30 January 2007

Insights for 30 January 2007

The principle of stewardship delegation is very important in providing people with a sense of purpose. On my mission, we were trained in giving “expectation interviews” which were interviews to explain the responsibilities of one’s stewardship. In these interviews, I would use the same basic format found in the steps for stewardship delegation. The principles used there can apply to the “real world” as well.

It is important to understand who has stake in the success of a company or program. When we know who the stakeholders are, then we know who is affected. When we know who is affected, then we know who we have leverage with to receive help. Identifying the stakeholders also helps us to see how interconnected everybody is. My success is dependent on others support, and other’s success is dependent upon my support. Therefore, in order for me to have optimum success, I should support others as much as possible.

To optimize the whole the parts cannot all be optimized. Therefore, parts must be sub-optimized. This is a true principle, wherever we go. To use an analogy, we could talk about a football team. A coach could spend all his time training the quarterback, and never work with anybody else. As a result, the linemen wouldn’t block, the receivers wouldn’t catch, and there would be no point to having a good quarterback. However, if the coach spread his time throughout the team, they could work together as a whole and hopefully be good.