From ‘Being Detailed’ to ‘Being Delegated - An Organic Way to Grow

           After quitting the Navy prematurely, many a times nostalgia strikes me. After all, having chosen to serve the Navy from a young age of 18 and calling it a day at 49 is indeed long enough to claim that the Navy has been my life.

           One of the things, I recently remembered was the way the Gunnery Instructor used to conduct practice firing using small arms. The methodical manner, wherein the various parts of the arm would be explained with expletives thrown in between at someone who fails to pay attention and the dummy firings to correct the posture, taking aim are some of the moments so very well etched in my memory. Of course, not to forget the order ‘Up rifle; take 10 rounds of the ground’ which was a must. Though we used to curse him then, I realised later that physical fitness is a must for aiming correctly to take a shot. The burst of conditioning did wonders and most of us trainees became pretty good shooters, some excelling and participating in Inter Services Championship.

           Be that as it may, one of the orders after the rounds were fired used to be, ‘Detail Khaali kar’, which was to ensure that the magazine was emptied and no accidental firing happens. The term ‘detail’ to interest me for a long time. On many other occasions, we as trainees used to get detailed for various activities. This added to my inquisitiveness. What does this detail or detailing in the military mean? It referred to us trainees as a group for sure. But was that all?

           On the internet, I found one of the definitions to be, ‘A group of military personnel assigned to a particular duty, usually a fatigue duty’. It’s a very interesting definition, especially, the ‘fatigue duty’ one. Here fatigue would mean a routine duty, probably not so interesting. In the Navy, it took a while for me to understand ‘detailing’.

Now, I try to correlate this with the corporate world. Does this detailing work in the corporate parlance? I doubt ! I find that even high school students these days question being detailed, forget about young employees. So is it wrong to be detailed?

        In my previous post titled, ‘Soft Skills Training- A Take Away from the Armed Forces’ https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/soft-skills-training-take-away-from-armed-forces-krishnamani?trk=pulse_spock-articles, I had highlighted the link between training and belongingness to an organisation. If an employee has to be groomed into the organisation with an aim to retain him as an asset, I firmly believe that the person has to go through the process of being detailed, which would enable him to reach the ultimate empowerment. Believe me, being detailed is no denigration. It allows one to get into the specifics of the area of work, the background, his/her role in development and ultimately emancipation, all with humility. So what should be the steps? I have listed it down below. By no standards, this is a comprehensive one, though.

Approach. It is an important lesson for the trainer, the line manager and others who are involved in grooming young recruits to understand detailing, without the recruit feeling belittled. It has to be such that, where the recruit prides himself to complete the assignment with a satisfaction of having learnt something new. This is an art and I am sure many successful managers have learnt it and groomed many recruits in their organization to greater heights.

Activities. So, what are the activities, where this is possible? I am sure, there are many vital activities in a company, whose function the recruits would need to understand very well, since they would be the raison d'être of the company. Let’s say in a manufacturing firm, the process could be one such activity, which could be a niche or an exclusive one. This could be involving various sub-activities, to which different groups could be detailed on a rotational basis at different points in time to get a hands on experience.

Size of the Group. Initially, young recruits could be detailed in a group or may be a buddy pair. This would not only bring about bonhomie amongst them but also make them learn to lean on each other, when required. This friendship or kinship could go a long way in team building.

Duration.       I also analysed whether it is possible to prescribe a time to this process. Yes, many organisations have done it, but it must be over a period of time. When the organisation grows large, it would be a part of the training curriculum, be it formal or on-the-job. The training requirements, budget, etc would play a role in deciding the duration.

          As the employee grows in the organisation to take up leadership positions, this fine of art of changing over from being detailed to being delegated would be nurtured in him. However, the ones who decide that being detailed is comfortable would remain where they started from and others would take on responsibilities through delegation and continue to rise till they reach an empowered stage.

           In all of this, it should be appreciated that the company where a person takes up his first job would be pioneering the growth of the individual. Therefore, if not every company, at least large companies definitely need to invest time and money in grooming young employees and help in nation building.