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Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
I was sitting with a business owner at lunch the other day listening to him complain about his production people. He loves making the proposals and closing the deals. His company does video production and each project has a similar structure, but they all differ in the details. His frustration comes when he's moved on to the next deal and the production people interrupt him to get some insight that they need to complete their work.
"Sounds like a hand-off problem to me," I said. He gave me a quizzical look. Hand-offs happen when a system has subdivided so the output of one subsystem is the input to the next. In the early days, this founder did it all; the sales and the production. Now the company has grown considerably and he's got others doing the things that are not his superpower. So, hand-offs are critical.
Here's an example so simple it may seem stupid. My mail carrier and I operate different subsystems. The output of mine is a letter with proper address and postage. Then I hand it off as the input to his delivery subsystem. Simple.
Where do Hand-offs Happen?
They can happen everywhere. But here's where I see them most often:
From sales to production (or fulfillment if you don't actually make what you sell).
From one stage of production to the next. This applies in service companies where it's often more of a problem than in companies that make physical products for reasons we'll see below.
From shipping to invoicing.
What Makes a Good Hand-off?
A good hand-off is:
Complete
Correct
On time
In the proper format
Hand-offs of physical items (like my letter to my mail carrier) are often pretty good. It's usually easy to tell if the part being handed off is ready for the next stage. Work-in-progress in manufacturing subsystems falls into this category. Incoming orders from a supplier fall into this category as well, but you may have to check for completeness or correctness.
Hand-offs involving a computer are usually pretty good because the computer can be programmed to make sure the data is complete and formatted properly (and sometimes even correct). Here are some examples.
If a customer buys something online, they have to fill out the color, size, quantity etc. or the computer won't let the order be processed. Then the computer hands that off to a person (or a robot) to pick and pack the order.
When a service job is done and ready for invoicing, the tech who did it lets accounting know. Even if the completed job order isn't done in software, the invoice is. And the computer won't let it be sent without an address, items to bill for, price etc.
People are Usually the Problem
Hand-offs of information from person to person are often more problematic. If my mail carrier knew where my sister lives he could take my letter to her without an address. But he wouldn't. It's absurd to even say it that way. But in business too often the recipient is expected to fill in the blanks, and when they do we think they're great. But when they don't we tend to think they are the problem. That's what my lunch partner was going through.
But the problem is usually the design of the hand-off; not the people. Let me reiterate. Hand-offs need to be designed. Good ones don't just happen.
How to Design a Hand-off
Look at the output of the one subsystem and match it up with the input to the next. Describe the qualities I listed above. What does it mean to be:
Complete?
Correct?
On time?
In the proper format?
To circle back to my lunch, the issue was that some of the nuances of what the customer wanted were not specified - they just lived in the memory of the guy who made the sale. So the production people couldn't make the right decisions without circling back and asking questions. That means there was something not 100% complete about the hand-off. I get that this isn't always easy. Some of those nuances are intuited in the sales process and not spoken explicitly. But that just means you have to design the hand-off better. That's the hard work of management.
Use a Checklist
A checklist is a very useful tool for designing hand-offs. You can take the four aspects I listed above and make a list of all the qualities that the hand-off needs to include. (The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande is a great book on how and why to use checklists. It should be on your reading list).
One great advantage of checklists is that they can be done asynchronously. You don't need a meeting.
Next Steps
Block out a chunk of your CEO Time to think about hand-offs in your company.
List as many as you can think of.
List which ones typically go well, and which cause problems or inefficiencies.
Review that list with all the relevant parties.
Devise a plan to improve them starting with the most important.
If you found this useful, here's where you can find more like this.
I have a channel on YouTube
1-1 Coaching - I only work with a few clients at a time but anyone can sign up for a free session. https://www.youtube.com/ceobootcamp