Facilitating change and empowerment
14/04/2010, Author: Judy Bennet
That word ‘empowerment’ cropped up with a client this week. One of the managers I was working with wanted his team to be more empowered (and had told them so!) but was disappointed when they were slow to take up the reins. Although realising they had been given a chance to lead in different ways, the team seem to be making few behavioural changes beyond putting in some new processes (more meetings!). It reminded me of the ‘fleas in a box’ story that I heard many years ago but that still rings true. If you have some fleas in a box jumping up and down, when you take the lid off they will still jump to the same height – it’s what they are used to doing.
Communicating change is of course important (telling the team they are empowered) – but other things also need to be in place to make things happen. We are now working on a range of things to support this change taking place, from helping the manager to change his leadership style through to identifying skills that are needed by the team to make that leap.
It raises the question - what barriers to good leadership and the facilitation of change are strongest in an uncertain environment?
If you find this post offensive please contact us
Comments
No Comments
You must be logged in to leave comments. You can register here».
