Five Steps for Assigning Tasks

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Oct 29, 2022, Mr. Wang asked several production managers and administrators to share the experience and achievements of the company's implementation of "grassroots cadres stick to the front line of production" in recent weeks, and explained the management method of the five steps of assigning tasks based on this proposition.

For several weeks, the company has been implementing the management project of "grassroots cadres stick to the production line", so that the grassroots can focus on product manufacturing and training grassroots teams. It also requires grassroots cadres to be patient with the training of employees, and to talk about the training of grassroots employees from time to time, day to day, week to week, month to month, and never miss any training opportunity. Let them patrol the production line more, do more value-added things, temporarily replace employees, focus on the balance and repair frames, and do not do something to help employees to become lazy, such as installing temple tips and packaging. At the same time, the Human Resources Department is required to go to the workshop every day to check whether the grass-roots cadres are at the production site. If they are not at the production site, the reasons should be explained. If they work for other departments (such as accompanying customers to inspect goods, find materials, and repair machines, etc.), the responsibility should be assigned to the responsible person who works for other departments. Just now, some management cadres shared their experience and said that in the process of implementing the project of "grassroots cadres stick to the production line", they found that some employees were not familiar with the product standards, which means that our grassroots cadres usually did not do a good job of employee skills training. They only completed the first step of "telling him" and the second step of "showing him", but did not complete the third step of "watching him do", That is to say, it did not verify whether the employees had mastered the operation methods taught by themselves and checked whether the employees did things as required. This small case reminds me of a management book I read a few years ago that talked about the five steps of assigning tasks to subordinates by management cadres of Japanese enterprises. I would like to share my personal understanding, views and requirements with you.

State the work content to subordinates.

The managers of Japanese enterprises stated their work content at the first step when they assigned tasks to their subordinates. To state the work content is to tell your subordinates what you want them to do. That is to say, what to do, what results to make, when to complete, etc. When assigning tasks to subordinates, you can make subordinates understand your requirements only by explaining clearly what to do and passing information in place. If there is no clear statement of what to do, the subordinates will come and go during the implementation process; If there is no clear requirement for what results should be made, subordinates have no criteria for judging what they have done; If there is no clear requirement on when to complete, the subordinates will have no sense of urgency and sense of time.

Ask subordinates to state their work.

The second step that managers of Japanese enterprises assign tasks to their subordinates, they ask them to state their work content. To ask subordinates to state their work content is to check whether the information they receive is consistent with what you convey. Most of the time, management cadres always think that when they tell their subordinates about matters or assign tasks, the subordinates will understand and implement them, the results will come out as well. In fact, everyone has different education level, different professional background, different work experience, and different understanding of things and perspectives. To ask employees to state their work content is to check whether they really understand your assigned tasks and whether they are clear about your expected goals and deadlines. Recently, when organizing the quality implementation of a strategic customer, the company asked the team leader, QA, PE, production manager and technical development personnel to make a PPT of the knowledge and quality standards they learned to explain or share in the class. The purpose is to verify whether these production management personnel and technical personnel understand the customer's quality standards thoroughly.

Ask the subordinate to state the purpose of the work.

The third step that managers of Japanese enterprises assign tasks to their subordinates, they ask the employees to state the purpose of the work, that is, whether they know why they should do so. Only when employees are understood and recognized ideologically can they carry out the work from their subjective wishes. In other words, the ancients said that those who share the same desire win. At the same time, it can improve the subjective initiative of subordinates. Improving the subjective initiative can mobilize the enthusiasm of subordinates, guide them to effectively carry out practical activities, and promote the development of results in a good direction. Giving full play to the subjective initiative of subordinates can also enable them to overcome obstacles on their way forward, cultivate their sense of purpose and will to fight, and ensure that they do not deviate from the results to be achieved. If the subordinates do not know the meaning of doing this, they may blindly, destructively and passively implement it, and will certainly not produce good results.

Who should they look for if something goes wrong?

The fourth step that managers of Japanese enterprises assign tasks to their subordinates, who should they look for when problems arise? It is impossible to do anything smoothly. In the process of implementation, there will always be some ups and downs or difficulties, and even some disputes with colleagues due to different perspectives. Ask the subordinates who to look for when something goes wrong. First, cultivate the subordinates to be calm, confident and resilient when things go wrong. The second is to investigate and cultivate subordinates to be brave in taking responsibility when things happen. The third is to guide subordinates to be good at making decisions when encountering problems, learn to integrate resources, and improve coordination and decision-making ability on the spot. The fourth is to define the boundary of authorization. On the basis of employees' thinking and answering, you should clarify what situations you need to ask me for instructions and what situations you need to make your own decisions. Managers should also do the same in their daily activities. When subordinates encounter problems or difficulties in their work, which cannot be solved by their own ability, the superiors need to use their own information and resource advantages to help subordinates analyze what problems they have in dealing with their work, and provide corresponding solutions.

Ask subordinates if they have any good suggestions.

The fifth step that managers of Japanese enterprises assign tasks to their subordinates, they ask what good suggestions subordinates have. Asking subordinates for any good advice is to ask employees how they would do if they were to do it by themselves, or to train or guide subordinates to use their brains when dealing with problems. Some management cadres, especially those at the grass-roots level, are used to doing things without thinking. They don't have their own ideas when dealing with problems. They like to ask for instructions from their superiors or passively wait for instructions from their superiors. This habit of not using one's mind, or not having the ability of thinking or independent innovation, is actually throwing the monkey on the back of the superiors. As the saying goes: Not involved in the mountains, do not know the river's lake far; have not seen the sea, do not know the size of heaven and earth. Not every aspect of the superior is better than the subordinate. The superior may have rich theoretical knowledge, but his hands-on ability and practical ability are not as good as that of the subordinate. Let the subordinates use their brains and actively find ways to give full play to the strength of the team, so as to achieve brainstorming. When subordinates have a strong dependence on their superiors' decisions, we should timely break the "nerve chain" that subordinates always want to rely on their superiors to make decisions, so as to cultivate their ability to accumulate, think and practice in work, stimulate their confidence and sense of achievement, and then strengthen the team execution.

State the work content to the subordinate, ask the subordinate to state their work, ask the subordinate to state the purpose of the work, ask the subordinate who to look for in case of problems, and ask subordinates if they have any good suggestions. These five steps of assigning tasks are in essence the deduction process of dealing with problems together by superiors and subordinates. Through early deduction when assigning tasks, information can be conveyed in place to stimulate subordinates' confidence and sense of achievement, so that subordinates can learn to think, learn to integrate resources, improve coordination and ability to make decisions at the moment, and define the boundaries of authorization, so that they can complete tasks or achieve goals with their purposes.