“But, I don’t understand. They fill out the form. What discretionary decisions do they have to make as they collect the data from the customer?” Arlene asked.
“Lots, and it is those discretionary decisions that determine success and failure,” I replied. “Let’s look at the form. The first field is the name field. So, you capture the name data for me.”
“Well, it’s your name.”
“Wrong place to start. See, you think if you put my name in the name field, you are done. You missed the first discretionary question.”
Arlene sat up. “Which is?”
“What’s the goal. That’s the first question. What’s the goal?”
“To complete the form?” Arlene tested.
“No! The goal is to have the name information accurate on the policy, so in the event of a claim, there is no clerical confusion or denial of coverage based on the mismatch of a name that may be compared to driver’s license or other identifying paperwork.”
Arlene nodded her head. “So, your name isn’t your name.”
“Not at all. You know me by my nickname. To complete the form, you will have to ask a better question. Mr. Foster, I need to make sure the name on the policy matches your other identification, what is the full name on your driver’s license?
“Arlene, it is questions like these that make all the difference between success and failure. And there are too many of them to train. They become the discretionary decisions for the team member. And if you want a productive discussion with your team, sit with them, as their manager, and talk about the discretionary decisions they have to make. To reach the goal.”
Thanks Tom for this series. It has put into perspective what is going on with some members of my team.
We are performing performance appraisals right now and I have been disappointed with the performance of an early career employee. The only way I could describe it is his lack of professionalism. The work is in software development and although he completes a section of code it may not be tested completely. Or documented properly. He has completed the task but not the work. Now I see it is in the judgments on the discretionary parts of the task which ultimately lead to the completion of the work. This is not squishy behavior! It can be documented and discussed.
Now I am more comfortable the performance discussion leads to improvement (for him and me).
Interesting commentary. I would have responded exactly the same way as was noted in the blog. “Discretionary decisions” are clearly the key differentiator between Success and Failure. Clearly it is important to have productive discussions with my team – I look forward to the remainder of the course to learn how to do this!
Manager will be able to help his/her subordinates to exercise discretionary decision when s/he, the manager, can completely transfer the value of the work to the subordinates. Not until then, s/he will not have a productive discussion.
Wow I love the subject that you are chatting about. I’ve bookmarked this blog