I always say .....
Trust your staff - they always know the right answers.
The following extract from Liberation Management 13 years ago is a perfect iullustration.
Sadly it is my experience that there is still far too much checking and double checking in most organisations and we do not dare 'take the risk' of trusting our staff.
What an awful statment that is anyway! ... we still see 'trusting our staff' as taking a risk!!!
I just love this extract from:
“Liberation Management” (1992)
Tom Peters
“Liberation Management” (1992)
Tom Peters
The Boss Will Not Approve Travel
Don't show any purchase orders to Ralph S. Heath III. He just might set them on fire. The president of Ovation Marketing, Inc. in La Crosse (Wisconsin) already has done that once, and the message apparently has been burned into the minds of his employees.
Purchases and travel budgets had to be approved by middle management and Heath until the end of last year. Then Heath issued an order. Employees were told to approve their own expenses. Heath found out it was easier to issue the order than make it work. A couple of weeks later, he was still being swamped with purchase orders. “They weren't quite comfortable with the new responsibility,” he recalled. “ So I decided it was time for a meeting”
He explained again that requisitions were now an individual responsibility. Then he set fire to his stack of purchase orders. The demonstration was effective. He hasn't received a purchase order since. The change has been effective in more important areas, too. Six months after the beginning of the experiment, Heath has found:
· Ovation's travel expenses are down 70 percent
· Entertainment expenses have dropped 39 percent
· Car mileage costs have declined 46 percent
· Office supply expenses were reduced by 18 percent
Don't show any purchase orders to Ralph S. Heath III. He just might set them on fire. The president of Ovation Marketing, Inc. in La Crosse (Wisconsin) already has done that once, and the message apparently has been burned into the minds of his employees.
Purchases and travel budgets had to be approved by middle management and Heath until the end of last year. Then Heath issued an order. Employees were told to approve their own expenses. Heath found out it was easier to issue the order than make it work. A couple of weeks later, he was still being swamped with purchase orders. “They weren't quite comfortable with the new responsibility,” he recalled. “ So I decided it was time for a meeting”
He explained again that requisitions were now an individual responsibility. Then he set fire to his stack of purchase orders. The demonstration was effective. He hasn't received a purchase order since. The change has been effective in more important areas, too. Six months after the beginning of the experiment, Heath has found:
· Ovation's travel expenses are down 70 percent
· Entertainment expenses have dropped 39 percent
· Car mileage costs have declined 46 percent
· Office supply expenses were reduced by 18 percent
I rest my case - trust your staff!
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