As the business grows, we let new people train newer people. Therein lies a problem.

You hire an administrative assistant. You train him and he’s great.

The business grows.

You delegate to him the hiring of another assistant. He brings her on board, and he trains her. She’s getting trained by the person you trained. The messages she gets are diluted because she’s hearing it from the person you told. It’s like a game of telephone. Everything she hears is less pure. It’s all coming to her through a filter.

Nothing comes out quite the way that you expected.

• Your values get communicated differently than you intended.
• Your ideas come across in ways you didn’t intend.
• Your priorities get adapted to the new people and their unique ways of seeing world.

It can be as simple as the way the receptionist answers the phone. She may not understand why you think the words she uses are so important. She might change things because she doesn’t understand the rationale for doing things the way you wanted them done.

It might be more complicated and involve one of the lawyers. Maybe the new lawyer doesn’t understand why you want her to try so hard to resolve issues amicably without turning quickly to litigation. She’s just doing what she thinks is right based on what she was told by a more experienced associate. She never had a chance to absorb the messages directly from you.

Why You Need to “Wander Around”

In the typical smallish firm, the solution lies in having you continue to communicate the message. It requires you to stay engaged in the training. It requires you to reinforce your messages by continuing to connect with employees throughout the business.

Way back in the ’70s, the executives at Hewlett-Packard “invented” something called Management by Wandering Around. The idea was to spend time with employees observing and interacting with them as they did their jobs. It works.

If you want it done your way, then you’re going to have to communicate “your way” over and over again. If you want it done your way, then you’re going to have to take responsibility for making sure everyone gets it. Entropy happens. Resist.