(this is a memo I shared internally about delegation, I’d love to know what you think about it!)
I am a complicated creature: I can both have a ton of empathy and emotional reactions, but at the same time I could be a very productive cold robot, not reading between the lines, and expecting others to be the same.
It was brought to my attention that I might have a weird way of delegating work, or at least making assumptions that aren’t that obvious 
I also have a few principles that aren’t that common, so I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the topic of delegation and priorities.
As you know, I work on a lot of things at the same time. I could jump from a super important RFP, to thinking about creating a song about Asana. Even if that song isn’t important or immediately profitable, it helps me train my creative brain, and historically some of those weird ideas ended up having a surprising impact.
Also, if you assign something to me, I would either send it back saying I don’t want to or could do it, or would do it quickly because it is fun to help others even if it isn’t a priority.
And because I only have 24h in a day, like everyone, I tend to delegate a lot. And that delegation includes things that don’t seem to be priorities (but they are), or aren’t priorities at all. And I realized, with your help, those distinctions either weren’t clear, or they were but people might assume they should treat those tasks in a specific way.
Back to the topic: delegation and priorities. With AI being used more and more, I’d like to simplify the problem to a simple sentence:
When assigning a task to someone, it should be detailed enough in terms of description, comment, fields and date so that an AI bot could prioritise it for you.
I know, that might seem cold, but I feel like not being so blunt can lead to people reading between the lines, trying to find a hidden agenda or beating around the bush.
Here’s what it means in practice and what I believe should be our shared guiding principles.
If no date is communicated on a task, it means there is no deadline. If a deadline is given, the recipient has to do the task by that date, otherwise they need to communicate they can’t as soon as possible.
Anyone assigning a task should take into account the knowledge they have of the recipient’s workload. Don’t assign an important topic to someone overwhelmed or on PTO. But because a high workload is supposed to be temporary, a non urgent non important task can be assigned, just assume it will be done later. When receiving a task, don’t assume the person knows about your workload. If you receive a task while being overwhelmed, it doesn’t mean we believe this task is super-important (unless if we say so).
If you receive a task and you don’t like it, don’t know how to do it, don’t have time, don’t have the ressources… say so immediately and assign it back.
Communicate clearly the priority of a task. We don’t currently have a complex system of priorities, we have either 
or nothing. And each one of us has a different My Tasks system, but anyone can triage something that is “urgent” versus “low” versus “medium”.
Communicate clearly why something is important, it will help understand how this task fits into the bigger picture, and ideally get you excited about the assignment.
The identity or role of the person assigning the task shouldn’t influence the priority. If I assign a task to you, or our new intern does, the task should be considered the same way.
Don’t assume anything, don’t read between the lines. No one at iDO (I hope) has an hidden agenda or ulterior motives. We just want things done and have fun
I don’t believe we could or should always work on important and urgent things. I strongly believe a few quick wins and fun tasks are important, as long as they don’t require too much time or energy. This is by far the hardest of all my points to grasp, especially when you are completely overwhelmed and you see me working on Asana mug designs.
If I delegate a task to my colleague, and all of the above was applied, it is my responsibility to check in with them if the work isn’t done quickly enough according to me. If they have a high workload, I know a non important non urgent task would most likely not be done before weeks or months. It falls on me to check with him again if the priority changes.
Are you surprised by any of the above? Do you feel like we are missing something? Do you agree with it all or do we need more nuances?
