Delegation: personal experience

Any business, any large-scale project relies primarily on the team, so the delegation of authority is one of the necessary tools for building a well-functioning system that yields a positive result in the output. Design business processes, create a knowledge base, find the right and appropriate people, put them in "their" places, give them the opportunity to open up and grow, help more at the start and go to control key indicators with less participation later, here they are the system components .

Max Voloshin (@willie), director of development at Redmadrobot, talks about the general principles of delegation and practices within the company.

TASKS AND VARIANTS OF DELEGATION
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Types of tasks and principles of distribution

All affairs somehow fall into three categories:

• I'll do it alone
• I will do better than others
• Make anyone

Despite the appearance that many important things cannot be trusted to anyone, in fact, almost all of them can be delegated. For tasks that anyone can do, a “simple script” is enough and they should be transferred first. It can be the purchase of something, the transfer of documents (courier service can do it) or the search for some information on the Internet (an office manager or an online assistant will do it).
Things that you do better than others will require a more detailed description of the transfer (algorithms, knowledge base) with the obligatory training in the format of a workshop for the development of skill. Such cases are transferable, but it takes significantly more time.
Well, things that only you can do at first glance often just seem so. Quite exactly, some of them can be transferred in exactly the same way as in the case of things that you do better than others. This may be the management of a department or even an entire company: it simply takes significantly more time to delegate such cases to train a potential manager, or to search and test people who already possess the full range of necessary skills.

NB! What should not be delegated?
Delegating work with investors, developing your own personal strategy or having dinner in a restaurant with a girl / wife is dangerous enough - such things really need to be done by yourself.

Delegation of individual tasks

Where to start when you decide to delegate a task to someone? First of all, you need to ask yourself the question "Will this person cope with the task?" And give an affirmative answer to him. Next, you need to comply with 4 points:

1. A clear description of the task and the requirement for the result. It is important that the task be understood not only by the delegate, but also by the delegated task. You need to make sure of this, for example, by asking a person to describe in his own words how he understood the task: he outlined the steps necessary to accomplish it, the desired result and the criteria for evaluating the success of this result.
2. The availability of resources to complete the task. The result should be achievable: you need to make sure that the person has enough time, material and other resources, or that he knows where and how to get them.
3. Explaining the relevance of the problem. It is necessary to briefly explain why the task is needed, and what problems it solves. This affects the motivation of a person and the quality of his task, because when understanding goals, you can offer the best solution that you may not see.
4. Control of the result. The date, time and place of control over the implementation of the result are clearly specified. This can be either an intermediate result or complete completion of the task.

Delegation of task groups (authorities)

Here the metaphor about the plane from the book “One-minute Manager and Monkeys” by Kenneth Blanchard is well suited to illustrate. A long preparatory process precedes lifting the aircraft into the air: it must be taken out of the hangar, filled up, made an external MOT, prepared the route, checked the systems, coordinated everything with the dispatchers, and finally passed the most intense takeoff process! In general, this business is far from simple. But then, after entering the course and horizontal flight, everything happens almost automatically: you just have to look at the instruments and at the co-pilot who leads the plane.
If you put it into a practical plane, it turns out that before delegating a group of tasks to someone (for example, a project), managing a department or even a whole company, you must first develop all the necessary business processes, supply them with a knowledge base and, it is important to train a person to use all of this and let him go only after there is confidence that he will cope. It's like teaching someone to ride a bike - you must first tell the principle, then set an example, then support the saddle several times. And that's all: the person is not very confident, but he starts to go. Otherwise, you can "break all your knees" and generally refuse forever to "ride a hated bicycle":

1. Schematic diagram. It is always a top-level schematic representation of what is to be done, in the universal language of graphic images. It is necessary to describe schematically what the delegated group consists of. This may be a project implementation plan with blocks of tasks arranged in the desired sequence. If department management is delegated, then a functional structure and organizational structure should be designed.
2. Business process diagram. Within functional blocks, as well as between them and external blocks, there are connections along which interaction takes place. All such interactions must be described. The level of detail depends on the specific case - from the principles formulated in one sentence to detailed algorithms and procedures.
3. Knowledge base. To move on business processes need materials. These can be plans, memos, templates, articles, books, educational materials. In general, everything that will not only help the new person to immerse himself, but will also be used in his main work.
4. Training in workshop mode. First, the "master" does, and the student looks. Then do together. Then the student makes, and the "master" looks. In order for training to be effective, just need a scheme, a description of the processes and the primary knowledge base.

These 4 points you can go and externally, but then you need a person who does all this for you or for you. And he will come up with, and describe, and put people, and train. This path is quite real, but this does not mean that you have disclaimed responsibility - just the opposite, now you have to figure out how to control what you don’t understand. There may be the following path:

• Objective KPI activities
• Verification of the achievement plan that a person must do himself (checking with the help of experts, common sense)
• Short iterations to verify KPI exit and progress on plan

5 PRINCIPLES OF DELEGATION


1. Delegation - a tool for motivating and growing employees
There is a general principle: to grow, you must go out of your comfort zone. On the one hand, this means that you need to give more of your work to your subordinates so that you have more time for new projects. For employees, this means that they have the opportunity to go beyond their usual and understandable tasks, to take part of your business, thereby approaching the next level of professional development. It is critical that both parties understand this in the same way.
Delegation is not just a redistribution of tasks, but also a powerful element of professional development, which gives an opportunity to move forward both the employee and his manager.



To do this, you need to clearly understand where the employee is now, where he wants to go, and what the delegated tasks in the format of personal development will give him. The employee himself does not always have such an understanding, therefore the task of the manager is to help him by drawing up a development plan and describing the criteria for the transition between professional levels.
NB! It is necessary to provide a platform for frequent victories (read - motivation): design the work of a subordinate so that large tasks are decomposed and tangible. It's like in good arcade games - no matter what a player does, they accumulate points, open up games, form bonuses. That is, the game keeps feeding with dopamine. It turns out such HR-gamification.



2. Be a cool teacher
The goal is to be able to delegate authority in order not only to transfer one task, but, for example, to transfer the management of a department or a large project. Basic principles:

1. Work in workshop mode. This was described in detail above in the example with a bicycle. This is not the only delegation system. There is a method of “Tibetan monastery”, when a person must go the same way on his own. Within the framework of a rapidly developing IT business, it is also necessary to achieve results quickly, and working in workshop mode with this in mind is the best option.
2. Feedback. Feedback on the results and reports that the person sends is extremely important. He must understand that he is not doing the work for a tick, that he really needs it. And to say thank you for the work done in general, a good tone. The expression of recognition is a powerful addition to the ruble or dollar. Criticism must be constructive and necessarily reasonable.
3. Justice. The sense of justice is the most sensitive. Double standards reduce credibility.
4. Adult-adult. Training is, first of all, cooperation, when one person transfers experience and the other takes it, paying for it by doing the work of another level. This is a system of relations between adults, in which there is no place for the moral teachings of "parents" and the whims of "children." This format needs to be negotiated "ashore".

3. Careful check of people at the entrance
Choosing the right employee, partner, or contractor before starting the interaction is more important than subsequent work with him. It seems to be obvious, but here a lot of mistakes just happen, which then lead to trouble. For example, there are these types of people:

1. Viral rotten eggs. People who, by their negative or disbelief in success, begin to poison those around them. They not only slow down the development, but may even jeopardize the whole project. From these it is necessary to get rid of quickly and ruthlessly.
2. Slow bombs. It seems that everything is OK, but a person sometimes breaks down in trifles, and then quickly takes control of himself. Such calls appear more often and at some point a person either disappears, or leaves, or comes with a gun to shoot everyone.
3. Black holes. When it is not clear why a person needs all this, where he goes, what he wants to achieve. There are two options: he really doesn’t know or hides, being in this case a “delayed bomb”, but in any case you get a person with a head in which there is a black hole, and you don’t know how to synchronize the path with him. Such people can to be very talented, but it is important to understand that you take the risk: at any moment such a person may disappear, and you cannot predict it.
4. Great guys. They are cool, it is pleasant to talk with them, they can tell a lot of things about surfing, wakeboarding, nice cafes, cheapness and Thailand ... But they don’t know how and don’t want to work. They only want to spend their time idly.

NB! Hiring employees in a team can be delegated only if you know how the hiring system works and you have made sure that the decisions on the admission and quality of candidates that the system issues at the exit are correct, as well as the competence of the team that serves this system.

4. Communication contract
When you start interacting with someone, you, as with the purchase of goods and services, need to conclude an agreement, only communication. Pre-agreed principles of communication will save you from surprise when a person, for example, will not pick up the phone if you call him at 21.00. The basic principles are:

1. Communication schedule. When someone is available, when to call, and when not to. Is it possible to do something at the weekend or late in the evening, when email is checked and so on.
2. Reaction time and format. It is necessary to clearly agree on how long the response to the letter, SMS or call will be. For example, a letter must be answered no more than 24 hours, or the response must be postponed to another time within 2-3 hours. If it is not possible to answer an incoming call, after what time do you call back or send SMS with further actions.
3. Issues for discussion should be described and analyzed before possible solutions. It is necessary to agree to state the problems in writing and correctly: with a normal formulation, a prehistory, variants of solutions, one’s own variant and arguments. Very often, this very action removes the problem, and a person does not need to come with her, he can decide everything himself.
4. Changes in conditions should become known in advance, not at the moment. If the meeting is canceled or the task is not solved in full, it is necessary to notify about it in advance so that the other person can change his plans, and not lose time. Or so that you can form another solution: for example, discussing a draft or transferring the full result to a more convenient time for all.
5. Features of styles. Each has its own speed of presentation of thoughts and the form of this presentation. It is necessary to agree on common things at the starting stage, and also to indicate that the problem points will not be ignored in the future, and a corresponding correction will be made. Many, for example, cannot communicate productively when someone speaks in a raised voice or uses mate in speech.

NB! The main danger arising in the process of delegation is entrusting a person with such a volume of tasks that he is unable to cope with. This lowers his motivation and leads to a bad result. A comfortable amount of tasks can only be detected experimentally, while at the same time making an adjustment. If an employee copes with the volume entrusted to him and is satisfied with his work, this allows him to do more in the future.

5. Control system
Well, all the individual tasks have been delegated, authority for projects and groups has been delegated, but the responsibility is still yours. There can not do without the control system. It will be different for everyone, but the principles remain the same:

1. Calendar arrangements. The form can be organized as you like: in the form of marks in the electronic calendar, tasks with reminders or in a regular paper diary. The most important thing is to fix the date and task performer, and so that you can see this information on the right day.
2. Insurance. If you need to learn about the results not from newspapers or monthly reports, or if you doubt that you will get exactly the result you need, you can use three types of insurance:
   
   - Agree that the performer received the approval of the result from your side, before he goes “to work”.
   - At the moment when the result went to work, you are informed by the CMC, by letter or otherwise.
   - If “something went wrong,” and there was a deviation from the plan, an alert is in progress. Here you can adjust the framework in advance, for example, notify only if the budget or deadline deviated by more than 10% from the planned.
   
   
3. President reporting. Reporting should be set up in such a way that, upon receiving 5 pages, you immediately understand what is happening in your “diocese” and, if you wish, detail it. This means that you need to design the form and content of the reporting yourself, this work cannot be delegated to anyone.
4. Communication with the team. It is also necessary to communicate informally with your team, on which the results depend, and the people who hold groups of tasks or projects, in order to be on a wave. It is very desirable to do it personally, well, or at least not by mail (Skype or phone will fit better).
5. Refresh format and algorithm. Well, yes: you need to periodically review how your system works. For this very suitable notes that can be left in some abnormal situations, and once in 1-3-6 months, collect them and make changes. Well, or you can make changes immediately, as the Japanese do: a classic example is TPS (Toyota Production System) .

CASE 1: DELEGATION OF THE GROUP OF AUTHORITY FOR HR



Max Voloshin:

“Some time ago, I was faced with the need to delegate an HR system, which until that moment I was engaged in myself. I began by studying the subject area: I had to test a number of hypotheses.
I depicted for myself the company's HR-system as a block diagram. Within each block I wrote a business process: what should be at the entrance, what is happening in the process, what is required to get at the output.
The process of hiring new employees, for example, includes several stages: first, requirements for vacancies are developed, resources are selected for their publication, and the placement algorithm is thought out. I described all these stages in detail and made the templates: job descriptions, tests and answers to potential applicants. In the latter, different scenarios were worked out: the candidate fits, the candidate may be suitable, or the candidate does not fit at all.
Before starting to delegate the HR system, I myself plunged deep into this work: an understanding was formed of how and when it is better to carry it out, and then it turned into a plan. In the morning I raked the mail, looked at all the responses, categorized them and then answered people (using templates). I already understood the points that need special attention. When it came time to delegate tasks to the Redmadrobot HR manager, I began to act a la carte, applying the work I already had. We conducted several workshops where I explained to the manager the essence of the work step by step: we opened the responses, I showed how to read the resume correctly, explained the basis for which I decide to bring the resume into the system and so on. ”

CASE 2: PROJECT DELEGATION IN QA DEPARTMENT



Ilya Gorshkov, Head of QA Redmadrobot:

“For each year, the QA-division has a work plan, it clearly defines the functional responsibilities of different levels and reporting structure: it is clear from the very beginning what types of tasks each QA engineer will have to perform. Delegation falls into the category of functional responsibilities.
The work was initially divided into 2 large groups: directly testing and developing test cases. This is delegated to two different employees. In addition, all employees have a personal development plan: when a person can “lead” to new areas for him, when he receives new responsibilities and changes his position.
If there is a thing that I can do myself, but I see that someone from the staff needs to develop in the appropriate direction, I will hand over the task to him. So it was with our project of the Otkritie mobile bank, the responsibility for which was delegated by me to a QA-engineer.
How did this happen? First of all, I informed the team of project managers that a new person is responsible for the project. Then he loaded the QA project plan and reporting system for project managers and customers to an employee. It was further discussed what resources can be counted on in the framework of this project. If at some point these resources were not enough to complete the assigned tasks, then the employee turned to me and received an additional resource - this process was also pre-arranged. The decision-making process on the project was divided into 2 levels: at the first person could make decisions independently, at the second, higher, he connected me. The insurance system was worked through through the connection of project managers, me and, in the last resort, the production director. ”

The time spent on delegation is influenced by a lot of factors: the person’s cognitive data, the degree of readiness of the system for transmission, and the scopes of tasks. To make the process as quick and effective as possible, you need to have a concrete plan of action on your hands and be patient: at the initial stage, time and cash investments in a person are large, but in the long run the effort expended must have a tangible positive effect. But in no case should we forget: the delegation of a task does not remove responsibility for the result from the one who delegated it.

Sources and additional literature
Books:
"Delegation and Governance," Brian Tracy
“One-minute Manager and Monkeys” , Kenneth Blanchard
Articles:
"How to delegate"
"How to set tasks"
Audio Podcast:
“50 Delegation Stickers” , Sergey Potapov