Keep the Key People Involved

Regularly reassess your needs for involving others in what you're up to. Because certain people were helpful as you launched your efforts is no guarantee that they're the right ones to help you complete them. How many times do people feel forced to sit through meetings when they have nothing to offer? In their minds, they have made their most valuable contributions but keep getting notices of the next meeting, keep receiving minutes from the last one. Well-intentioned invitations to keep these folks involved leave them feeling there is no way out of this never-ending cycle.

A surefire way to keep people involved over time is for them to do work that is needed. Involvement gets a bad name when it becomes involvement for involvement's sake. When we're doing work that matters, it's easy to stay involved. When we're contributing from our unique abilities, we stay engaged. Here's a tool (Figure 4.1) you can use to make good decisions about whom to keep involved in your work.

Ask yourself the following questions to get clear whom you need to keep involved in your work over time:

• What things do I still need to get done given where I am with this work right now?

• How many people do I need to complete each of these to do's that are now on my list?

• What knowledge, skills, and experience will they need to get these jobs done well?

• Who is already involved that I need to keep involved?

• Who has been involved in the work so far that I don't need to continue involving in the future?

• Who else do I need to recruit to join our team to finish the work?

Figure 4.1: THE KEEPING THE RIGHT PEOPLE INVOLVED TOOL

When you continue involving the right people over time, you will make better decisions and get the work done faster. If you get stuck along the way, you can draw on their perspectives and it'll be easier to come up with innovative solutions.

What do you do about those folks whose help you no longer need? First, pause and reflect on the value they've added to your efforts. What have you been able to accomplish because they chose to get involved? Get specific. People will appreciate hearing these details when you thank them for their contributions. Reframe what you might feel is an awkward situation of "dis-inviting" into a celebration. Set time aside and bring others together to publicly acknowledge those who have helped advance the work so far. Often at the same time we're worrying about how to ask someone to no longer be involved, they're wishing they had an elegant exit strategy in hand.

If you ever do find yourself with someone who wants to continue participating past the point of their being useful to the team, you need to be clear with them. Thank them and explain why you don't believe they'll be able to add value in the work ahead. If they can convince you otherwise, you have just recruited one very committed player for the future. If they can't, stand firm and be prepared to carry on without them.