How I Overcame a Toxic Management Belief to Unleash Team Autonomy

My 5 proven steps for building a problem-solving culture.

Photo by Fernando Gomez Cortes on Pexels

Let’s be open about this — most of today’s corporations have a transparency problem.

• Managers don’t know a team’s true status.
• Employees cover over the ugly truth to avoid blame.
• Pervasive, blind faith in, “The way things we’ve always done things.”

The sores (problems) lurking under the surface stay hidden until an infection festers. When the alarms sound at the 11th hour, it’s too late, too expensive, and too widespread to remedy. Companies end up in the ditch like this every day. And teams, stakeholders, and customers suffer the pain.

Think this is rare? Think again.

Why is situational awareness so poor?

The easy answer? Most of us work in a broken system.

• Top-down decision-making dilutes team autonomy.
• Fear of blame from making mistakes hides the truth.
• Employees and managers don’t play in the same sandbox.
• Mass acceptance of the current reality as the permanent reality.
• Rampant deadlines, multitasking, and…