[Reading Record -88] Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute (New Edition)

What is "Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute" for creating an autonomous organization?

In today's rapidly changing world, it is no exaggeration to say that top-down organizations have reached their limits.

What is needed now is an autonomous organization where each employee has an owner's mindset and acts based on their own judgment. Even for small and medium-sized businesses, companies that create such organizations will lead the next generation.

In this book, "Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute (New Edition)," the protagonist, Brian, embarks on a journey to find the systematic process = the 3 keys to transform his company into an "autonomous organization."

Generally, "empowerment" refers to drawing out the inherent abilities and potential of individuals or teams, giving them confidence, and providing the authority and power to act proactively.

The author of this book, Ken Blanchard, is a world-renowned authority on leadership theory. He has been advocating for the importance of empowerment in organizational development for many years.

The "empowerment" he advocates is not merely delegation of authority. It is a process that fundamentally transforms the nature of an organization by linking sharing information, clarifying boundaries, and self-managed teams as the "3 keys".

The 3 Keys and Organizational Growth

To realize true empowerment, the following three keys must be operated systematically and in stages.

• Key 1: Sharing Information: Accurate information is the "currency" of empowerment. Sharing confidential information such as performance and costs with all employees is a powerful signal that you trust them. Hiding information leads to a sense of powerlessness among employees, making them feel "untrusted," which in turn fosters irresponsible attitudes.

• Key 2: Promoting Autonomy Through Boundaries:A framework acting as "banks" (boundaries) is essential for autonomy. By clearly defining the vision, values, goals, and roles, it becomes possible to align the vectors of employees' energy rather than letting it scatter. Boundaries are not constraints, but guidelines to accelerate energy.

• Key 3: Developing Self-Managed Teams:It is important for leaders themselves to abandon hierarchical thinking and transition to a system where the team plans, implements, and manages itself. There are four inevitable stages in team development: "orientation," "dissatisfaction," "resolution," and "production." Leaders must change their support methods according to each of these stages.

Empowerment is a painful "journey"

Empowerment is not magic that happens overnight.
It is a "long journey" accompanied by hardship. This is because it is inevitable for team development through empowerment to go through the four steps of "orientation" → "dissatisfaction" → "resolution" → "production".

In empowerment, the most important skill required of a leader is "MBST (Management By Standing There)." In Japanese, this is simply "Don't do anything unnecessary, just stand there." The "self-restraint" of a leader watching silently as the team solves problems on its own without interfering is what accelerates team autonomy.

However, many leaders cannot do this.
Because when a team falls into the "dissatisfaction" stage, they inevitably interfere out of parental concern, and thus cannot watch until the team solves it on their own.

But that is precisely when the leader's conviction is tested.
By overcoming this "valley of despair" and having the top management continue to provide support with firm resolve, employees will finally develop a sense of ownership, feeling that "this is my company."

Reference Links

• Amazon "Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute (New Edition)"Book Introduction Page

• Blanchard Japan:Official Website