PERSIST IN YOUR BELIEF IN EMPOWERMENT

AS MICHAEL walked back to Sandy’s office he was feeling good about all he had learned. It seemed like a long time ago when he had been dragging his feet.

“Well, are you ready to go?” Sandy smiled as she greeted him.

“I think so. Your associates have been very helpful, and I’ve learned a great deal about empowerment. Implementing the three keys sounds like quite a challenge but also a great gift to everyone in our company. I hope we can make it work for us.”

“There is no doubt that you will need persistence in your belief that empowerment will work.”

“Particularly with the last key—replacing hierarchical thinking with self-managed teams,” said Michael. “Information sharing got me at first, but the role of teams seems even tougher.”

“That’s the part that always makes managers doubt the whole process,” Sandy replied.

“When the inevitable confusion and dissatisfaction stage of the journey sets in, it must seem so out of control,” Michael said in a pained tone.

“Yes! Know why?” Sandy asked. “Because if you are going to be held accountable, you want to be in control.”

“Right!”

“But the reality is that if you’re going to empower people, you have to give up control and still remain accountable.”

“Very scary for a manager.”

“Especially when the organization gets to this stage of confusion and lack of leadership regarding next steps.”

“The team skills training sounds like it helps,” said Michael. “Just knowing that dissatisfaction is a natural, predictable stage of group development probably puts things in perspective.”

“That’s why I required the training,” Sandy said. “I had tried before to empower people but didn’t know the inevitability or severity of the dissatisfaction stage. When confusion and disillusionment began to occur, I was as scared as anyone. I was afraid I’d created a monster that none of us would be able to control. I wanted to head for the hills and abdicate.”

“But you didn’t, obviously.”

“No, but I’ve seen a lot of managers do just that, and empowerment often goes by the wayside.”

“How did you hang in there?”

“Naive enthusiasm, probably,” she laughed. “I kept reminding myself and everyone else that people really did want to be empowered, and it could make a performance difference in our organization. But I want to tell you, many a night I sat at my desk staring into space and wondering what I had gotten myself into. The Land of Empowerment seemed far away. I sensed a leadership vacuum in the organization. Here I was asking people to make a major change in their way of relating to each other, but neither I nor the other managers knew what guidance to provide. It was a very frustrating period for everyone.”

“What happened?” quizzed Michael.

“Gradually something interesting began to happen. It’s like in the movies when the hero is on his last leg and you can’t figure out how he’s going to make it.”

“But he always does!”

“Sure. That’s what makes a good movie. The solution comes from some source you hadn’t expected. That’s what happened in our empowerment experience. Right in the midst of the leadership vacuum, flickering lights of empowerment began to shine from colleagues on the teams. Teams began to make important action decisions, individuals risked speaking out with suggestions, and managers acted in ways to facilitate decisions rather than make them. I think the discussion booklets that the teams were using helped more than they or I realized.

“Out of the discomfort of the leadership vacuum, the very empowerment we wanted was born. The information sharing, new boundaries, and skills training for teams began to pay off.”

“I don’t know if I could have hung in there,” reflected Michael.

“That’s why it’s important to understand that the empowerment journey begins with direction during the orientation stage and requires you to add support to your efforts as natural dissatisfaction sets in. Any wavering from the vision at that time could be disastrous.”

“So staying in the middle of the fray can speed up the movement to self-managed teams, even when you are unsure what to do to help?”

“That’s it,” Sandy said. “When it seems no one has the answer, people come forward in ways that can astonish you. And you can naturally step back to let their empowerment shine, while you eventually become a team member with your colleagues.”

“The key seems to be to stick to your beliefs,” said Michael as he wrote some thoughts in his organizer.

“That’s the only way your beliefs can become reality, but sometimes it can be very scary.”

“Well, you said in the beginning that the journey to the Land of Empowerment would not be easy,” said Michael. “I understand that thoroughly now, but I’m still ready to go.”

“Good luck,” Sandy said as they walked to the door.

“I’ll need it,” said Michael. “And you’ll be hearing from me.”

“Any time,” Sandy replied as she waved good-bye to him. “And remember,” she added, “it does work—if you stick with it.”