Assign Problems Not Tasks

If managers AssignProblemsNotTasks, then workers must be ready to listen to ProblemsBehindTheProposedSolutions. Is this that managers must be educated or that workers must be educated to this respect?

CategoryLeadershipPatterns: Problems are wonderful growth opportunities. When you find yourself delegating a task to someone, try instead to delegate the problem that the task was intended to solve. By allowing someone to seek their own solutions, you foster independent thinking and job satisfaction, and you treat people like thinking humans instead of a robots. Also, you may be surprised to discover that the new solution is better than what you originally intended!

I would say, "Set goals, then let me take care of it." If I don't know how to take care of it, I'll ask. If I see alternative ways to take care of it, I'll discuss them with my team and get a consensus on which one to use. This is the "don't micromanage pattern." -- BobbyWoolf, 08/26/00

I don't want to imply that delegation is not at times called for, but ManagingTechnicalPeople lists "the commitment must be freely assumed." as one of the elements a commitment must have. Another reason why allowing developers to sign up for tasks, rather than have them assigned, is a Good Idea(tm). If you can't "let" people sign up for tasks then be prepared to assign the problem, and not specify the tasks (don't micromanage pattern). It is important to note that breaking up the problem (UserStory) as a team into tasks is important. Doing so (IterationPlanning) allows for the input of the entire team on how each problem (UserStory) is solved (broken into tasks). While maintaining AcceptedResponsibility required to make up a good commitment.-- ErikMeade

I find this advice really hits home. I was recently assigned a "task" which I tried to push back to a problem but couldn't. I carried off the task, but the result was unsatisfactory to my boss, all for reasons I predicted and shared with him along the way. "Unsatisfactory" really means that his problem remains. He would have fared better sharing that problem with me, and I would have fared better, too.

Caveat: problems as assignments are what you want when you are capable, but not necessarily what you want when you are in the early stages of learning. It's that situational leadership thing. My "task" was to design and deliver a series of lab exercises. My students taught me this latter point about when a task is more appropriate than a problem. -- WaldenMathews

Likewise, as you assign problems instead of tasks, you will encourage your staff to become more professional and more effective. They will become executives, in Peter Drucker's sense.

See also ShuHaRi - Shu is where you need to be assigned tasks, Ha is where you experiment with alternate methods of performing the tasks, Ri is where you need only the problem.

CategoryManagement CategorySolutions