Like Plum Builders CEO, Alfonso Giaquinto (featured in this week's New Leader's Playbook article on Forbes), we all know how important it is to have the right people in the right roles with the right support. Most see this as an exercise in developing or finding people to fit pre-designed required roles. This is a futile exercise if the roles are wrong to begin with or if the links between the roles are wrong.
Instead, follow these steps:
- Commit or re-commit to the mission. Make sure everyone is clear on what you’re trying to accomplish.
- Agree on the resources required to accomplish the mission: financial, human, operational.
- Determine the optimal way to manage those resources. (e.g. architect takes lead on design; builder takes lead on implementation; both coordinating with the owner at every step along the way)
- Implement
- Monitor and adjust along the way. Always checking progress towards the mission with the mission owner.
What’s different is the idea of a shared accountability to the mission owner with each functional expert taking the lead in their own area of expertise. This in no way suggests that the experts have to let non-experts tell them what to do. This is all about explicitly coordinating, linking and integrating efforts along the way so that things don’t get “thrown “over the wall.
