Release 6: Want Power? Give it away then!

Last bit on Ben Zander, promised...

One thing that Zander uses to get the best out of the people he directs is to apply the "If you want more power, give it away" rule.

I have been running an Team organisation SPIKE for the last 2 weeks to try this one out.

The setup: I am currently accountable for the delivery of 2 projects that are both important to the Business in a way that has made me allocate a set team capacity for each project.

I have decided to focus primarily on one of these projects (ie: to ensure that all conditions of satisfaction for this project are met). Which only left me with a personal remaining capacity well under what is required to satisfy the conditions of satisfaction for the second project.

I have therefore decided to give some of my power away. Some people call it to delegate, but actually, I think I am doing more than that.

Yes, I have "given" the accountability of the delivery of the second project to somebody else, and that is delegating, and this person is still reporting to me, still is a member of the team I manage.

On the other hand, I have been extremely clear from the start on what I will and won't do:
- I will provide you with the road map of how to start, who to talk to and set some short term objectives for you
- I want your word that whatever I ask you to do you feel comfortable doing them, or trying to do them
- I will not be behind you to check what you are doing
- I will be clear on the longer outcomes I expect, not on how you get there
- I will ALWAYS be availble to help you whenever you need help
- I will ALWAYS be availble for advice would you need them
- I will NEVER turn my back on you if you make a mistake
- I will take the political heat away from you: dealing with politics is not an outcome I want you to manage

All in all, this SPIKE has been running for the last 2 weeks. I go to the planning games, stand up meetings, retrospectives and steering committees with that person, not as is shadow, but more has a member of his team (if that makes sense).

He does lead that piece of work, in which I have tasks to deliver, and I report to him in this respect.

The relationship has been working quite nicely, both projects are starting to come back in line with their respective release plans.

Customers and my peers now engage with him in a different way to the way they used to only 2 weeks ago. His peers also have changed attitude and look so much happier now that there is actually somebody to concentrate on helping them full time, and who actually has the power to take decisions without having to get back to me to check that they can do so and so. Bloody hell! I am pleased with the result!

Conclusion:

In the past, I did manage to get pretty much the same type of result with somebody else in another team, and for different reasons. What I found with the latest SPIKE I describe here is that I think I now partially know why it does work: the Giving the Power away... definitely.

Does that give me more power? As a manager, I am definitely being more powerful by having done this. In a bizarre way, it also makes me less powerful, because I have proved that other people, given the right opportunity and power attributes could do my "delivery" job just as well as me, and probably for less money.

mmh... maybe I should stop this SPIKE right now ;-)