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Empowerment a catchphrase from the 90s?

Finally a book from Ken Blanchard that takes more than one minute to put into place. Unfortunately it is still narrative and it would be great to read about a real company that really existed that made these things happen.

I brought the book because I was working on our strategies for the year ahead and noticed it talked about sharing information (something we do OK at) and creating boundaries (something we are currently working on). I hoped it would be something I could read with my team but as a story it is just to slow moving.

It lacks what John Allen calls "intellectual curiosity"

Did I enjoy it, not overly. Did I learn something? I always do.

Below is a summary of the book from a diagram call "The Empowerment Game Plan"

Click Image to see in full size

Book Summary

Empowerment - Takes More than a Minute
Ken Blanchard

Genres          Management, Empowerment
Pages           135
Readability     2 (1 = Easy, 5 = Hard)
Enjoyment     3 (1 = Never Read, 5 = Remarkable)

Winning - Leadership Development Booklet

Around 18 months ago I brought the majority of the staff in our company the book "Winning" by Jack Welch. The purpose for buying the book was to use it as a leadership development tool and to stretch their thinking, which in turn helps grow us as a business.

To assist in the learning I developed a booklet that people used to stay on track. People would read 2 -3 chapters a fortnight. We would then have a conference call with groups of 5 -7 people, discuss our obersations and learnings from the chapters.

Agoge is a small business with limited funds for training and leadership development and has staff based all over the country. I found that this process worked really well and we learned a lot as a business as a result. A key lesson for us was Candor, which has since become one of our values.

Below is a link to the PDF file. I hope you find it useful. If you would like a word copy please email Andrew Nicol (links in side bar)

Download winning_reading_plan.pdf

Failing 90% of the time

I read an interesting Scott Adams post today. In it he waxes lyrically for what feels like a day about all of his successes. Finally towards the end of what appears to be self-inflated dribble, he writes "To put all of this in context, and before you start to vomit at my bragging, I must confess that I fail miserably about ten times for every one success. (That's an accurate estimate. I've literally kept score.) But interestingly, the failures always involved activities that seemed entirely feasible. I was completely qualified for all of the things that failed."

He fails 90% of the time. Interestingly enough failing 90% of the time is only an issue if your goals are set to low. If you have huge goals and only get 10% of them, you become a huge success.

If you have small goals and only get 10% of them what do you get?

Killing the entrepreneurial spirit

Few successful start-ups become great companies, in large part because they respond to the growth and success in the wrong way. They grow exponentially and attract a team of people that love growth and have an entrepreneurial spirit. After a while the lack of planning and systems and good hiring of some systematic people means the company can turn into a very disorganised company. The response is often to bring in veteran managers to rein in the mess.

“They create order out of the chaos, but the also kill the entrepreneurial spirit. Members of the founding  team begin to grumble, 'This isn’t fun anymore. I used to be able to just get things done. Now I have to fill out these stupid forms and follow these stupid rules. Worst of all, I have to spend a horrendous amount of time in useless meetings.' The creative magic begins to wane as some of the most innovative people leave, disgusted by the bureaucracy and hierarchy. The exciting start-up transforms into just another company, with nothing special to recommend it. The cancer of mediocrity begins to grow in earnest.”

Most companies build their rules and processes to manage the small percentage of wrong people, which in turn drives the right people away. Getting the entrepreneurial spirit back it would seem means you need to give more freedom to your people.

Agree, disagree, have a question? - Post a comment now.