Building Capacity

June 7, 2001


Terror struck yesterday when a father said to me, "terrible two's are
misnamed, two was GREAT! Just wait for three."

Two, in our family, is proving to be plenty challenging. At the same time,
I have never experienced something so exciting as watching Emma learn to do
and be. She is becomming competent -- and opinionated. It seems the more
she learns to do, there more there is to fight about.

Yet somehow, almost every day, we are working to teach her new skills. She
and I were cooking pancakes together -- she is getting good a cracking eggs
(it involves cracking then *squeezing* hard... not TOO much shell ends up
in the bowl), and we worked on stirring.

Making pancakes took at least half an hour, and I could have done it myself
in a few minutes. Why? Because Emma and I were making something much more
complex -- we were making pancakes + capacity. Ultimately, Emma will be
able to make pancakes herself; ideally even better pancakes than we make
together -- and as long as we're speaking of ideal, they can also be served
to me in bed along with fresh squeezed orange juice!

A rather different example -- lately I have been looking at each email I
answer and deciding if I should write a "template" answer that can be used
over and over, an article, or if I should just answer the email. The goal
is to provide lots of good info to lots of people -- without having to
reinvent the wheel every time. So far, I have 10 template emails and have
4 articles in the works.

Building capacity is about doing work in a way that allows more work to be
accomplished in the future. It is something we all do -- as managers we
create systems and hire employees; as parents we take the time to show
rather than doing it ourselves; as teachers we build on previous skills to
create new ones. We can also build capacity for ourselves in our lives and
work.

Perhaps the biggest challenge with capacity building is clearly identifying
the needs. For example, an organization having communication troubles
might work hard to generate IT capacity only to find that their real need
was listening skills.

When you create capacity you also create new problems -- there is added
complexity. Now that Emma, Patty, and I have build the capacity for Emma
to put on shoes by herself, she won't leave her shoes downstairs (so the
sandbox is gradually coming inside). When I create "template" emails, I
have more and more data to manage. When we teach students to be clear
about their needs, we spend time discussing details. When you hire more
sales staff, your phone bill goes up.

The point is, when you build capacity, you are dedicating some resources to
that process -- you are making and investment now to make things easier
later... but you want to be sure you can use the capacity you build.

So now that you are convinced not to build any capacity because it is sure
to be a burdern... let's look at the pancake example again -- there are
some elements that will help you plan other capacity-building:
- Clear need. We definitely will want more pancakes later.
- Clear lack of capacity. Should have seen how Emma USED to crack eggs.
- Defined task. Make pancakes.
- Specific subskills. Crack eggs, stir batter.
- Process for building capacity. Cook with Daddy, make messes.
- Mechanism to "house" the capacity. Emma.
- Management of added complexity. Keep eggs out of reach.
- Time focused on learning. 1/2 hour pancake making.
- Part of ongoing process. Emma helps bake lots of things.
- Integration of new capacity. Not yet! Eventually Emma could actually
make breakfast...

So here is a challenge for you -- consider an internal capacity you want to
build for yourself. Perhaps you would like more capacity to focus your
energy, or to enjoy your stress, or connect with the people around you?
Pick something "big" like that, then use the list above to break it down.

There is nothing magic about the list, I just made it up based on the
pancake example -- so as you try out the process, make the list better, and
send me your refinements. I will collect the examples and build our shared
capacity for building capacity.

Warmly,
-Josh