Definition of empowerment

Empowerment

What is Empowerment?

It is a strategic process that seeks a relationship of partners between the organization and its people, increasing trust, responsibility, authority and commitment to better serve the customer.

What is a team with Empowerment?

They are work groups with employees responsible for a product, services that share leadership, collaborate in the improvement of the work process, plan and make decisions related to the work method.

Characteristics of teams with empowerment:

1. 1. Leadership and administrative tasks are shared Members are empowered to assess and improve the quality of performance and reporting process The team provides ideas for business strategy They are committed flexible and creative They coordinate and exchange with other teams and organizations. Relationships with others and trust are improved. They have a positive attitude and are enthusiastic.

Factors involved in the change

Most of the time they are external forces that force the organization to change, such as the following:

1. Accelerated global competition Dissatisfied customers Little speed in product innovation or introduction More flat and linear organizations Trade bureaucracy and technology Rapidly changing technology Change of values ​​in employees Stagnation in efficiency or productivity

Empowerment Organization

From the early 1970s, organizations around the world began to replace their traditional structure with increased commitment and high staff involvement.

The traditional structure is made in the shape of a pyramid, where the functions are highly specialized, its limits are clear and there is control by supervisors to ensure that work is fast and consistent, in conclusion the people who occupy the top of the pyramid it's the people who plan and think while the lowest levels are the ones that do the job.

The structure of staff involvement and greater commitment is in the form of a circle or network because it can be seen as a set of coordinated groups or teams working towards the same objective.

Circle Features:

1. 1. The client is at the center. They work together cooperating to do what must be done. They share responsibility, ability and authority. Control and coordination come through continuous communication and decisions. Employees and the manager have the capacity to work with Others. There are few levels of organization. Power comes from the ability to influence and inspire others not from your hierarchy. People manage themselves and are judged for the totality of their work. The focus is towards the client. Managers are the ones who energize, provide the connections and empower their teams.

The Path to Empowerment

Functions need to be clearly defined before and during the transformation process. Organizations need between fifteen months and five years to complete the empowerment stages and a high level of help, commitment and support is needed to carry out the project.

During the development of empowerment there will be obstacles that can be predictable, we should not stagnate due to the problems, but rather face and solve them, one of these obstacles are:

1. Inertia: difficulty deciding to start Personal doubts: believing that you are not capable, nor can you create in your workplace Anger: blaming others for having to go through all this Chaos: there are so many ways to reach the end that one gets lost along the way.

1. Assessment of the current state of the organization

To start the first stage of empowerment, an evaluation must be made of the organization, which consists of completing a questionnaire that must be completed by all members of the organization. The following questions are a guide to prepare the assessment:

1. What is the current business strategy? What is the current structure of the organization? What system of rewards and recognition exist for individuals or teams? Is training related to business needs? Characterized by being a vertical hierarchy in the aspects of decision-making and information flow or in shared leadership? Is communication with employees encouraged and responded to?

Empowerment is a total movement

Empowerment is more than a state of mind, more than a set of team behaviors, even more than organizational policies. It cannot exist unless it is supported by individual resolutions and attitudes, team behaviors, and organizational values.

Three Paths Towards Empowerment

First and second level changes.

The first and second level changes are very different, it is not only a difference of degree but of quality.

Let's see some examples

Situation	First level change	Second level change
Drive a car	Use the throttle	Change speeds
Watch TV	Change channel	Turn it off
government	Change from one dictator to another	Change from dictatorship to democracy
Together	Changes in the agenda	Use of a coordinator
Evaluate the results	Increase the number of goals	Focus on product quality
Equipment	New procedures	New way of making decisions
Business	Redefinition of positions	Go from pyramid to circle

Changes in the way of thinking:

Changing to empowerment from a pyramid-type organization to a circular organization requires a series of mindsets. Some of these changes include a drastic reorientation in the way we see our work.

For example some changes are:

FROM (Without Empowerment)	UNTIL (With Empowerment)
Waiting for orders	Take decisions
Do things right	Do the right thing
Reagent	Creative and productive
Content	Process and content
Responsible boss	All responsible
Find culprits	Solve problems

Process, responsibility, learning

Empowerment requires three major changes in the resolutions of everyone who makes up an organization.

Towards the process

In addition to achieving your objectives in a working group, you must analyze how to achieve them. You must be able to achieve your goals again, and do things better next time, developing an awareness of how things are done and this understanding must be shared.

Towards responsibility

In an empowered work team, everyone shares responsibility, which traditionally only had the leader. If any employee sees a problem or has an idea, they are responsible for commenting on it or bringing it to the attention of the group. The idea must be respected, and everyone must participate in order for the group to grow and develop. It is not enough that the group leader is the only one who cares about it.

Towards learning

The traditional organization was reactive towards senior management plans or the business environment in the empowerment organization, when staff are wanting action, looking for and solving problems, taking risks, expressing and working together. He doesn't wait for things to be said to them, and they are not paralyzed out of fear or concern.

Fundamental mental changes

The fundamental part of the change to have an empowered organization is the turn you can make today to pay attention to how work is done, take responsibility for the development of any organization and solve problems using active learning.

• Pay attention to the process Take responsibilities Look for learning

Organizational redesign

Today's workplaces seek quality, continuous improvement, creating more products with fewer resources.

In the midst of this chaos, a manager or work team needs to initiate their own responses to the changes around them, the work group forms a protective barrier working together to respond to the changes and protecting each other from the attention that this causes and tailor your own empowerment work.

You must work together, your goals have two paths, the first is to meet operational needs and the second is to find the time to analyze how the group is achieving its goals.

It is not a single procedure work but a continuous process, however this redesign process can sometimes be quite closed.

The Role Of Quality

Many companies have quality improvement programs that are geared towards people searching each of their processes and discovering sources of difficulties, defects, inefficiencies, excesses, variations, confusion and creating new ways of doing things better.

The people who are doing the work are the ones who can redesign a quality program improvement process - not an external team of engineers or consultants, the group should take the time to think about how they are doing things, it is the way by which the group can help a pyramid organization to a circular. The creation of circular structures very often parallel to the hierarchy relationships of traditional pyramids.

To create real change, each level of the organization must undergo second-level change.

Resolutions: Employees view their work with a work and responsibility approach.

Relationships: Team relationships become a vital issue and focus on both the process and its content wrapped in communications by giving and receiving feedback.

Organizational structure: Practical policies and incentives are adopted that go according to the value of empowerment.

The change to empowerment is a change to the second level

The change from traditional management to empowerment is not a first-rate change. The whole way of managing the company has to change, many managers mistakenly go to the change of empowerment as a first-level change, a simple set of new instructions, but the change to empowerment represents a change in everything related to a group from the way people see the organization or the way of working together.

Motivation through Self-Esteem

Motivate people using VIP: validation, information and participation.

Empowerment is total

Empowered managers motivate their staff by involving and sharing them in the tasks they have to do, not forcing them to do them using the natural desire of people to be useful and to make the difference between the way and how they approach their activities known.. What is common in organizations is to reward people only for their individual effort and not for teamwork, the manager with empowerment tries to teach new rewards for teamwork, sharing and helping each other.

Work meets human needs

The concept of empowerment questions the view that the organization and individuals are in conflict, empowerment suggests that the organization can satisfy individuals and also achieve what they want, it can be a mutually beneficial win-win relationship.

It is amazing that organizations with powerful technical systems worthy of the twenty-first century are surrounded by bureaucratic rules that were granted in the early twentieth century and also try to motivate their staff using ideas about human nature that date back to the early nineteenth century.

What motivates your employees?

The following are traditional motivations:

• • Work safety Economic reward Promotions.

Everyone can be a VIP

Validation:

• Respect for employees as individuals Flexibility to meet personal needs Encourage learning growth and new skills

Information:

• Know why things are done Obtain internal information about the company.

Participation:

• Employees with control over the way they do their own work Intervention in decisions that affect them.

The key to creating an empowered workplace is to explore among those new motivations to create a workplace where people want to work, this means that it is easier for your employees to help you do a good job if they feel treated like people. And you feel that the organization is going to take your needs into account, if you know why they are doing things and if they can help you do the best way to do your job.

Mutual benefits

There are two benefits but it takes time before they become apparent and can be noticed.

First: The employee is asked to be more creative and to become more active in the company's work. This style is more satisfying and more motivating, you can learn, grow and see the results of your efforts.

Second: When a person takes responsibility for his future, the feeling of dependency of a company grows less. Learn new utilities and see that they are useful, work with the internal confidence that, even if the company cannot take care of them, they will be able to take care of themselves, this gives them a very deep feeling of self-esteem and self-confidence.

Mutual basis

The traditional manager is responsible for suspending the performance of his employees in an empowered organization the manager is not responsible for performance but for creating a work environment where people can perform as a coach, the manager supports and guides your employees to increase their performance levels.

• Keys to performing a mutual contrast: Sharing the evaluation: The main goal of performance evaluation is to help the individual to be better, not to punish or reward him, the manager is the only one who evaluates performance frequently the manager has new information on how well An employee is working compared to other members of his team.

In an empowered organization where responsibility for work is shared, responsibility for evaluation is also shared, this indicates that the evaluation is carried out by both parties, the employee begins evaluating himself according to his pre-established objectives, sometimes the opinion of others is requested Team members, the evaluated can select four or five people for evaluation. The goal is to open the process so that the most relevant people give each other feedback.

• Orientation towards problem solving: The traditional manager was the person who solved the problems. In organizations the problems are so new and complex that no one knows for sure what needs to be done to make things work. The role of the manager is to others to solve a problem. He is not responsible for finding the solution, he helps the As a person searches for possibilities to find out what options are available, the goal is to help the employee with a problem so they can learn to solve it.

The manager who challenges his staff to find their own solutions will find that they develop their individual skills to solve their problems.

Growth and Learning

In new organizations, employees want to learn, grow, and develop their skills. They need to have a continuous series of new challenges and they need to rotate or move between respective and routine jobs even if there are new routine jobs.

The empowered organization is finding various mechanisms to offer its employees the opportunity to grow.

• Cross-training: To expand your skills and help understand others' jobs Job rotation: In other areas of the company to develop skills Participation: In workgroups and other specific problem solving groups to make the company better develop quality and define new products and services. Delegation and job enrichment: To offer employees more responsibility in their work, expanding their positions by delegating tasks to themselves. The facilitator leader and the empowered team

Leader facilitator is the person in charge of personal development of team members, the person who creates the work environment to achieve learning and development results.

For a facilitating leader, developing the appropriate climate for team performance is an essential skill for creating empowerment.

Middle management must do more than supervise. It must help people, to learn, grow and develop. Middle management is in danger of disappearing, unless it adapts to the new workplace. The facilitator leader is a teacher, an animator and a coach.

Creating a learning climate

The facilitator leader helps the team develop a learning environment, the team learns how to repeat the work to be more effective. The key skill is not just doing the job, but also learning to learn. The team faces new challenges and dilemmas, a team with learning capacity must allow creativity, appreciation and exploration of new territories.

Search responsible versus solve problems

Empowered groups have abolished guilt as a normal activity when a problem arises, the people involved discuss it until it is resolved, they don't have time looking for someone to blame.

Find problems

Empowered teams continually look for problems, they don't wait for them to arrive without warning. Also an empowered group also needs to learn the necessary skills to face problems as they arise.

Unleash creativity

Groups with learning ability should look for new ideas and possibilities. These groups should not do the first thing that occurs to them, but always take a step back to review the difficulties that may arise.

The role of the facilitator leader

The most difficult task for leaders with empowerment is to create teams open to learning. Below is a list of the key qualities that this new leader needs to have:

Guide with vision, not with tradition

Align people with a vision of what you want to be. This vision is generated by everyone is inspiring and meaningful.

Non-teacher apprentice

He is aware of what he does not know and is willing to learn it. She does not think that the only way to do things is as it has always been done.

Focus the process not the content

He is concerned that the process continues rather than trying to determine how the group works.

Non-controlling facilitator.

He is not trying to be in control. Delegate and let people be free for people to do things their own way. Share responsibility and authority to act.

Non-expert trainer

It helps people learn and develop their skills. Always expect more from people.

League, does not accumulate

Share the information between the groups and link common projects, spend time looking for information and linking the team's work with that of the other groups.

Take into account emotions, not technical skills.

Understand that change is difficult and that people have difficult feelings. She is aware of the needs of her group and finds new ways to create mutuality. Encourage the group to resist, stay together and grow.

Shifting to facilitating leadership

Shifting to facilitating leadership

In order to achieve the change to facilitating leadership, managers and employees need a number of elements to be successful

The nature of the empowered team.

The team is where empowerment grows. The most important ingredient of empowerment is the direct relationship between you and the people with whom you work.

Techniques to create empowerment

• Suggestion system.Employee of the month.Training.Team building.Quality circles.Motivational talks.Enrichment of positions. Group synergy.

An empowered team uses the talent of all its members to create even better results. This synergy of many people working together often produces impressive results.

To develop this synergy there is a set of basic elements that guide the working groups with empowerment.

Elements that must be shared by an empowered team:

• Property Responsibility Authority Power Reward Energy Sharing responsibilities

Many times managers perceive empowerment as a way to abandon responsibility. Let's be very clear. Sharing responsibilities does not mean abandoning responsibility. When a manager delegates responsibility, he has three ways: keep the job, delegate the job without giving the authority to make decisions and delegate the authority.

The manager with empowerment is responsible for providing the methods for:

• Create mission and vision Offer guidance, support and training Evaluate performance as it is achieved Levels of decision-making

Decision making is the central process of working with your team. It is important to understand that there are different levels of participation in the decision-making exercise. The lowest level of participation is when people are told what to do. One of the highest levels is when everyone including the manager makes the decisions together. You can even go a step further and delegate the decision to the team, removing the manager at the same time from the decision-making structure.

The following decision scale represents the level a manager can choose from when sharing decision-making with his team.

Decision Scale

Decision Scale

Decision Funnel

Team members have responsibilities at each level of this process. The following diagram shows the participation of team members at each level.

Elements of an Empowerment Team

The job of a modern manager is to create teams with empowerment. To do this you need to develop certain important elements. Managers and employees participate in the development of certain important elements. They are the basis for decision making with empowerment teams.

• Respect

There is respect when people cooperate and others have constructive motivations. Each person has personal needs; agendas and preferences that must be negotiated. The organization cannot always be first.

• information

People who work together need complete information. The manager needs to inform her staff clearly and completely and let her draw her own conclusions. Information should flow freely and not be hidden from certain people or levels of employees.

• Control and decision making

People want to make decisions about how to achieve their goals and the best way to do a job. Empowered managers do not assume that they know how to do things, but that they give opinions to people and help them decide how to do them. It may take time at first, but it generates a complete acidity and a greater commitment to achieve better results.

• Responsibility

Empowerment means that the responsibility is not all on the shoulders of the manager, he can be sure of having help and will share the reward and credit with others. When this happens, managers sleep better and feel less alone and helpless when there is a crisis.

• Abilities

People need new skills and need to continue learning them to stay in line with the needs of the organization. Employees need to have the opportunity to learn to become true partners.

• Empowerment and organization

When creating an organization with empowerment, a manager needs to be aware of how organizational policies contradict the behavior of the team he is trying to reinforce. When necessary, the manager should try to change the organization's policies. For example, it is difficult to get team members to work together and help each other when the reward and incentives are for individual results.

• Organizational defense

What a manager must do to influence positive thoughts and protect team empowerment is:

• Challenge the organization - ask questions, attend meetings, be a constructive advocate for empowerment. Be the team's buffer - make the changes possible at your team level. Work with them to develop relationships with empowerment whenever possible. Succeed in sharing results - one of the advantages of empowerment is increased team results. Take risks - try things you wouldn't normally try, take yourself to the limit of your possibilities find encouragement from other people who have already been there.

Bibliography

Empowerment, Dennis Jaffe

How to Create Empowerment, Cyntia Scott.

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