Leadership Nudge – Push Authority to Information
Today we are going to talk about pushing authority to information versus pushing information to authority. The way it works in most organizations is the people at the bottom of the organizational chart have the information but not the authority to make decisions. We create systems so that they can channel the information up (the stoplight chart or some sort of form) and then it comes back down and they get to execute. They get frustrated by that and they are not so happy.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Amy from Intel. She explains how we should be moving authority to information.
Amy shared, “The foundation for this model is making sure that the people that are closest to the information are both technically competent and have organizational clarity. They understand priority. They know what the right to do is. If they have all of that then you empower them to make the decisions as they see fit. You don’t have to have the cycle time of going back up to the leader; ‘Is is ok for me to do this?’ Your execution time is reduced. They are happier because they feel empowered. They know they are contributing directly to the bottom line. You are happier because you get to go home and have dinner and enjoy your Christmas.”
So you can see that Amy and her team are pushing authority to information not information to authority.
My leadership nudge to you this week is this:
Take a little bit of authority and give it to your people. Only when you do that will you be able to assess what their competence and clarity is.
Let us know how it goes!
Thanks Amy!!
Enroll for the Leadership Nudge –
I’ll be doing a one-day workshop in Copenhagen on 27 May – more information with my Danish partners here: goAgile.dk
