Acceleration vs Delegation
Someone recently told me they thought I was pretty good at delegation, which struck me as odd, because I tend to see myself as an “I’ll do it myself” kind of person.
Since that conversation, though, I’ve been paying more attention to what works really well for me (and what I’ve learned about what doesn’t) in the vein of delegation.
What I’m noticing is that true delegation – giving someone a project, process, or issue to handle and truly handing it off so that person can lead/execute/deliver to completion (keeping an eye on it to issue spot/quality control, but not being actively in the mix) – works really well for me when the subject matter is administrative, back office, or siloed, and especially when it’s something we have standardized into a documented checklist or process.
For instance, the delegation approach works beautifully for the process of setting up a new client in our systems – when the client signs our engagement letter, it automatically routes to the paralegal, and she has a task in our system that gives her a checklist to reference what needs to happen. We’ve made that process as automated as is appropriate in our context (she submits a request form that generates the client folders in our project management system, uses a template to generate the standard set of client folders in our document management system, has a task to remind her to send the welcome gift through our drop-ship partner, etc.), and she can reach out if she has questions or something doesn’t look right to her. The paralegal owns that process, and we (the partners) serve as her support when she needs clarity and can sound the alarm if something is out of bounds. The key for us is that we have to be consistent and clear in how we trigger the process, so that the train starts its journey firmly settled on the tracks. (If, for example, I were to tell the paralegal by phone that we need to set up Client X as a new client, but have not used the standard engagement letter or don’t have an engagement letter at all, we have a problem. She won’t have the info she needs, and the “trigger” for her set of to-do items isn’t found in the usual place, so she may lose the thread on it. So, if I go rogue, I’m going to get a wonky outcome – and that’s ALL. ON. ME.)
More often, I think we say we are trying to delegate when we really need to reframe it as “acceleration”. Acceleration means I’m enlisting support for some aspect of a project from someone else, as a collaborator. I am still very involved in executing on the project, generally because it requires my unique input, and often because the project goes out under my name (I recall a colleague’s commentary about the risk of malpractice / ethics issues when delegating client deliverables – definitely stuck with me). When I’m using the acceleration approach, I have a responsibility to communicate clearly, re-communicate often, and to understand that I haven’t handed the project off, but am instead leading a team to deliver faster / better than I could on my own. I need to be in the role of leader, own accountability for the outcome, and be responsive to and supportive of the team who is working with me.
In the context of legal deliverables, I often “accelerate” like this: I get a new project request from a client, and tee it up for the paralegal to put together a first draft. I need to give her good context about the project, and might be able to point her to a great starting point (in our world, likely a Westlaw Practical Law form document) – I like to do that in the task itself, so she can reference it when she is ready to work on the item. If the paralegal has questions, I need to be responsive to her texts / calls / emails about it, and probably need to talk through it with her too, so there’s less likelihood of confusion (written communication that is quick tends to turn into mis-communication, in my experience!). If what I get from her is brilliant and client-ready, FANTASTIC. However, I’m expecting that I’ll need to polish (at least), revise (more likely), or even redirect and have her rework (rarely, but it happens, and we both learn from it). Even with that, we’re still accelerating because (1) we both learn something and get better every time we use this approach; (2) I can be working on another project while she is handling the first draft or making revisions; (3) my work of polishing / revising is faster than my drafting would be; and (4) the more she works on a particular client’s matters, the more familiar she is with the client and their projects – so she becomes better able to jump in on future projects, communicates more effectively with the client, etc., and that lifts some of the load from me as well.
I use acceleration and delegation a LOT, in different contexts, and thought the distinction between delegation TO someone else, and acceleration WITH someone else was really helpful as I think about how to get the most out of our team and myself, and how to set clear expectations for myself and the team. I’d love to hear whether that resonates with you!
To your #PROmance,
Whit