LearnaBytes

INTRODUCTION

Larry is a new learning and development manager at XL Support, a health and social care company that provides services to people with mental health support needs. Having been on the job for just over six months, Larry is getting overburdened with work.

After discussing his work dilemma with his friend and former manager, Brian, he is advised by Brian that maybe he should be delegating some of the tasks he is doing to team members who are better placed to do them.

The challenge is that Larry has never delegated before and does not know where to start. Brian, who is much more experienced, agrees to show Larry how to delegate tasks to his team members effectively.

Through the discussion between Larry and Brian, you will read about what delegation is, its benefits to both the manager and team members, reasons why some managers don’t delegate despite the benefits of delegation, and steps we can take to delegate effectively.

We have come to the end of the session on effective delegation. In this part of the session, the participants will reflect on what they learnt during the session and then it will be brought to a close.

REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION

Direct them to the section in their workbooks titled – REFLECT – NOTE – ACT.

Tell them to do the reflection activity there and afterward be ready to share at least one thing from their reflection.

Give them 6-minutes for the activity.

When the time is up, stop them and get everyone’s attention. Then allow each participant to talk about one thing from their reflection. For those who want to talk about more than one thing allow them to do so.

When they finish, thank them for sharing their reflections and also engaging in the practice session.

After that move on to end the training session but first ask if they have any questions and/or comments.

Listen to any they have and respond appropriately.

Then display the slide titled – SESSION REVIEW.

Tell them that:

• Thank you very much for attending this session and for all your participation.
• During this session, we described what delegation is and identified the benefits of delegating.
• We also identified some of the reasons why managers may not delegate and discussed some ways to overcome those barriers to delegation.
• Then we identified a three-part structure for delegating effectively and practices how to apply it when delegating.
• I do hope you find what we have discussed today useful as you work with your teams and delegate tasks to them.
• Thank you very much.

After that close the session.

The participants have already been involved in one practice session which was done by the facilitator and two volunteer participants. Now they are going to be put into small groups to practice how to delegate.

DELEGATION IN ACTION – PRACTISING IN SMALL GROUPS

Display the slide titled – PRACTICE IN SMALL GROUPS.

Tell them that:

• You will practice in groups of threes.
• Each person in a group will rotate through the roles of manager, team member and observer.
• There will be two practice sessions. The first one for actually delegating the task and the second for doing a check-in after delegation.
• Each practice session will last for a maximum of 10-minutes.
• During each practice session, the observer will observe and take down notes which they will feedback to the manager after the practice session.
• There are guidance notes and three case studies in your workbooks which are broken into two parts.
• The first part is what you will do to prepare for the actual delegation practice.
• The second part is to prepare for the after-delegation check-in practice.
• In your groups decide on which case study each person will use.
• All the case studies have information which you will need to read beforehand to get ready.
• You will be given an initial 10-minutes to prepare for each part of the practice and then 45-minutes for the practice sessions. 30-minutes for the actual practice and 15-minutes for feedback from the observer.
• There will be a break in between the practice sessions for delegating and check-in.

Display the next slide titled – GIVING FEEDBACK.

Tell them that:

• Let’s remember that the purpose of feedback is to help people learn and develop.
• It is not for judgment or criticism. Each observer should follow the steps outlined here to ask for and give feedback.
• They should first ask the team member about how the delegation or check-in went for them.
• Next, they should ask the manager to talk about their experience of delegating or doing the check-in. How did it go for them?
• Finally, observers should then talk about what they felt the manager did well and what they can do differently next time to make the delegation or check-in even better.
• Next, direct them to the section in their workbooks titled – INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRACTICE SESSIONS.

Click the link below to see the instructions for the practice session.

Instructions for practice sessions

Preparation for practice – during delegation

Give them 3-minutes to read the information there. After they’ve read it, check that they understand what they need to do during the practice session. If you need to clarify anything for them, do so.

Next, use the ‘breakout rooms’ feature to put them into groups of threes to do the practice sessions.

During the practice session join each room briefly to see what they are doing and where necessary, answer any questions they have.

Once the practice session time is up (60-minutes), stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.

Then ask them some questions not aimed at anyone in particular to get an overview of what they got from the practice sessions.

You can ask questions like these (or you can make up your own questions):

• How did the practice go?
• What did you learn from doing the practice?
• What lessons will you take away and do in your own one-to-ones?

In the next part of the session, they will do another practice session but this time for an after-delegation check-in.

In the previous part of this training session on effective delegation, participants were preparing to get involved in practicing how to do an ‘after-delegation’ check-in (read the post here). In this part of the session, they will do the actual practice.

PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY – AFTER DELEGATION

When the preparation time is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room.

As you did for the previous practice session, let everyone put off their cameras except those playing the roles of Danielle, Denzel and Amal then you can have the practice session. The practice session should not last for more than 10-minutes.

After the session let everyone put their cameras back on and ask for feedback in the following order:

• Person acting as Denzel:
  • How did the check-in session go?
  • What worked well for you?
  • What can I improve?
  • Did you feel supported at the check-in
• Person acting as Amal:
  • How did the check-in session go?
  • What worked well for you?
  • What can I improve?
  • Did you feel supported at the check-in

Then ask the observers to give their feedback by first talking about what went well and what can be improved or done differently.

After listening to all the feedback, thank everyone for their participation in the practice session and then let them reflect by writing down up to three lessons they learnt and will take away from the practice sessions in the chat window.

As they write their answers in the chat window, read through them quietly so you don’t distract people. Allow them to go on for 3-minutes. After 3-minutes stop them and read out the information they wrote down.

When you finish reading, thank them again for their participation and then move on to review the practice session. To review the session tell them that:

• During this part of the session we practiced how to delegate and what to do after you delegate.
• The aim was for us to see how delegation works in practice.
• Hopefully from the practice sessions, you have learnt some things that you can apply to your own delegation.

Next, move on to the next set of practice sessions in which the participants will practice in small groups.

In the next part of the session, they will do some more practice but this time in small groups by themselves without including the facilitator.

Previously, in the session, the participants were preparing for a practice session on how to delegate effectively (see it here). This part of the session will focus on the first part of the practice session.

PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY

Now that the participants have finished preparing, let them know that you are now going to start the practice session.

To make it easier for the participants acting as Denzel and Amal, everybody else will put off their cameras apart from the three of you involved in the practice.

Remind the observers to take down notes. They can write down the notes in the section of their workbooks titled – OBSERVERS NOTES.

The practice session should take no more than 15-minutes.

After the practice let everyone put their cameras back on and ask for feedback in the following order:

• Ask the person acting as Denzel:
  • How did the delegation session go?
  • What worked well for you?
  • What can I improve?
  • Are you clear about the task you need to do?
• Ask the person acting as Amal:
  • How did the delegation session go?
  • What worked well for you?
  • What can I improve?
  • Are you clear about the task you need to do?

Then ask the observers to give their feedback by first talking about what went well and then what can be improved.

Next, tell them that there is going to be another practice session for what happens after delegation. Remind them that delegation does not end after the task has been delegated and Danielle will need to check-in with Denzel and Amal about how the task is going. Just like the previous practice session, let them know that in their workbooks are two sections titled – DENZEL GROUP – THE CHECK-IN and – AMAL GROUP – THE CHECK-IN.

Put them back into their small groups using the ‘breakout rooms’ feature and let them prepare for the next practice session using the relevant information in their workbooks for each group. Give them 7-minutes for the preparation.

The facilitator acting as Danielle should use the notes in the box below to prepare for the practice session.

In the next part of the session, the participants will get involved in the ‘after delegation’ practice session.

In the previous part of this training session, the participants worked on an activity for a scenario to identify the right team member to delegate a task to. You see it here. In this part of the session, the participants will prepare for a practice session focused on how to delegate effectively.

PRACTICE SESSION ON DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY

Tell them that:

• Now that we know who Danielle is going to delegate the task to, let’s move on to the second stage which is the actual process of delegation.
• For this stage, we are going to get more practical. I am going to act as Danielle, and I will split you into two groups.
• One group will be the Denzel group and the other group will be the Amal group
• Each group will have the responsibility of providing a volunteer who will act as Denzel and Amal.
• Danielle will delegate the task to both Denzel and Amal and the rest of you will observe and give feedback at the end of the demonstration.
• Please go to the section in your workbooks titled – DANIELLE DELEGATES THE TASK to read about the practice session.

Give them 3-minutes to read the information. After 3-minutes stop them and verify that they understand what they are going to be doing. If necessary, explain it to them again and check to see that they all understand.

Next, let them know that in their workbooks are two sections titled – DENZEL GROUP – DURING DELEGATION and – AMAL GROUP – DURING DELEGATION.

When you split them into Denzel and Amal groups, each respective group will use the relevant information to prepare. Now, put them into two groups (Denzel and Amal groups).

Give them 10-minutes to prepare and nominate a volunteer participant (Denzel and Amal).

The facilitator acting as Danielle should use the notes in the box below to prepare for the demonstration.

When the preparation time is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room to do the practice. Let them know that you are now going to start the practice session.

In the next part of the session, the participants will get involved in the practice session and also give feedback.