It has always been an aspiration of every person to be able to deliver on his/her accountability… to complete a mission… to finish a task… thereby “at least” two smiles are created upon the delivery, the happy and smile of the person who delivers on his/her task… and the relieved smile of the person who assigned the task. And when the task is so meaningful that it is formulated based on sound principles and good intentions, and where the execution of the task is maintained so that it “does no harm” : the impact of the delivery of the task multiplies… creating smiles beyond the two persons mentioned in this paragraph.
In the mind of the writer, the word “accountable” translates to the same meaning to the word “amanah” in Indonesian. With both words in mind, we become respectful to an object of accountability that is task, a state where a person does not take lightly the assignment of task and the acceptance of accountability. We should observe the person who assigns a task, that person holds the delivery of that task dear to him, whereby a non delivery of that task is something that is an object of unhappiness and burdensome. Let us also observe the person who accepts the accountability of delivering the task… upon the acceptance of the task, the person who accepts the task is suddenly liable of the “delivery of the task”. The task has become a promise, whereby one made a promise to deliver a task to the other. At a point in time afterwards, the fulfillment of that promise relieves the one that accepts the task from being liable … and that fulfillment also produce happiness to the one who receives the fulfillment of that promise, whom is the one who assigned the task.
An example of such is when your husband fix your broken laptop… both of you are happy. Or when a manager whom is a subordinate of yours achieve his/her target… or when your company gets that ISO certification. What was your experience? What did you as a group experience? How was the flow?
At work, we assign and accept accountability… we assign and accept tasks. We are happy when a task that we assigned to others is fulfilled and happy when a task that we accepted is delivered… and we worry when what happens is the opposite. The objective of the conversation that we are having through this article is to ensure that the opposite does not happen. Thereby we may become a person with a characteristic known as “accountable”... and thereby become and contributes to a society that is not only happy... but also delivers to itself and to others.
Clarity and Purpose
It has been concluded by the understanding and experience of the writer, that the problems of tasking is to have clarity. Ask yourself the questions; how often did you accept a task that is somewhat hazzy? how often did you assigned an unclear task? What happened during the execution of that hazzy/unclear task? Were there frustration? Where there grievances? With the answers in mind, then comes the question: “What is a clear task?”. Based on consults, experience and reasons, I think you would agree with me that a clear tasks constitutes of four elements:
This practice of task formulation is a “must”… it mitigates the risk where one creates the illusion of being able to assign a task and being able to accept a task. Having that clarity gave comfort that a task can and will be delivered as expected... while at the same time saves us from expecting an delivery of a not yet possible/not yet realistic task, hence the word “illusion” was used.
There is another that is of most importance but not at the same dimension with that four elements of a clear task, that one is what we call the Context of the Task. In my perspective, the context of the task creates the drive, the spirit, the thrust, the motivation, the perseverance, the flexibility if not innovativeness, the rigidity if not the firmness that surrounds the execution of the task towards reaching the goal. The context discusses and explain the why of the task, the meaning of the task, the importance of the task, the priority of the task in comparison to other tasks, what does it mean for the organization, for a community, for a country, are there or will there be any other persons/units doing another task that intertwines with the task being discussed, will the task branches to another tasks, are there related task, is the task a routine one or an emergency one..
Thus a task with a clear context wills a task to be purposeful, thereby warrants the dutifulness during execution, thereby also contributes greatly in the certainty of task delivery. What needs to be reminded though… is that what can come also with a purposeful context is the desire to start executing an unclear task, so it is always best and save to utilize that desire towards the creation of clarity of the task.
Easy and Hard
When you know enough about the work required to complete a certain task (have experienced it before), you’ll find it is easy to define the task and grasp its context. Thereby you will find it also easy to spot the risk on whether to assign or not a certain task. Easy for the task giver to have that conclusion of “I am confident (or not) that you can deliver on the task”… Easy for the task bearer to have that conclusion of “I am confident (or not) that I can deliver on the task”. And when the giver and the bearer are both confident, then we have that situation of assigned and accepted.
But there were times … there will again be times… when we… especially as a person who will be assigning a task… don’t know enough about the work required to complete a task, then the process of formulating a task becomes lenghty. The process requires deep discussion, knowledge sharing, research, reasoning and learning while absorbing of data, information and knowledge while time does not sit still. And all that needs to be done to have that clarity and also to have a better context. At that point in time where we become confident, we have clearly define the task (the goals, the method of execution, the resources required, the boundaries and limits of execution) and also the context. In short: we have clear plan of actions and we are confident on the execution. Then it becomes easy…
An example of a quite lenghty task formulation is the process to come up with a company one year budget plan… I believe it has become a norm for every medium sized company to do this… the process takes the duration of at least two months. Within that process you realize the volume and intensity of self learning, group learning, clarification, context setting and other communication that happens horizontally and vertically within the organization. All that… so that the management of the organization can be de facto certified accountable at the end of next year for that 12 months plan that it creates.
Realizing so… we can have empathy on the complexity of formulating, assigning and accepting complex tasks to have a national container terminal starts operational by dd/mm/yy… or the complexity to task the launching of iphone 6 at Semester 2 last year… or the complexity to task a five year business and organization journey.
Bare in mind these states of drive in the lifecycle of our work:
In the mind of the writer, the word “accountable” translates to the same meaning to the word “amanah” in Indonesian. With both words in mind, we become respectful to an object of accountability that is task, a state where a person does not take lightly the assignment of task and the acceptance of accountability. We should observe the person who assigns a task, that person holds the delivery of that task dear to him, whereby a non delivery of that task is something that is an object of unhappiness and burdensome. Let us also observe the person who accepts the accountability of delivering the task… upon the acceptance of the task, the person who accepts the task is suddenly liable of the “delivery of the task”. The task has become a promise, whereby one made a promise to deliver a task to the other. At a point in time afterwards, the fulfillment of that promise relieves the one that accepts the task from being liable … and that fulfillment also produce happiness to the one who receives the fulfillment of that promise, whom is the one who assigned the task.
An example of such is when your husband fix your broken laptop… both of you are happy. Or when a manager whom is a subordinate of yours achieve his/her target… or when your company gets that ISO certification. What was your experience? What did you as a group experience? How was the flow?
At work, we assign and accept accountability… we assign and accept tasks. We are happy when a task that we assigned to others is fulfilled and happy when a task that we accepted is delivered… and we worry when what happens is the opposite. The objective of the conversation that we are having through this article is to ensure that the opposite does not happen. Thereby we may become a person with a characteristic known as “accountable”... and thereby become and contributes to a society that is not only happy... but also delivers to itself and to others.
Clarity and Purpose
It has been concluded by the understanding and experience of the writer, that the problems of tasking is to have clarity. Ask yourself the questions; how often did you accept a task that is somewhat hazzy? how often did you assigned an unclear task? What happened during the execution of that hazzy/unclear task? Were there frustration? Where there grievances? With the answers in mind, then comes the question: “What is a clear task?”. Based on consults, experience and reasons, I think you would agree with me that a clear tasks constitutes of four elements:
- The goals, with clear expectation on what is to be delivered (quality/quantity) and by when (dd/mm/yy).
- The method of execution employed to reach the goals.
- The resources required for the execution towards that goals
- The boundaries and limits that constraint the execution towards that goals
This practice of task formulation is a “must”… it mitigates the risk where one creates the illusion of being able to assign a task and being able to accept a task. Having that clarity gave comfort that a task can and will be delivered as expected... while at the same time saves us from expecting an delivery of a not yet possible/not yet realistic task, hence the word “illusion” was used.
There is another that is of most importance but not at the same dimension with that four elements of a clear task, that one is what we call the Context of the Task. In my perspective, the context of the task creates the drive, the spirit, the thrust, the motivation, the perseverance, the flexibility if not innovativeness, the rigidity if not the firmness that surrounds the execution of the task towards reaching the goal. The context discusses and explain the why of the task, the meaning of the task, the importance of the task, the priority of the task in comparison to other tasks, what does it mean for the organization, for a community, for a country, are there or will there be any other persons/units doing another task that intertwines with the task being discussed, will the task branches to another tasks, are there related task, is the task a routine one or an emergency one..
Thus a task with a clear context wills a task to be purposeful, thereby warrants the dutifulness during execution, thereby also contributes greatly in the certainty of task delivery. What needs to be reminded though… is that what can come also with a purposeful context is the desire to start executing an unclear task, so it is always best and save to utilize that desire towards the creation of clarity of the task.
Easy and Hard
When you know enough about the work required to complete a certain task (have experienced it before), you’ll find it is easy to define the task and grasp its context. Thereby you will find it also easy to spot the risk on whether to assign or not a certain task. Easy for the task giver to have that conclusion of “I am confident (or not) that you can deliver on the task”… Easy for the task bearer to have that conclusion of “I am confident (or not) that I can deliver on the task”. And when the giver and the bearer are both confident, then we have that situation of assigned and accepted.
But there were times … there will again be times… when we… especially as a person who will be assigning a task… don’t know enough about the work required to complete a task, then the process of formulating a task becomes lenghty. The process requires deep discussion, knowledge sharing, research, reasoning and learning while absorbing of data, information and knowledge while time does not sit still. And all that needs to be done to have that clarity and also to have a better context. At that point in time where we become confident, we have clearly define the task (the goals, the method of execution, the resources required, the boundaries and limits of execution) and also the context. In short: we have clear plan of actions and we are confident on the execution. Then it becomes easy…
An example of a quite lenghty task formulation is the process to come up with a company one year budget plan… I believe it has become a norm for every medium sized company to do this… the process takes the duration of at least two months. Within that process you realize the volume and intensity of self learning, group learning, clarification, context setting and other communication that happens horizontally and vertically within the organization. All that… so that the management of the organization can be de facto certified accountable at the end of next year for that 12 months plan that it creates.
Realizing so… we can have empathy on the complexity of formulating, assigning and accepting complex tasks to have a national container terminal starts operational by dd/mm/yy… or the complexity to task the launching of iphone 6 at Semester 2 last year… or the complexity to task a five year business and organization journey.
Bare in mind these states of drive in the lifecycle of our work:
- when people in organization start initiating tasks, when they work together to have clarity and purpose
- when people in organization assign and accept clear and purposeful tasks
- when people in organization execute the tasks and when team working are happening between givers and bearers
- when people in organization celebrate the completion of a task, where bearers fulfill the promise to givers
- when new situation unfolds a barrier not yet seen during task formulation, when that change challenge the thinking in task execution... risks changing agreed methods and resources requirement.
- when new situation unfolds a change of context, where affected tasks that is being executed wills redefinition and sometimes cancelation (for sigh or for sorrow)
- when people in organization who completes a task may have other related tasks that is not yet completed
- when the task is actually a task that change the state of the people within the organization itself
- when the risk of failing on the tasks risks people not just within the organization
