You didn't notice the lights were different sizes?

Humans, not just managers, have a problem letting go of control. It's what we do!

Our neighbor was on a tirade because her husband messed up putting the Christmas lights on their house. I had noticed him on previous days, he was trying hard, I admired his ambition. Up the ladder, move the ladder, install clips, he was out there working for a long time. He plugged in the lights, eureka, beautiful! Even Rudolph lit up.

We meet sometimes early on garbage day. This time she was angry, frustrated, at her wits end. She sounded ready for divorce. Apparently, her husband, who I thought had done a heck of nice job, hadn't noticed the lights were two different sizes. Different bulbs! Shivers ran through me. My neighbor's relationship, years of marriage, it was all up in the air. I was sure realtors would arrive and a for sale sign was going up on his lawn. It had to be that way. After-all, the man couldn't be trusted to use the same size Christmas lights for the front of his house.

With my philosopher hat on, I thought, - how dumb is this? Who really cares? It's the little things which kill relationships, at home and at work. Nit picky, hair splitting, granular, angry, intense irrelevance twisted to dominate the other guy. And then we wonder why we have a morale, turnover, or divorce problem. It will be six months before these two kiss again.

There are several management delegation lessons here. Don't sweat the small stuff. People all do things differently than you. Worry about what they did, not how they did it. If you do have a quality concern, then build it into the requirements when you delegate.

I know my neighbor. I know he's not evil. If he had been told not to confuse the light bulb sizes and keep same size bulbs together, he would have gladly done it. A lot of delegation suffers from the same problem. Afterthoughts, adding requirements after we've given the order and then blaming the person we delegated it to.

Some points on using milestones to avoid delegation problems, - before it's too late! Use milestones. Milestones are markers that allow you to adjust the project before completion.

If you don't hit the deliverables, you probably also missed the milestones.

Milestones give distance and direction information.

Milestones tell us decision consequences and allow you to adjust the project.

Milestones are actually project structure. They are building blocks.

If you have good milestones, you'll delegate and maintain control.



The real lesson is, - lighten up, smile more. Things just go better at home and at work! Let the little things slide. The lights are up, the downside is minimal, go get some eggnog.

Merry Christmas!
Wolfgang

p.s. Merry Christmas, or whatever your excuse for taking time off.

p.s Assembling the A Team. Unique, hard to fill, exceptional.
Building key management and professional teams. What if you deliberately set out to hire the only right person for the job? What would happen to your company? If every role on your key management team had the most perfect player in it. If every professional slot had the most sophisticated brainpower in it. What then? Email me, I'll send you my thinking on it. I'll tell you why and how I do it. Email wolf@managing.ca.