How to Delegate

NOTE - this is an older piece of writing and is probably massive overkill. It's included here only for completeness and should not necessarily ne followed.

How to Delegate – THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART

Optional Question for Clarification - "How will I know when it is done?"

Not "what is the way that you will notify me when it's done" but "when it is complete, what will I have".

These are the questions you MUST answer in writing before assigning the task to someone.

Golden Rules / Keystones

(This section basically became the BDSM Contract 2.0 where its's explained in much more detail)

It is extremely powerful to come up with (together) a simple phrase that summarises the entire INTENTION of the relationship. When people are unsure, they often fall back onto freezing in place and seeking you out to clarify, this is usually out of a fear of getting things wrong.

If you reassure them that there will be no punishment, and put this into practice, it will allieviate a lot of their fear. People do respond to being punished, but the results are often unpredicatable and unless supported by an enhanced belief system will often cause emotional damage and a loss of motivation that can all too easily become a “negative death spiral” where the person becomes irrationally convinced that they themselves are a failure.

Create a single, default rule which they can always defer to in the absence of you being able to make a decision, and that will give them a clear target. Learn to map out any Dealbreakers in Writing, and forgive quickly and simply any mistakes.

Some example keystones: “Be a Joyful Addition”, “Only the Best”, “Honor Thy Partner”.

Learn Operant Conditioning if the situation / context is appropriate.

Software and Tools for Collaboration

All tools have generous free options and no paid versions should be necessary.

https://basecamp.com/ - Basecamp

https://trello.com/ - Trello

My advice? Open up a free account with both and try them both for a week. You'll know by the end of the week which is the best fit.

Other possible options:

How to put this into Practice

You will know that you have done this right when you have a checklist of whatever you want done, that outlines the major steps of the task.

The first time that you do something, fine. The second time, WRITE IT DOWN. A dot-point list of the steps involved, simple and short and ugly is fine, just write it down.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle

Excellence is what you strive for, always.

Success is CONSISTANT excellence.

Checklists are the key to consistent excellence.

List of Tools and Further Resources

https://obsidian.md/ - Note Taking Software

https://protonmail.com/ - Secure Email

https://threema.ch/ - Encrypted Texting and Chat, Group Chat

https://signal.org/ - Same as Threema

https://basecamp.com/ - Basecamp

https://trello.com/ - Trello
erris

How to Delegate Work, Written by a High-Level Executive Assistant In Their Own Words

“Hey, so this is the reply to your delegation email. The easiest way for me to work on the tasks that you want to assign me would be to have one central sheet where I would see all of them. I prefer Kanban kind of dashboards. So, for example, Trello, if you know that one, where you have a little card for each of the tasks, and then you can add the due date and any details and link any additional documents. I'm sure there's a couple of different providers for this nowadays.

Another option would be to have a shared Excel file. So one of these online ones where you can have multiple people to work on them at the same time or a Google Docs sheet. But I know that you don't like the Google suite so we could see if there is something similar. Because, I mean, it doesn't have to be complicated.

But I like to have a list that says what is it, and then when is it due, which is very important to know. Are there any dependencies? Is there any task that this is linked to that should happen first? Then are there any details that are especially important to you? How do you want my output formatted? For example, do you expect an email, or do you expect an audio or something hand drawn or a table or whatever it might be or even something physical? Then this is also important. Is this a task that you want me to get creative for? Or do you only want me to execute it without asking more questions than necessary?

If we had a table like that, I could just update my progress, and you could just check that whenever you would want to. This way it's really lean and efficient. I hope that this way there wouldn't be lots of miscommunications. I mean, if there are, you can just tell me, you can just correct me.

I don't think that there's anything proactive to do. I would just put these parameters into an email so you have them in written form. So what is it, when is it due, what's important to you, how do you want my output formatted, and do you want me to get creative or only execute? I think that's about it.

As it is with any system, it's best to just try something that's somewhat simple, so kind of like an Minimum Viable Product version and then try that out and then collect some feedback and then refine it. It's always better to get started early and then test in the real world and make it better than to craft the perfect version on a whiteboard and then never deploy it.

I mean, in a professional sense, that's actually also what we do. Or, of course, Salesforce if it's something more elaborate. Or, of course, sometimes we build custom tools, but feels as if half of the world runs on Excel. I guess that's not a coincidence.

Or there's also some good to-do list apps, I think, where you can share tasks with someone else. I think originally they were meant to be for households so you could share grocery lists or has someone done the laundry or whatever. I haven't checked if there's a better or a more advanced version that will also allow some extra information and all that that I mentioned.”

Notes from Caleb Jones Webinar on Work Automation

No EMPLOYEES, Contractors.

First, automate simple repetitive work.

Then automate Customer Service style stuff. Admin, Routine Daily Tasks. Repetitive, but not original.

Do it yourself first, then write SOPs, then as your income increases you outsource.

Simple tasks to most complex

Easy Tasks - Fiverr

Medium Tasks - Upwork

Going Further - Hire a Company

Go to Upwork and Hire Someone

Get them to do alllll of them email, texting, etc via Basecamp on your account.

Use Monday as well.

Rule of Threes - Assume that you will have to hire three of them in order to get it working.

Hire Slow, Fire Fast.

Agree and your project management tool is where you put the where, when and why. You would send it to someone, yourself, whomever. You would add the detailed notes and you'd add a link to the SOP. That’s where you'd add that detail. That’s how then we send a re-centralized thing.

For me in my company what is the one thing I do that makes money? Creating content. That’s it. I want to get to the point and I’m a ways from doing this but I get closer every month where all I’m doing is content. I do almost nothing else not even marketing. Not even IW work. I want to outsource all my marketing. That’s one of the last things you do is outsourcing marketing but every function of your business, you need to pick that one thing in your business that makes you money. If you're a consultant that would be what? Consulting. That means in a perfect world you're doing almost nothing in your typical week except consulting. Everything else is outsourced including things like marketing.

You want to eventually outsource everything. The priorities would be what I just said the technical repetitive stuff, the stupid stuff, bookkeeping, financial tasks, legal tasks. Most of you should already have a bookkeeper. You should hire a bookkeeper. If you're not doing that would be in the technical repetitive task zone. All those things. Eventually you want to outsource everything. I’m at the point now almost where I do nothing except marketing and content. I want to get the point where I do nothing but content. That’ll take a little more time.

Everyone asks really technical, probing questions which are useful but the most important question I ask people is I’ve given you a month simplification and an unlimited budget.

SW = Standard Work

IW = Improvement Work

If you can afford to have someone else do it don't waste your time. You need to keep innovating. That’s always the goal. You need to be coming up with new ideas and bringing in revenue. That’s the thing that the rest of your staff cannot, will never do as efficiently or effectively as you. Maximize your time and your limited resources.

Intermediate - Stewardship Delegation – A Simple Howto

This content is taken from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey.

There's a much better way, a more effective way to delegate to other people. And it's based on a paradigm of appreciation of the self-awareness, the imagination, the conscience, and the free will of other people.

Stewardship delegation is focused on results instead of methods. It gives people a choice of method and makes them responsible for results. It takes more time in the beginning, but it's time well invested. You can move the fulcrum over, you can increase your leverage, through stewardship delegation.

Stewardship delegation involves clear, up-front mutual understanding and commitment regarding expectations in six areas:

Desired Results : Create a clear, mutual understanding of what needs to be accomplished, focusing on what, not how; results, not methods. Spend time. Be patient. Visualize the desired result. Have the person see it, describe it, make out a quality statement of what the results will look like, and by when they will be accomplished.

Guidelines: Identify the parameters within which the individual should operate. These should be as few as possible to avoid methods delegation, but should include any formidable restrictions. You won't want a person to think he had considerable latitude as long as he accomplished the objectives, only to violate some long-standing traditional practice or value. That kills initiative and sends people back to the gofer's creed: "Just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it."

Traps and Pitfalls: If you know the failure paths of the job, identify them. Be honest and open -- tell a person where the quicksand is and where the wild animals are. You don't want to have to reinvent the wheel every day. Let people learn from your mistakes or the mistakes of others. Point out the potential failure paths, what not to do, but don't tell them what to do. Keep the responsibility for results with them - to do whatever is necessary within the guidelines.

Resources: Identify the human, financial, technical, or organizational resources the person can draw on to accomplish the desired results. Think outside the box, resources can be both tangible and intangible.

Accountability: Set up the standards of performance that will be used in evaluating the results and the specific times when reporting and evaluation will take place.

Consequences: Specify what will happen, both good and bad, as a result of the evaluation. This could include such things as financial rewards, psychic rewards, different job assignments, and natural consequences tied into the overall mission of an organization.