Can the Work Continue Without Me?
Reflecting on the guidance, authority and room to practise that people need when responsibility is shared.
DIMENSION OF INSTITUTION BUILDING
Can the Work Continue Without Me?
If every decision returns to me, what have I enabled others to do?
It can feel reassuring to remain closely involved. I know the background. I remember why a choice was made. Explaining it may seem slower than doing the task myself.
But I would like to examine what this means for the future of the work.
When knowledge remains in one person’s memory, others must keep asking for access to it. When approval is needed for every small decision, even capable people may learn to wait.
I may then mistake their dependence for a lack of initiative.
Have I given them enough understanding to act? Have I made clear which decisions they can take? Would I support a reasonable choice that differs from my own preference?
These questions turn my attention towards my part in the arrangement.
Sharing responsibility requires preparation. Someone taking over a task needs to understand its purpose, the expected standard, the resources available, and the point at which help should be sought.
Consider a simple responsibility such as responding to an enquiry. A person can be told to “handle it,” yet remain uncertain about what may be promised, which information may be shared, or when a reply needs review.
The instruction sounds complete to the person giving it. The uncertainty becomes visible only when someone tries to act on it.
I would like to make more room for that conversation.
Then comes practice. A first attempt may need guidance. A later attempt may need only a brief review. As competence grows, the arrangement should allow greater independence.
This asks something of me too: patience with a learning process whose pace may differ from my own.
It also asks me to distinguish between an error that matters and a harmless difference in method. If I repeatedly take work back because it was not done exactly as I would have done it, I give people little reason to develop their own judgement.
Accountability still matters. We need to know what was agreed, what happened, and what needs attention. Clear records and regular conversations can help responsibility remain visible as authority is shared.
I would like the work to benefit from more than one person’s energy and understanding.
Can others explain its purpose, make sound decisions, and help someone new learn the task?
Their growing ability to do so would tell me something about the institution taking shape—and about what I still need to learn as a builder.
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