The briefing step is vital in setting up your delegation for success. And therefore, it's helpful to be able to remember all the things that need to go into a briefing, and all the things that you could add into the briefing to make it watertight. So I've got a very simple mnemonic, a seven letter acronym that will help you to remember these things. The first four elements of this are absolutely essential, I would consider that every briefing for every delegation will need these four elements and they spell out boat. The B stands for background, make sure you give a clear explanation of the background, the context to the thing that you're delegating, why you're delegating it, because the more that the person knows around the context of what surrounds the task, the easier they'll find it to make sensible judgments and decisions when they encounter unknown things.
And also, of course, the less they'll need to keep coming back to you for guidance. The O stands for outcomes, what makes an acceptable outcome? And this is where you're going to demonstrate your evidence procedure. How will you assess an adequate outcome? How will you assess a good outcome? And how will you assess an excellent outcome?
And above all, how will you assess an exemplary outcome? The A stands for authority, how much authority Are you handing over? At the bottom end of the scale, you might give them the authority to think about things and come to you with ideas so that you can approve them at the top end of the scale. You may give them carte blanche to act in your name to do Do whatever they think best and to report to you as and when they see fit, with the only requirement that they tell you when something has gone wrong, or more likely tell you the task is complete already for you to pat them on the back. And finally, T for time, always tell them the deadline, the timescales within which the work needs to be done. And we trusted colleagues, always be honest about that and let them manage their time.
But clearly, if you need to build in contingency for review, for the possible risk management activity of reworking some of the work they've done, then do that. So those four elements will fit into every delegation briefing. But sometimes you want to make your briefing most tight and you may need to add one or other or indeed all of the three following elements that do make It watertight, which spout tar, t AR T stands for tasks. Now, the most developmental form of delegation is when people figure out the tasks and the sequence and activities for themselves. But sometimes what you're delegating may be regulated, there may be an absolute right way to do things. Or it may be that there is too high a risk, if they don't do it right.
Or they just don't have the skills or the experience to figure out those tasks reliably. So you may need to spell out the task sequence and what the activities are. The A stands for admin, there may be some administrative requirements that go with the task form filling, reporting, those sorts of things. And finally, offer resources. If there are resources that they will need to call upon, then you need to brief them about what those resources Where to Find Them, how to access them and the rules around using them. And those resources could be people.
They could be assets or equipment, they could be materials. It may even be a budget. So Botha be at boat, the necessary four elements of a delegation briefing ta our top makes it watertight, always brief with background outcomes, or authority and timescales. And sometimes you'll need to add in the extras of tasks, admin, and resources. When you've done all that briefing, it's done. It's time to secure commitment.
And that's our next lecture.