A task unfinished is worse than a task un-started

When it comes to completing a certain task, in most situations, finishing 90% of it and finishing 0% of it are the same to me. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I would prefer the latter.

At least no effort was put into the task yet for the same ineffective outcome as having put 90% of the required effort.

If I ask a manager to take full ownership of a task and see it to completion, the key skillset here that is not commonly found is the act of closing the loop.

My favourite people to work with are those who understand the difference between a task and a job.

For example, a task would sound like this: "Walk through the team on our new product launch"

This would involve the manager:

1. Setting up a slot for the team to attend the product walk-through

2. Creating a detailed presentation and identify the right storytelling flow for the walkthrough

3. Present and ensure questions are answered during the walkthrough

A job, on the other hand, would be "Ensure the team understands and is able to utilise the beta version of our product"

The requirements of this step would be similar to the previous task, but would have the element of loop closing involved:

1. Setting up a slot for the team to attend the product walk-through

2. Creating a detailed presentation and identify the right storytelling flow for the walkthrough

3. Present and ensure questions are answered during the walkthrough

4. Ensure that the log in creds and platform link are shared with the team immediately after the call together with a recording of the live walkthrough that was conducted

5. Create a feedback form that allows the team to provide their bug/enhancement reports

6. Block the calendars for another round of Q&A in about 2 weeks time (which is a typical adoption cycle for internal tools in our company)

Steps 4 to 6 require "ownership of the job" as opposed to "completion of a task".

Ownership begets the habit of closing the loop.

I have learnt that for effective growth in an organisation, an individual should assume every task to be a job assigned and apply 2nd order thinking (which is a whole other topic altogether).