by David Alison

All too often a project fails or a problem happens in a business because something doesnt get done correctly, on time or in some cases at all. In order for a group of people to function properly together each team member needs to know their role and just as importantly how to properly task others on their team when they need to delegate something. This is just as true of peers working together as it is in a classic manager / subordinate relationship.

Here is a list of dos and donts for sharing tasks with other people

Do: Keep the task assignment simple
When you assign a task to someone think it through and make it as clear as possible without being too wordy. This is of course easy for small, simple tasks (Example: Replace the toner in the printer) but not so on larger tasks. If the task requires more than a short paragraph to describe then chances are you should break it up into multiple tasks.

Dont: Keep people working on something you no longer need
The one thing thats worse than telling someone that you no longer need something they are in the middle of working on is to just let that person keep working on it when you know its no longer needed. Business needs, competitive threats and reactions to industry news can all quickly change priorities. Letting someone continue to spend time on a task that will only result in it being filed in the trash can is incredibly demoralizing.

Do: Make the task clearly achievable
The best tasks to assign to others (and even...