And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. —
Exodus 18:25-26
Moses pioneered the theory of division of labour, formation of management teams and the principle of delegation. Prior to this Moses had been overwhelmed by a system in which he judged every single case and had the people queuing all day. This new approach was proposed by his father-in-law, Jethro, who criticised the inefficiencies in the old system.Exodus 18:25-26
The three major lessons of delegation Moses applied are as relevant today as they were then. They are:
Select ABLE people.
The process of delegation works when we appoint or assign responsibility to competent people. Moses was to find able men. When incompetent people are appointed, the work ends up back in the hands of the appointing authority.
Create a HIERARCHY or levels of authority.
Delegation also succeeds when people have clearly defined roles and levels of authority or assignment. Moses had managers responsible for 1000s, 100s, 50s and 10s each ostensibly based on their abilities.
Retain ULTIMATE RESPONSIBILITY.
The final lesson is that Moses retained ultimate responsibility for the highest level of decision making. The Bible records that he handled the hard cases. This enabled him to achieve much more as a leader by working through people than when he was overwhelmed and working alone.
Prayer:
Lord, help me to fully utilise the principle of shared responsibility.Scripture Reading:
Exodus 18:19-27
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