A global culture of empowerment
Here we go. Another one of those tweets on #innovation #business #culture #people and #hr. Picked at random from a never ending supply:
“Companies have to empower their employees to achieve the best results”
Now, is that deep wisdom condensed to only few characters (less is more) or just a shallow commonplace truism packaged as a fancy headline?
Either way: It’s inherently shortsighted.
What’s wrong with empowering employees?
Yes, I totally agree that the only true potential for any results is what we call ‘human potential’, yet I also totally distrust these ongoing discussions happening soley in the world of business.
The thing is — for me at least — that this is exactly what businesses and business consultants call ‘silo thinking’. It might not apply to certain business units or corporate departments this time, but now any one aspect from you corporate-101-kit of knowledge ends at the border of the single business or at the border of ‘the world of business’, as much as there are other “parallell” worlds around it. Alien worlds to many, it seems. But still, there is a border, that border beyond wich there is no immediate pay to be earned.
I totally love the idea of an empowered, free, creative, cooperative employee. But how is it about empowering someone not yet providing value to an organization? At least we now have seen the powerless worker becoming an empowered, critical, independent and entrepreneurial individual. Corporations put in all the work in a bet that at least one in a hundred of these expensive-beyond-immediate-use employees will once turn things around and provide some unexpected work wich is worth the effort. And you never know who will really deliver the value in the long run.
Let’s just extend this one idea a little: Could or should we not empower the employees spouse? That could have a different effect on the employee and benefit the organization in the long run. Could we empower their kids? Because your Organization is here to stay, this would surely create a long term ripple effect. And can’t we just empower future potential employees? Yay! Increasing the pool of potential qualified candidates to conduct future good work! Unlimited Ideas! Unexpected Brilliance! Game-changing Innovation!
Success!
Seriously: Let’s just empower everyone and reap the benefit of amazing results collectively, make it a true win-win. Or a win-win-win. Or a — ok, you kinda know it’s about winning.
As of now, we are heading towards a global economy were few single providers of services and infrastructure totally dominate a global market. The winner takes 98%. This sounds scary. And monopoly is scary. Being without a true alternative is scary as a customer, as a consumer, as a user and especially when you’re in business. Not having the power to choose is scary. Being at the mercy of a faceless dominating force ist freakishly spine chilling.
But what if only we adjust the underlying values a little bit? What if empowerment and collaboration, openness and transparency — all of those seemingly unavoidable drivers of much sought innovation — were to be applied in the same universal sense as the distribution and availablity of the many innovations offered to society by those few giants and their seemingly endless number of product teams, sub divisions and affiliated businesses?
In the future, all positive Corporate Culture will hopefully transform to something even greater: A global culture of empowerment, openness and trasparency, in order to achieve truly great results and a maximum of value for everyone on the planet and the planet itself. That would be disruption on a global scale. Change the game, redefine the rules, make everything anew.
If we read the word “Corporation” as “Embodyment” — as something (maybe an idea) coming into the flesh — and see Organizations as nothing more than a lot of people following a common goal for the good of their collective community, we are not even far from achieving truly great results together.
Let’s open up.
