/2008 08:50 a.m.
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
This is a very old example of the importance of teaching which I believe focuses mostly on the benefits to the man. The other half is the benefit to you. Instead of having this man bother you and beg for a fish everyday, you are free from his burden as he can now fish on his own. Teaching this man to do this may take much longer than simply providing him with a fish, but it saves lots of time in the long run.
Our new fishing is creating deliverable documents. My boss does not ask me for a fish, he asks for a powerpoint deck, a visio diagram, or some other form of digital doc. What most people do when receiving multiple requests like these is to continue to make multiple documents. They keep giving their boss a fish everyday. What might help them is if they were able to invest their time (and their boss's time) and teach them to do their own fishing.
I had one such opportunity today. Yesterday, I was asked by someone to create a visio diagram showing two processes at once. So I used my skills and cranked out a simple, symmetric diagram with coloring that conveyed information and that draws the eye through the process in the proper direction. She liked my work and thanked me. She also mentioned that she might have some more for me the next day. So the next day (aka today) I was approached to do a similar drawing. When explaining what she wanted, she asked how I developed a few of the parts of the diagram. I then took advantage of the opportunity to teach someone. I showed her how using the paintbrush in visio made formatting similar lines and boxes more effortless. I drew a bare bones structure, connected lines, formatted three things, and then click-click with formatting and the whole thing suddenly looked functional.
This is the point where I was surprised, and where I learned something. I expected to hear her say that I had done a good, efficient job, and that she wanted me to do more. I did not hear this. What I heard was more along the lines of "Those are some great tricks. I will just go create this one and use those same tricks. There is no need for you to do it." At first I was disappointed. I enjoy the opportunity to create process flows that are simple while still conveying a good deal of useful information. But I then realized what I had accomplished. I had essentially "re-delegated" the task back to the person who originally wanted it done. I had given them a tool or skill that allowed them to save time. Since I wasn't doing the work anymore, it also saved me time.
I am hoping to take what I have learned in this re-delegation experience and use it again. The biggest problem I anticipate is bosses who are not willing to be taught how to fish, or claim they don't have the time. And time is really the key metric here. It might take me 10 minutes to explain how this person could save an hour. But I also have to spend 2 minutes explaining why they should hear me for 10 minutes. This is usually the key, and getting this 2 minutes is sometimes hard.
When there is no task being completed between two people, I think it becomes hard to have a short work-related conversation. A quick 2 minutes about the Jets win would be easier. Or a 30 minute meeting to discuss some current work would be OK to schedule as well. But 2 minutes that are just a jumping off point to 10 minutes feels very difficult. So, the best way to get your 10 minutes is to not have to get your 2 minutes in the first place.
I believe my dad has the kind of relationship with his bosses that he can take 10 of their minutes almost any time he wants. The boss has a trust in my dad that if he wants to talk about something it is probably worth his time to listen. And conversely, my dad does not abuse this trust, and only uses it when something is important. It is a good relationship that I imagine took some time.
So, to have more opportunity to re-delegate to others, this kind of relationship must be formed. I am not a that kind of state in my current career, but am hoping to establish myself somewhere I can start to build some trust. Any ideas on how to do that? (Assume you get 6 weeks max with any one person.)