5 Steps to Managing Anything. Part 3, Organize

In the first two articles I explained how to analyze a situation, set goals, and devise a plan for reaching them. I this article, I take you through the next step.

Step 3: Organize.

Now you’ve decided what needs doing, and how it’s going to be done, the next step is to organize the work and decide who (or what) is going to do it.

In other words...

What you’re going to do yourself and what you’re going to delegate to someone (or something) else.

Lots of managers and supervisors have trouble delegating -- they either keep all the work for themselves and leave their subordinates with little or nothing to do, or they delegate too much work (or the wrong kind of work) which results in chaos.

So what should you delegate to others, and what should you keep for yourself?

Well, most work falls into two categories: Enterprise and Routine.

Enterprise
is an arbitrary term, but used here to indicate types of work which involve the use of judgment, initiative, experiment or speculation.

Routine
work follows set precedents or rules, or comes within the range of someone’s known ability to perform.

Don’t waste time on routine, but don’t delegate enterprise unless you can effectively organize a subordinate’s capacity for doing it.

Delegating enterprise usually means drawing up a brief for the subordinate to follow. If you’re delegating the design of a web page, say, you’ll have told the web page designer what you want and how much you want to pay. Even though designing a web page will involve judgment, initiative, experiment or speculation, you will have set clear guidelines for the designer to follow, so he or she can’t simply do whatever they want.

Incidentally, you don’t have to delegate work to another person. You can delegate to a machine or a system too. For example, you’re delegating when you use a calculator to add something up rather than use your head. I’m delegating giving this information to this article and the report it’s derived from, so you can read them at your convenience instead of having to come to my office and have me explain it to you in person.