All of us have heard about the seven wonders of the world. It includes the ancient, medieval and the modern architectural great works as separate lists. The works range from the Great Pyramids of Giza to the Great Wall of China, the Roman Colosseum, the Taj Mahal Of India, the Stonehenge and the Ely Cathedral of England to name a few. Coming to the modern world, the 20th century saw the Channel Tunnel, the Panama Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge among many others. All these works were not built in a day but required an immense amount of time, team work and skills, not by one lone person but by groups of people.
All said, the balance between “many hands make lighter work” and “too many cooks spoil the broth” has to be struck in time. The following anecdotal story is often used in various management training sessions.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Delegation of work is a fine art, which results in the final masterpiece. It is not humanly feasible to complete a big project or a responsibility by micro-managing every small item or by being the lone wolf. To achieve completion, would require the person who is in charge to delegate selected tasks to people. Yet the beauty of the completed project lies in the decisions to delegate what to whom and when. It also requires the in-charge to match the amount of work with the right degree of authority and responsibility. The entire accountability can’t be delegated but only some of the huge task.
Delegation doesn’t include just handing over. It encompasses communication of the rationale and benefits of the work, context for the project, setting down defined or expected standards, clarification of required results, granting of required authority, getting the necessary commitment, regular followups and above all to provide support for crossing over the hurdles.
Even the Scriptures is filled with detailed descriptions of delegation of work. For instance, Moses was laboring from dawn till late night attempting to resolve the conflicts among the Israelites (who were led out of Eygpt after 400 years of slavery) in the Sinai desert. Jethro, his father-in-law who was a priest of Midian saw the immense workload for Moses was not sustainable and he would head for trouble. He pulled Moses aside and celebrated what God had done through him, then gave him some wise invaluable counsel regarding the concept of delegation (Exodus 18:1-23). In I Kings, we read that Solomon had mastered the fine art of managing through men and the Kingdom was enlarged. Even our Lord Saviour was willing to delegate; as seen in Luke 10:1-23 for after the Lord had given detailed instruction, He sent seventy itinerant preachers who though were inexperienced and far less capable than their Teacher, they were blessed by God.
Delegation is an ongoing process and has the ability to reap far many dividends. As rightly said by H.E.Luccock, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”
Sugar And Spice... Among Other Things 