I used to be someone who would take on the responsibility for almost anything. If you would let me handle it, it would get done. Done on time, within budget and with great quality.
The only result was that I would have too many high priority things to do and could spend too little time on the things that are actually important. I am still experiencing the aftermath of some of these decisions, where I took the responsibility for something, which in the end caused me to have to work really hard to get it done.
What I did wrong here was that I would take responsibility, but when I needed others to do things, I would give them responsibility. There is a big difference in taking responsibility and giving it to someone.
Giving versus taking responsibility
A good way to view responsibility is to see it as a heavy rock. The person who carries the rock feels the responsibility (try holding a heavy rock for 10 minutes, it isn’t fun). Imagine taking on the responsibility for 10 rocks. You certainly want someone else to delegate part of that responsibility to.
When we give someone responsibility, we are basically telling them what to do. Giving responsibility means we give someone a task and tell them when/how/how-well it must be done. The downside of this approach is that the person who is given the responsibility will experience the task as a burden and doesn’t really want to take it. In terms of rocks, the heavy load is not transferred, because you will still feel responsible for the end result.
The opposite of giving responsibility is taking responsibility. When someone takes responsibility for a task, what effectively happens is that they’ll tell you ‘hey, don’t worry, I have this covered’. This means that you can sit back, relax and only have to manage the situation when something exceptional happens. Much preferable over giving responsibility. In the rocks analogy, this means that the delegate tells you ‘I’ll take that burden from you, and make sure it is handled well’.
The difference between taking and giving responsibility is that the initiative is coming from a different party. When giving responsibility, you are the initiator. When someone takes responsibility, they are the initiator.
How to get people to take responsibility
So how do you get people to take responsibility? You can’t force them into it, obviously. You have to devise a way to get them to want the responsibility. This can be done in many ways, but I’ll give an example of an issue I am currently concerned with.
I am designing an architecture for a new software product. This is mainly my idea, my rock so to speak. But ultimately, I want the developers to embrace the architecture and build a good software product. I can just tell them they need to build it as I told them to build it, but that means I continuously have to monitor their performance.
What I’d rather do is have them take the responsibility to develop the system. That way I will have much less monitoring to do and the result will be much better too. In order to get the developers to embrace the architecture, I decided to involve them in the process from the earliest stage, which is now. Here’s basically how I plan to do this:
- Share the first version of my internal presentation of the general idea for the architecture with the developers
- Discuss the aspects of this first version with them, value and use their input
- Plan and hold a brainstorm meeting in which we tackle yet more issues, together
- Setup a project plan with the developers which addresses standard development issues (programming style, testing, etc)
- Create a detailed planning together with the development team
- Start developing!
In each big step I try to include (at least part of) the development team. In the end, I want them to feel this is as much their project as it is mine. When that is done, it is easy for them to take responsibility.
When to give and when to take responsibility
There are some situations where this approach might not work. You will need to assess each situation with care, but you’ll see that the key factor here is trust. If there is a good relationship based on mutual trust, having the other party take responsibility is a very effective way of delegating!
Wed, Jul 8, 2009
Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement