Building a system.

In the realm of military strategy, there’s a prevailing notion that overseeing a vast force from a single command point is an impractical endeavour. The solution, often employed in practice, involves decentralization — the delegation of powers to smaller units. This approach empowers these units to make informed decisions based on predefined instructions, particularly in response to specific scenarios or unexpected events.

My Experience.

While my professional domain may not be a military unit, I’ve successfully applied this principle to remotely manage a department, all while maintaining focus on my own responsibilities. The first crucial step involved formulating a set of rules tailored to the intricacies of the department. This necessitated an intimate understanding of the team’s day-to-day operations, the nature of incoming work, the individuals involved, and the types of tasks at hand. Documenting these insights allowed me to construct a comprehensive priority list.

The priority list became the linchpin of our operational strategy. Each incoming task was assessed against this list, determining whether an operator should divert from their current task to address the new assignment or if it should be queued alongside others for subsequent attention. Initially conveyed verbally, this process required my occasional presence or intervention to prevent deviations from the established order, prompting ongoing refinements to the rules.

Once satisfied with the efficacy of these rules, the next phase involved automating the workflow. A VBA spreadsheet was meticulously designed to manage tasks and prioritize them based on responses to a set of predefined questions posed to those requesting the work. This shifted the decision-making process away from the team, allowing them to adhere to the established list. However, the evolving nature of our operations highlighted the need for additional rules, especially for critical or crisis situations, which were explicitly delegated to the team.

This system has been operational for five years, effectively steering the team with minimal direct involvement from me, unless updates to the spreadsheet or insights from our weekly meetings are necessary. This experience underscores the strategic mindset of crafting systems to manage complex scenarios with limited resources, ultimately enhancing productivity through intelligent design.