It's not just semantics LO6342

Rol Fessenden (
31 Mar 96 23:16:36 EST

Replying to LO6331 --

Sb: It's not just semantics LO6331

Michael's posting on what managers need in order to empower others is on
the money at least from my experience. I would add only one other

Literally every manager who worked for me and who has tried to empower
others has at first made the assumption that they had spelled out the 'box
of responsible autonomy' so thoroughly that the empowered person would do
exactly what the manager would have done in the same circumstances. It
has only been through conversations after the empowered person did
something else that the manager has realized just how much ambiguity there
was in their own thinking.

When you spend years thinking through complex situations you have a
clearer conception of that situation than you may be able to convey in
words. Or at least you _think_ you have a clearer conception. Only
through the after-the-fact conversation can the manager reconnect with the
ambiguities they struggled through.


Rol Fessenden LL Bean
