What is most surprising to me is that the virtues of truly empowered product teams are not a secret. In fact, there are plenty of books and articles out there that describe why these types of teams are so much more effective at innovation and in solving hard problems.

While quite a few these books are inspiring and well worth reading, most companies have not been convinced to empower their teams in any meaningful sense. Why is that?

When I ask this question of CEOs and other key leaders of these organizations, the answer typically boils down to one word: trust.

The leaders don't trust the teams. Specifically, they don't believe they have the level of people on their teams they need to truly empower them. So, along with the other key business leaders from across the company, they believe they need to very explicitly direct the teams themselves. This is also known as the “command‐and‐control” model of management.

When I ask these leaders why they don't put people in place that they do trust, they usually argue that they either can't find, can't afford, or can't attract the level of people that Google, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix hire.

I then point out to them the many people I know who have moved from companies like theirs to one of these leading companies, and how their performance dramatically improved in the process.

And further, having worked with many people at each of these companies, I point out how ordinary the vast majority of the people on these teams actually are. Maybe the important difference lies elsewhere?

Maybe these strong companies have different views on how to leverage their talent in order to help their ordinary people reach their true potential and create, together, extraordinary products.