Speaking of Business: Empowerment can evoke positive change

Q: We just had our annual planning meeting. We started by reviewing our accomplishments of the previous year. It seems we did not accomplish much of what was on our punch list. After many hours of blaming each other for dropping the ball, one manager stated she didn’t feel “safe” in taking action in fear of doing something wrong. The rest of the managers chimed in and agreed with her. This was shocking news to me. What do I need to look for to better know if I am “in tune” with my staff?

A: The success of some world-class organizations has been attributed to their ability to create environments that focus and release the intelligence, experience and energy of their people. Creating the means for this release has been labeled as empowerment. Correctly implementing empowerment in a way that is tailored to an organization’s culture can result in profound positive changes.

Empowerment is nothing short of enlisting the entire organization in the management process of creating and implementing strategies.

Twelve points that most “empowered” companies need to have are:

1. Healthy relationships between levels of authority

For an organization to be effective there must be an excellent human link between larger company strategy and needs and the situation and needs at the production level. Everyone at all levels must know what is important to the organization and how their working relationship affects key accomplishments.

2. Integrated purpose, vision and strategy

A clear mission, charter, vision and strategy can make real-time decisions aligned with both the organization’s needs and the needs of all team members.

3.An atmosphere of mutual trust and respect

An empowering environment recognizes the inherent maturity of people and their ability to manage their affairs if they have the skills, resources, and training. People in different departments and disciplines have respect and empathy for the challenges facing each other and respect each other’s position and work.

4.Accountability

Each individual in the organization must be committed to acting in the best interests of the organization and accepts the responsibility to use their situation(s) to do their best to help the organization to succeed.

5.Authority and the backing to use it

For organizations to benefit from the knowledge, skill and capacity for intelligent action that people have to offer, the people’s judgment and capabilities must be respected. Respect is evident when people have authority and responsibility that is ample and sufficient for their role, and when they are trusted to execute that authority.

6.Influence and control over resources

Empowered people are involved in the budgeting process and have a clearly established level of resource control commensurate with the individual’s or team’s authority and scope of responsibility.

7.Professional development

An empowering environment provides easy access to continuous learning opportunities through which people can get whatever kinds of development they need, when they need it, and in a form they can use.

8. Ways to influence plans and events

Empowered people see evidence that their influence makes a difference, both locally and farther out.

9.Motivational incentives and rewards

People are disempowered when recognition and rewards are inadequate or independent of real performance.

10. Well defined and agreed upon boundaries

Management must clearly articulate boundaries and limits so people know what areas they control, what areas require the participation of others, and what areas are off limits.

11.Accurate, timely and comprehensive information

Empowered individuals and teams receive meaningful, actionable feedback from all their stakeholders.

12.Permission to experiment and make mistakes

Continuous organizational improvement requires that people take informed risks. Risk for improvement has been discussed so people know what is acceptable risk and what is not. In an empowered organization, people feel they can take risks to try to make improvements and that they will not be punished if they fail once in a while. Failures are treated as learning experiences. Empowerment cannot exist in a high blame environment.

Windsor resident Russell Disberger is a founding member of Aspen Business Group, a Northern Colorado-based specialty consulting and venture capital firm. He can be reached at (970) 396-7009, or by e-mail at russell@aspenbusinessgroup.com.

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