We are in an age of less delegation, not more. Working smart means to delegate less. That sounds contradictory.. If we delegate less, wouldn’t we work more? How can that be smart?

What we are missing in this discussion is an acknowledgement that our times are rare. We have experienced several changes in our industry some of them of our own creation.

Far be it from me to advocate no delegation as a management consultant. We work hard enough and need more help as we tackle the changing construction industry.

We have noticed a change in delegation that is in stark contrast to only a decade ago.We now use MDEM. This stands for Multiple Delegation by Electronic Means.

Years ago, we expected a Field Supervisor or a Project Manager to take a list of duties and to achieve them in rapid succession. They would delegate to others

This eliminates the redundancy of President to Middle Manager to Entry Level Employee. Now the President electronically has delegated the responsibility to a entry level employee. All that is needed is some training for the new employee to consistently do the job.

The President and senior staff can now reach down into the furthest management layers and monitor the process. They don’t train or transfer information, that is still the job of the immediate supervisor.