The "Golden Rule" of organizational design: empowerment

There are many principles that guide the design of highly effective organizations, but one stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. It's the most fundamental rule, absolutely essential to the success of every organization:

Authority and accountability must always match.

If authority and accountability are separated, problems are inevitable:

Those with accountability but lacking matching authority are powerless. They cannot perform, and are set up to be scapegoats. They will adopt a helpless "victim" mentality, take no initiatives, and spend a lot of time reading Dilbert and laughing about how futile it is to try to accomplish anything important.

Those with authority but not matching accountability are unconstrained. They can make decisions without bearing the consequences; they can tell others what to do, and blame others when their commands backfire. Without checks and balances, they do as they please, and ultimately become tyrants.

This Golden Rule of organizational design guides the definition of an organization's culture, structure, resource-management processes, and metrics.

Essentially, the Golden Rule is the definition of "empowerment."

Note that empowerment does not mean anarchy. It's not a blank check whereby people can do whatever they please. If empowerment means anarchy, organizations will fall apart. Of course, executives cannot let this happen. When they see badly implemented empowerment leading to chaos, executives must step in and again take the reins. "Oh well," they say. "We tried empowerment; it didn't work. What's next?"

The fact is, with authority (and freedom) come accountability. Empowerment means managing people by results, and leaving them free (within bounds) to figure out how to produce those results.

As badly overused as the term "empowerment" may be, one fact remains: Organizations cannot afford to waste one iota of talent. Organizations won't survive unless every bright mind is engaged, both individually and in teams, in assuring success. Empowerment is not a fad or a nicety; it is a necessary response to the immense pace and complexity of today's business environment.

Empowerment is not only essential to employee motivation; it's fundamental to performance.

More on principles of empowerment and integrity (accountability)....

More on coordination and control in an empowered organization....