Curse of Knowledge

Have you ever heard of the Curse of Knowledge? If not, get ready to have a major aha moment. The Curse of Knowledge is a phenomenon that says it's difficult to remember what it's like not to know how to do something else once you've learned it. So, like, if you've ever gotten frustrated with someone for not knowing how to do something that seems sort of obvious to you, the curse of knowledge has taken a hold. Because while there was a day long, long ago when you didn't know how to do these things either, the curse of Knowledge becomes especially important to overcome when you're delegating tasks or teaching someone how to do something new. And if you don't pay attention to it, you might wind up shooting yourself in the foot. I'm going to give you the three steps to avoiding any communication snafus with your team, as well as some examples of things most managers forget to tell their contractors and employees when they are outsourcing and delegating. Three Steps to Delegating Something New Break it all down when you're ready to delegate a task, make sure to write down every single aspect of that task. The main elements that you should Tell the person the big picture. In other words, why is this task important? How does this task fit into the big picture? And there's always a big picture Action steps. You need to tell the person the exact action steps they need to make in order to accomplish the task and deadlines. When do you need the task accomplished by their specific deadline? For example, if you're sending an email to your web designer to tell her that you need a new header for your website, you need to picture what you want and then tell her every single detail of what you're looking for if you have something in mind. If not, let her do her magic number two. Let them mess it up and make sure that they know it's okay to make mistakes and ask questions. Listen, outsourcing is a beautiful thing, but you can't expect someone to switch in and know what to do right off the bat, right? So you've got to build in that wiggle room and create some buffers. Whenever you hire someone, you're going to have to invest time in training them, even if it's just a little bit of training to let them know your style and your branding and your messaging and how you engage and communicate. And do you know the best way for your new contractor to learn your processes? Let them try it and see what happens so they know what questions to ask and you know what directions to give. Highly skilled contractors especially, can be allowed this leeway. A great way of doing things without causing harm to your business is to give them small projects at first. Just dip your toe in a little bit. Start small. Once they're finished with the project or task, make sure to get in touch with them to see if they have any questions and let them know of any changes you'd like to be made at the same time and you start to build up this relationship and this rapport and before you know it, they'll be reading your mind. Number three Update your notes, your documentation, your systems the final step in the delegating process is to update your standard operating procedures. You'll want to add two main things. First, the answers to the questions that your new employee or contractor or team member asks you. Right, the curse of knowledge. You can't necessarily see these things for yourself. And second, add clarifications to anything that you need to correct them on, because if they made the mistake based on your current documentation, chances are the next person will too. Why take the risk? Now that your notes are updated, you'll be even more prepared the next time you bring someone new onto your team. Haven't hung out@nicethops.com yet? Get your tush on over to nice eops.com right now and subscribe to learn how to turn your business into a full blown empire. So that is it. Your three steps for delegating effectively so you don't shoot yourself in the foot next time. Let me know if you want to talk about this more in the comments. It is one of my favorite topics and if you haven't visited us@niceops.com yet and you're watching this somewhere else on the interwebs, head on over to nice. Com and get on the Nice list so we can stay connected from here on out. I'll see you there.