INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO SAY... NOT ME!
- Send Email - Email is the greatest Job Transfer device every created. Want to do all the easy stuff and get rid of the hard? Find someone in your organization that has something, no matter how unimportant, to do with the task and email them a question. Examples: “When is Bill returning?” “How do I access this file?” “Is this a priority?”. You can stop all activity.
- DO Not Respond to an instruction. Now you can claim non-receipt and therefor non action is the fault of the sender.
- Respond to an instruction with gibberish. “How do I grefesth the oblviator?” Obviously the original emailer wasn’t clear so you needed clarification. Darn spell check scrabbled your request for more info.
- Set up your “auto responder” with a message “I am out of the office until…”. Of course you couldn’t do the task by deadline and the sender has been notified.
- Secretly set your spam filter to include your superior. When asked why you didn’t do something you mysteriously find the instructive email in your spam weeks after it was due.
We don’t have these issues at GroupMatrix because of one simple rule. You own the problem until its resolved, no matter how many transfer emails you send. If what you need to complete your task is in someone else’s territory, it’s still your problem whether or not they respond. You cannot relieve your responsibility with an email, an instruction or any form of transfer. You own it and you will finish it regardless of the communications or obstacles.
It’s a simple principal which prevents the “falling through the cracks” syndrome. It’s a reasonable extent of job assignment. It shortcuts the drama of chain of command. It keeps the task at the desk of those who are most knowledgeable to complete it. It is the heart and soul of efficiency.
In fact it is such a direct and simple solution that it needs no further explanation. Thank you for reading this blog.
Richard Sackett / CEO / Group Matrix
