Delegation through storytelling (The Potato Peeler Story)

If you’ve been following along with the story of David — the contract manager at a massive tech company — you know he’s preparing a ninety-minute talk built around three messages:

Consistency.
Specificity.
Delegation.

This story is the third and final one.

And like the others, it begins in my actual life — far away from conference rooms and corporate charts — because that’s where the best business stories come from.

So here’s the one I tell David when he asks me how to teach delegation.

THE POTATO PEELER STORY

I say to him:

I’m sick of emptying the dishwasher. Completely sick of it.

So I finally tell my kids, ‘You’re doing it now.’

I delegate the job.”

They do it.
They empty it.

Later that day, I go looking for the potato peeler.

I open the drawer where it should be.
It’s not there.

I check every drawer in the kitchen.

Nothing.

I look on the counter.
Behind the plates.
Behind the glasses.
On the drying rack.

Nowhere.

Eventually, I find it.
In the junk drawer.
Next to Scotch tape, dead batteries, and a screwdriver that doesn’t fit anything.

Because in their minds, the potato peeler didn’t have a place.
And things without a place?
They go in the junk drawer.

They didn’t fail.

I failed.

I delegated the job
but I never explained the system.

They completed the task, but they didn’t know how to do it the way I needed it done.

And that’s why delegation falls apart.

The Leadership Lesson Beneath the Story

Every leader has lived a version of this.

You delegate a task.
Your team completes it.
And somehow everything ends up in the metaphorical junk drawer — the place where “stuff” goes when people don’t know where it belongs.

It’s not incompetence.
It’s not laziness.
It’s lack of clarity.

Delegation isn’t:

“Do this.”

Delegation is:

“Do this.
This is how.
This is why.
This is where it goes when you’re done.
This is what ‘done’ looks like.”

If you skip the system, your team will build one.
And it won’t be yours.

Delegation With Clarity

If you want delegation to actually work, you need:

• Clear expectations
• Clear steps
• Clear outcomes
• Clear ownership
• Clear homes for every metaphorical potato peeler

Without those, people will guess.

And if they’re guessing, they’re improvising.
And if they’re improvising, you’re losing control of the work.

A potato peeler in a junk drawer is annoying.

A lost deliverable in a project is expensive.

Stories make the distinction unforgettable:

✅ Delegation without clarity is abandonment.
✅ Delegation with clarity is empowerment.

If You Want Your Message to Stick Where It Matters Most

This is the exact kind of story we teach inside Storyworthy for Business:

How to use everyday moments to explain complex expectations
How to turn small stories into powerful leadership tools
How to get teams aligned without micromanaging
How to make processes sticky, memorable, and repeatable

If you want people to actually follow your instructions — start with the story that teaches the instruction.