ASSIGNING

Three of the seven fundamentals of ASSIGNING include:

• Be competent. Whether you are assigning work or being assigned a task, know what you are talking about. If you are accepting a job, make sure you can do it—that you have the time, the needed support from others, and the appropriate facilities, equipment, tools, and materials. If you are assigning a job, make sure all these things are in place for the assignee.

• Be fair, friendly, polite, cooperative and ethical. Have good human traits. Nobody gets inspired by or wants to work with someone who is a grouch or can’t be trusted. Herb Brooks was not a pleasure to play for, but the players on his team respected and trusted him.

• Make sure your objectives are well defined and clearly understood by the person accepting the assignment. Before the work starts, both parties must agree upon objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic and Time-bound (that is, they have an agreed-upon completion date). Discuss the assignment fully and listen to the assignee’s point of view.

One of the finest examples of assigning I’ve ever experienced occurred at a summer camp I attended many years ago. I was one of 36 young boys to attend this particular camp, which was eight weeks long—a very long time. It was back when a long-distance telephone call cost nearly a day’s wages. Consequently, the camp director decided that we would all write a letter home two times every week. That was his goal: 16 letters per boy, 576 letters in all.

The letter-writing task was announced at our first camp meeting. The director made it clear that a letter home would be due from each of us, by suppertime, every Wednesday and Sunday—no exceptions. The assignment was clear and concise.

He also reminded us every Wednesday and Sunday at lunch. During the hour-long rest period in our cabins that followed, our two counselors not only reminded us, again, to write home, but they also encouraged and helped us and thanked us when we were finished.

At dinnertime, we would all gather together again in the cramped dining room where the boys from each cabin, and their counselors, sat at the table assigned to them. There were a total of six tables.

Before the general announcements, the director would ask, “Cabin One? All letters in?

“Yes, sir,” would be the head cabin counselor’s reply.

“Cabin Two?”

“All letters in, sir?”

“Cabin Three?” And so on, until every cabin had reported.

More often than not, the response was affirmative. Occasionally, however, the counselor might have to report “No,” because the boy in question was usually in the infirmary or away from camp. The director then asked for, and was given, a day and time by which the missing letter would be turned in. He was holding himself and all of us accountable.
At the end of the report he thanked us all, but this wasn’t the only “reward” we received. Not a week went by that each and every boy at the camp didn’t receive at least two letters from home. Homesickness was rarely an issue, and letter writing became a habit.

The camp director, who was an educator during the winter, probably couldn’t have made a list of all the parts of assigning if you gave him a month of Sundays. But, he had quite naturally and unwittingly made the task a practice that everyone followed 100% of the time. We’re not all this fortunate, so we need to consciously think about and apply the seven fundamentals in order to master the art of assigning.