BOUNDARIES ARE GUIDELINES FOR ACTION
AS THEY strolled along, Elizabeth began to explain how various kinds of structure take on a new meaning in an empowered organization.
“Once people have the information to understand their current situation, boundaries don’t seem like constraints but rather guidelines for action. Within our agreed-on boundaries, we have complete autonomy and responsibility to get things done. Take roles and goals, for example. I’m sure Janet Wo talked to you about developing the big picture into little pictures.”
“Yes, she did.”
“That’s important to us, because when it comes to defining roles and goals, our process is like a two-way street. Management and informed people throughout the organization (that is, all of us) work together to develop the big picture, as well as our little pictures. When the vision is clear, everyone knows where their job and their work on individual tasks fits into a bigger perspective.”
“Can you give me an example?” asked Michael.
“Have you ever returned to the store a pair of shoes you have worn, and only then discovered they made your feet hurt? The store clerk tells you the best the store can do is give you a store credit for the current price of the shoes, which are now on sale?”
“No, but that would make me angry, I am sure,” said Michael.
“Last week,” Elizabeth continued, “this happened to me, except the response from the salesperson was exceptional. When I explained my problem, she asked me if there was another style I would prefer more. Unfortunately, there were none, and I just did not have time to consider a lot of options. I just wanted my money back, so she said all right. But when she went to handle the credit, she found the shoes were on sale, and I realized I did not have my receipt. But I knew I had paid more than the sale price. She told me, ‘No problem.’ She overrode the computer and gave me a cash refund. I was so impressed that I went back a couple of days later and bought two pair of shoes from this person. That was a win for me and for the store, wasn’t it? But think about why that worked so well. Not only was that woman a great salesperson, but the training that she’d received provided boundaries that empowered her to help me.”
“You mean, within certain guidelines the clerk had control over what to do,” said Michael. “The boundaries provided the playing field and the rules, and on that field the salesperson was free to play her own outstanding game.”
Elizabeth smiled and nodded.
“That’s certainly a new use of terms like boundaries and structure for me,” continued Michael. “In the past, people have become used to working within structure, but the structure’s been there to inhibit action, limit thinking and risk taking, and correct mistakes by punishing those responsible.”
“You’re talking here about a new type of rules and boundaries, one that encourages responsibility, ownership, and empowerment. How do you get people to make that shift? Won’t there be all kinds of problems?”
“We certainly had our share of them,” Elizabeth answered. “At first we tried eliminating most rules and structure and using slogans to guide us. But we found that didn’t work. People were unsure of what to do and afraid to take responsibility for fear of making a mistake. They just cannot go from a controlled environment to complete freedom, autonomy, and responsibility overnight.”
“That sounds like what Billy Abrams was telling me about creating self-managed work teams,” said Michael. “Managers have to start with strong, clear leadership and gradually move toward more supporting and delegating styles.”
“Yes,” Elizabeth affirmed. “There’s a paradox here. You need rules and structure so that people are comfortable at first during the changeover. But they are not the old rules and structures that dominated hierarchical life. These new boundaries must demonstrate the values that support your empowerment effort. I made a little desk card that many of us keep around as a reminder of this paradox:”
New boundaries help everyone learn to act with responsibility and autonomy.
“Again,” said Michael, “I feel the need for an example.”
“Good. This example demonstrates our value of ‘recovery.’ We had shipped some components to a customer, only to find that when the unit was assembled on site, it didn’t fit into the space the architect had designed. Our people had met with the architect, visited the building site, and followed the specs to the letter, but somehow a mistake had been made. To correct it would cost us ten thousand dollars, which amounted to our entire profit for the job.”
“That’s a sticky one,” Michael said with a grimace. “What happened?”
“In the past,” Elizabeth continued, “we would have put all our energy into identifying who was to blame—the architect, the customer, or someone in our company. But we have a guideline now that says, ‘When a mistake is made, first do whatever it takes to recover and then learn from the mistake.’ In our training we learned to ask, ‘How can we recover so that the customer is happy and so that we get some good learning from this mistake?’”
“That’s a great question!” Michael exclaimed. “It’s got integrity. How did you come up with it?”
“It came out of the values and dialogue process we all went through in the beginning. We developed a group of rules like this that are basically values questions converted into rules of action.”
“If that kind of mistake happened in my company,” Michael said, “heads would have rolled after we satisfied the customer. So what happened?”
“We assured the customer that the problem would be fixed. Then while we worked with the contractor and architect to modify the space and the unit itself, we had people on the site charting all the changes, their costs, and the other processes of recovery. Later, a task force met to go over the records to see what we could learn from it.”
“How did it all turn out?” Michael asked. “I’m particularly interested in the financial impact on the company.”
“We did more than keep a key customer. The way we handled it resulted in a major referral by that client to another string of companies with whom we’ve been doing business ever since. And we did get our ten thousand dollars worth of learning out of it. The story of that situation resulted in a renewal of commitment throughout the company of getting things right the first time. The situation assured us that we could ‘walk our talk’ by following our values-based guidelines instead of indulging in ‘poor me’ or blaming. It demonstrated the capacity of our structure to encourage people’s problem-solving instincts, too.
“The key solution in this situation—modifying both the space and the unit—came from a person who had relatively little to do with the project, but her instincts were right on target. Also, the associates who contributed to the recovery project developed managerial thinking and expertise that has since proved invaluable.”
That’s a lot of payoff, thought Michael. Then he said, “I see now that mistakes are opportunities to improve and use our talents, not times to find fault.”
“You know,” said Elizabeth, “it’s great having the freedom to operate in this new structure. It’s also great to find out that every day you can rise to the standards this freedom requires in terms of responsibility and accountability. There’s a sign that hangs in what our team calls our ‘powwow room’ that reminds us of this”:
Empowerment means you have the freedom to act; it also means you are accountable for results.
“You’ve certainly added to my understanding about information and boundaries, Elizabeth,” said Michael. “And I’ve already taken up too much of your time today.”
“It’s been my pleasure,” said Elizabeth warmly.
“I was just about to suggest you talk to someone in Information Services to learn more about self-managed teams. Luis Gomez over there has a story that will interest you. It’s about the nervousness their team had about replacing the hierarchy. I’ll walk you over.
“One more point,” said Elizabeth as they walked to the Information Services Area. “Nothing is static in the empowerment process. The boundaries we’ve been talking about will continue to widen as people become more empowered. The changes will be noticeable all over the organization. People will define goals for themselves and their peers. They’ll suggest new roles and improvements. They’ll use their teams far more effectively in some cases than you can expect at first. But I’m going to stop there. Telling you about teams can be Luis’s job.”