Diagnose Situation: Identify Who Needs to do the Work
by Ed O'Malley
Leadership starts with you and must engage others. Furthermore, leadership is mobilizing others to make progress on daunting challenges. It might help to consider what it is not. To do this, think back to school and hearing the often dreaded words “It’s time to for a group project.” Those group projects typically meant one or two people, who were either perceived to be intelligent, most organized, or in control, would take on or end up with all of the work, while some people skated by just showing up to meetings. Unlike this “group project” scenario, it is not about just finding someone who will do what others don’t want to. Identifying who needs to do the work is about engagement for the purpose of getting the right people involved, creationg buy in and generating actual movement on the issue.
When doing adaptive work, the people with the problem have to solve the problem. It is about learning and then experimenting.
Technical work is different and can be done by experts and authorities. Examples of technical problems:
- The electrical grid in a town goes down due to an ice storm. Who must do the work? The power company.
- A company’s database is cumbersome and disorganized due to rapid growth. Who must do the work? A database specialist can do the job given the right resources.
Stakeholders must do adaptive work. The exercise of leadership involves mobilizing the stakeholders. You can’t do the work for them, but you can engage to help them take up the work. Some examples:
- A university president wants to create a culture of excellence throughout the university. Who must do the work? The president plays a role, but needs deans, professors, administrators and staff to all work on a challenge as nebulous as “culture.”
- A middle manager in the marketing department realizes the company’s products aren’t living up to their claims. Who must do the work? The manager is involved, but there are a whole lot of others who need to be involved too – product designers, senior managers, etc.
- A student wants to see less violence and bullying in her school. Who must do the work? The student can become a loud voice, but she is only one. She will need other students, teachers, administrators and parents engaged to make a lasting impact.
- A mother longs for her grown children to be more involved in each others’ lives. Who must do the work? There is a limit to what the mother can do. Eventually the children themselves will need to “do the work.”
The exercise of leadership in those four examples is to mobilize those individuals identified to take up the work and make it their own. It’s a failure if the only one believing in and working on the idea is the university president, middle manager, student or mother.
But who are these elusive “others?” A big part of exercising leadership is being able to answer this question for each different situation. How you answer the question will have a huge bearing on how you attempt to exercise leadership. It is also important to note that sometimes identifying who must do the work is best done by an individual, but it probably has a better chance of taking hold if you determine this as a group.
How do you identify who must do the work?
- Make an exhaustive list the factions involved with your issue or challenge. On a scale of one to 10, rate each faction on how critical their support and help is for success. Those scoring high are who must do the work. This will help you narrow it down to who must absolutely be at the table. You may also find as you learn more and try new things that you may have to add or remove people along the way. If making an exhaustive list sounds overwhelming, you might also just start with a small list of the most important people for the work. And remember, “most important people for the work” means not just the people who may be the usual voices you typically engage with but those who are most necessary for the work to progress. The people who annoy you or who are difficult to work with, may be just the people you need to engage to move forward.
- Create two columns and list people you normally invite to be involved in the first column those you have not invited in the second column. For the people in column one ask yourself the following questions: Why have you invited them? Why might those individuals care? Are they the right people to do this work? For the people in column two ask yourself the following questions: Why have they not been invited? Why might those individuals care? Why might it be important to invite them? Finally, reevaluate the two columns now that you’ve answered those questions to determine who might actually be needed.
Ways to know if you have identified the right people?
- People start to talk about the issue as “our issue.”
- Momentum is building. Experiments lead to progress and increased energy.
- Everyone loses. Stakeholders are willing to let go of something they value for the sake of the common good.
- Diverse opinions are being shared and group think is not taking place.
- Those at the table are the ones you consistently bring up or hear brought up as people needed to make the vision happen.
Why is this important?
Identifying who needs to do the work is important because you’ll need to tailor your leadership efforts accordingly. Often times the biggest realization is simply that “who” needs to do the work isn’t you, or isn’t just you.
Q and A
Question: I recently completed my term as President of a fairly new organization. I know everything that needs to be done and how to do it to keep the group moving forward and so the group keeps coming to me for help. I enjoy being needed, but is my ongoing involvement in this way really what’s best for the organization?
Answer:
What History Tells Us
Inspiration
“Nothing will work unless you do.” ~Maya Angelou
“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” ~John Dewey
Resources
Book: “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
Movie: Hercules (Zeus could not help him and so he had to prove himself, he had to figure out how to do it for himself, his Dad couldn’t do it for him)
Movie/Books: Hunger Games (Katniss couldn’t do it on her own but the districts had to rally around her)
Chris’ Journal article “Stamp Out Hatred”
Movie: Sister Act
Our Next Book 
What are other ways to identify who must do the work?
What do you mean at the end when you say “Identifying who needs to do the work is important because you’ll need to tailor your leadership efforts accordingly” as the main reason for why this is important?
Another couple reasons this is so important is because: it helps others get involved in the process (engages others), as much as we’d like to think we can do it alone-we can’t, you stand more of a chance of having the work carry on without you (depending upon your purpose that could sound scary or exciting!), might actually allow you to get the work done because you have “the right people on the bus” (reference Jim Collins and Good to Great).
I also wonder if we should mention that sometimes this action should be done by an individual, but it probably has a better chance of succeeding if you identify who needs to do the work as a team.