How we get sh*t done
As our business has grown, it sometimes feels harder to get things done. But shouldn’t it be easier? Shouldn’t we have more colleagues, more experience, more budgets?
Despite the relative advantages over our early years, it is striking that making things happen remains a challenge. This is especially the case for internal initiatives.
Bringing good people together isn’t enough — there is something missing.
What I have observed is that an activity stalls because we don’t have the right mix of roles.
Three roles
For an initiative to success, it turns out that three roles need to be present.
The Owner
The owner joins the dots together. S/he can see a bigger picture that often goes beyond the immediate goal.
The owner is the cheerleader, the advocate, the person that brings everyone together.
S/he is ultimately responsible and should be constantly watching out for the other collaborators by supporting and mentoring them.
The Leader
The leader creates the driving force. S/he will clear roadblocks and create structure for the others.
In addition, the leader will orchestrate the work being done. This includes planning or coordinating others to ensure they are working well together.
Good leaders create energy and safety to enable others to deliver. Good leaders take responsibility for what gets done, even if they are not performing the actual tasks.
The Doer
A doer is focused on the substance of the work to be done. S/he doesn’t have to worry about a bigger picture and is free to put all attention to the execution.
How it works in practice
In reality one person can inhabit multiple roles. Often there is an owner / leader who looks after the big picture but also provides the orchestration.
Also common is for an owner to share part of the leadership role with someone else. Or for a leader to also be a doer.
In our early days as a company, one of the Snapp owners would have taken on all three roles.
Signs that one of the roles is missing
By keeping these three roles in mind, it is often easy to see why an initiative has stalled.
Missing Leader
I find this to be the most common issue. The idea and goals are clear, the capabilities are there, but nothing moves forward. (Often the owner, me, can’t fulfil the leader role).
Missing Owner
This is a bit unusual to encounter, but it does happen. In this case, the team is trying to execute but they lack direction.
Missing Doer
This final situation is rather obvious. Simply an initiative is blocked because nobody is available to do the work or perhaps the necessary seniority is missing.
TL;DR
To get something done, the people you bring together need to take care of different aspects of the collaboration.
This is basically a separation of concerns — each role takes care of a different aspect of collaboration.
