!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: Critical Caring

Friday, April 14, 2006

Critical Caring

"Whenever I give her an assignment, I know she will make it happen."

People who can take on a project and complete it despite any number of obstacles and competing demands on their time are hugely valuable. How do you recognize them?

For any important project, look for specific individuals who already care about seeing it succeed -- or who are open to your well-crafted explanation of why the project is important and of where a good outcome will lead.

In other words, make a point of assigning people who will push the project forward because completing it well is something of critical importance to them. For some people, the motivation is exercising sophisticated technical skills, for some it is shepherding a group effort to fruition, for most it's a mix of motives. The point is that "critical caring" distinguishes the best candidates for the particular project.

This approach to making project assignments is just a special case of the general principle that you improve your odds of achieving goals if you take advantage of people's strengths (as opposed to asking people to spend significant amounts of time doing things they don't care about, or even actively dislike).

In sum ... keep an eye out for signs of what particular individuals enjoy and welcome. Then use these insights in deciding where to ask them to apply their talents.

PS Later this year, Jerry I. Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson are publishing Success Built to Last, an investigation of the extent to which the principles laid out in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (an instant classic co-authored by Porras and James C. Collins) might also apply to individuals. I'm looking forward to reading the book because, according to advance reports, it provides fresh evidence of the importance of "critical caring."

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