Can a Team Function by Only Doing What Each Member Is Good At?

Right Person for the Right Job in Small Teams

It is easy to say, but I believe it is very difficult to actually carry out.

In the face of the reality that "someone has to do it," idealistic theories crumble in an instant. #Especially in large organizations or teams

Over the past year, I have been working on the theme of putting the right person in the right job at Manabi Lab.

How can we focus on each individual and move work forward by leveraging their strengths? This must be a source of concern for many in leadership roles. #Trial and error every day

Leveraging strengths is more complex than you might think.

Using the cases of Manabi Lab members as examples,

• How to leverage each individual's strengths

• How to discover strengths (possibilities for capability development)

• How to realize the right person for the right job in small teams

I am writing this note in the hope that these will provide some hints for you.

(And, with gratitude and encouragement for the members.)

Patterns that even the person themselves hasn't noticed

First of all, let's start with Sue-san.
He was originally in charge of back-office work such as accounting, legal affairs, and communication tasks.He was good at administrative work and was careful and accurate. He was evaluated that way within the teamand he thought so himself as well.

"Sue-san is good at administrative work"
This perception is completely different now. But at the time, no one, including him, realized it. #It's scary when you think about it

Discovering brilliance through challenges

The turning point was when I tried assigning him to review the website and organize the official LINE account. What became visible there was not simply web technical skills, butthe ability to think from the other person's perspective.

How people visiting the site feel, and how to deliver information to the students currently attending. When thinking from those perspectives, he was overwhelmingly brilliant.

When it comes to creating planning materials, Sue is second to none.

Since shifting her work to planning and strategy development, the quality of Sue's output has clearly changed, and the team's expectations of her have evolved as well.

Are we the last ones to know ourselves?

The most difficult part was that Sue herself kept thinking it wasn't her strength.

In my meetings with Sue, I told her over and over again,

I emphasized this strongly. I think she’s finally starting to understand it herself. Haha.

I think you can also get a sense of Sue's character from our philosophical dialogues. If you're interested, please watch the series of videos on my Instagram. You can feel her human depth. It's wonderful.

The skill of self-coaching

Michiteru-san was originally a speech-language pathologist, specializing in words and dialogue. She has a solid foundation in the ability to talk to people and the ability to verbalize thoughts.

However, Michiteru-san's growth over this past year cannot be explained solely by her leveraging her strengths.

I usually think of work as 80% comfort and 20% challenge, but I think Michiteru-san's year was at a pace where challenges exceeded 50%.

Currently, as the person in charge of the entire 'Sorairo Palette,' Michiteru-san is handling most of the areas that Meg-san or I used to make decisions on. #NoSmart (Mistakes)

Why is she able to grow so much?

I feel that it is largely due to Michiteru-san's power of self-coaching.

Being able to look back on oneself, reflect, and develop one's own abilities. When I look at expanding the scope of someone's challenges, I look at these 'thinking skills' and 'self-control skills' more than surface-level skills.

Michiteru-san is not originally a manager type, but she has found her own style and is creating a new version of herself through her work. Her personality and way of speaking are always playful, but I can feel the core strength she has inside. #Wonderful!

Michiteru-san hosts a reading circle (round-robin reading) called 'Rundoku' that centers on self-coaching.
If you are interested in self-control, the ability to question yourself, or self-coaching, please take a look.

We create an environment where they can focus

Next is Moegi-san. Moegi-san's strength lies in her sincere approach to content. #TrulyACreator

Even for a single Kahoot! quiz, the level of detail in the illustrations and the care put into the questions are on a different level; she never lets go of the perspective of 'couldn't this be made easier to understand with a little more effort' until the very end.

By eliminating upstream processes that require complex judgment as much as possible and creating an environment where she can focus on 'how to create' once the 'why' and 'what' have been decided, Moegi-san's creativity is maximized. #The reliability of delivering more than imagined

The outcome is decided the moment you delegate the work

Therefore, it is important to draw a line on where to start delegating, and it is necessary to break down the work into small pieces and carefully observe where her strengths can be utilized while engaging in dialogue with her.

Since the success of the work is largely determined at the moment it is delegated, when things don't go well, it is generally the fault of the requester (me).

It is important to judge not only the quality of the output but also the process, such as whether she worries until the last minute before the deadline or proceeds quickly, and this can only be grasped through daily conversation. #Dialogue is essential after all

Currently, Moegi-san supervises almost all teaching materials, making her an indispensable and important position for Manabi Lab.

Quality improves through collaboration

It is not limited to teaching material development; her strength lies in her thoughtful consideration when handing things over to others at the end. I think the combination of Suu-san, who can develop the overall concept, and Moegi-san, who can carefully craft the details, is a very good match. (Personality-wise, they are both gentle and seem easy to work with)

You can get a glimpse of the materials Moegi-san is in charge of in the announcement articles on our official website. (The printouts included in the thumbnails are her work.)
They are all designed to be fun for students, and the students' reactions are always good.

The strongest number two

That is Megu-san. Honestly, she is the strongest number two. I am very lucky to have someone like that on the team.
While possessing a management perspective and decisiveness, she also has a sense of closeness to the team and a sense of balance.

For me, she is the most powerful advisor, a powerful player, and a team maker as well.

Through Megu-san's presence, I realize that having a number two in the organization allows the entire team to move forward stably.

I wrote about Megu-san in my previous note, so I will leave it at that.

Can work function on strengths alone?

So, what do you think? Now that we know the strengths of each individual, can daily work be handled perfectly?

It seems impossible, right? ← (Explosion

Indeed, it is not so sweet that work can function on [only] what people are good at.

First of all, as a premise, I believe the members of Manabi Lab also handle many unfamiliar and non-specialized tasks every day. #Thank you always

Even so, without dismissing it as impossible or just a pretty story,
re-recognizing strengths through dialogue
finding strengths through challenges
nurturing strengths through the process

If we notice and change little by little with this awareness, we should be able to improve the ease of working for each person and their sense of satisfaction in life.

A strategy possible because we are small-scale

When you have to move forward with the current members, or when you want to move forward,

it is impossible to try to do everything or to bring the 'right person for the right job' approach used by large teams into a small team.

It forces everyone to become a superman.

For one year, I have faced my work with the 'right person for the right job' approach at the center, and by creating work that fits the person rather than fitting the person to the work, I was able to significantly improve both the quality and efficiency of the team's work. If there is work you want to accomplish, break it down and assign the parts that each person is good at to the team. If there is no one on the team who is good at a particular task, have the courage to discard that work.

Believe in each person's strength from the bottom of your heart

People who are expected to provide management or leadership in their work are more or less bound by their own ideals of 'how things should be.' That was me just a little while ago.

With half-hearted feelings, you cannot reach true 'right person for the right job.' That 'right person for the right job' might end up being used as a convenient excuse to fit people into jobs.

Therefore, you must believe in them completely. You must decide that the team will definitely be able to function by leveraging its strengths. Those who manage, lead, and govern need resolve and conviction.

We still don't have enough time to talk

In order to utilize each person's strengths in our work, I required a lot of time for dialogue. And even now, I feel that the time for dialogue is still, still not enough.

Being able to take the time to talk is also a strength of a small team. I feel the benefits of that.

I want to continue thinking about how to make work at the Learning Lab even more enjoyable for everyone than it is now, and how to make it something good for their lives.

The end.