DESIGNATE
What to Designate?
To designate is to specify or characterize for a role or a function. Decide what or who you want to select or assign – and if the two considerations converge, then it will be deciding what is to be selected for whom, or who is to be assigned to what. Designation is a kind of active allocation, of grouping formerly disparate people, processes, events, or things into common categories for particular purposes. The designation may specify comprehensive status or limited aspects thereof.
Why to Designate?
“When something is owned by everyone, it is owned by no one.” The implication is that without specific allocation, there are no property rights at all. “When everyone is responsible for something, no one is really responsible”. The implication is that without specific assignment, there can be no accountability at all. Designation similarly serves to clarify other rights and obligations, the basis of social action.
When to Designate?
Pre-empt or retro-fit? Some people like to establish the relationships and the rules before their application actually occurs – this desire to plan ahead is often rationalized as good sense, but it may really just be temperamental. Others prefer to wait until the need arises and then take the plunge – is this pragmatism or just procrastination? As in so many inferential situations, both successes and failures are seen with either choice.
Whether to Designate?
There is at least one rationale for not formally designating at all – it is the claim that on- the-spot, spontaneous sorting is somehow more “natural”, that it simply emerges from group dynamics. In some circumstances it still works remarkably well, but these tend to be situations for which the “human element” plays a predominant role. Where training, expertise, knowledge and considerable discipline are needed, deliberate designation rules.
How to Designate?
The appropriate criteria is functional, in the sense of designating according to what the selection or assignment is meant to achieve – this takes us back to the what issue. If you are looking to create a winning baseball team, select members on the basis of abilities to either hit or catch. If the team is being created to “have some fun” select for those with bonhomie. Problems occur when criteria conflict – prioritize and explain in that case.
References
John van Maurik
THE EFFECTIVE STRATEGIST
Gower Publishing, Hampshire, 1999