Assign / Delegate

Another actor performs a bounded packet and returns the output to a named owner.

The gutters need replacing, and you briefly consider doing it yourself before admitting the obvious: a contractor should do this. But your last contractor experience went sideways precisely at the definition stage: a vague verbal scope, no agreed way to judge completion, and a finished job that matched his assumptions instead of your intent.

ASSIGN / DELEGATE is the relationship mode where another actor performs a bounded packet of work and returns the output to a named owner, you. The essential features are in the two adjectives: bounded, meaning the work has defined edges, inputs, and an acceptance test; and owned, meaning a specific person retains authority over the outcome and handles exceptions. The cue is work someone else can genuinely perform better or cheaper, where what you need is the result, not the experience of producing it. The operation: write the scope and the acceptance criteria before engaging anyone (materials, drainage behavior in rain, cleanup, timeline), hand the bounded packet over with the authority it needs and no more, and verify the return against the criteria you set in advance. What changes is that delegation stops being a gamble on shared assumptions and becomes a checkable transaction. The boundary: never assign work whose value lies in you doing it, consent, apology, presence, final judgment, and never delegate without a named owner, because output returned to nobody is work lost.