Spirit of Organization

If you have followed my blog at all for the past three years, you know I am a proponent of empowerment in organizational settings. In previous posts, I have talked extensively about how organizational structure can hinder rather than promote empowerment. In this post, I want to highlight teams as a structural element that can be used to encourage empowerment.

If you think about empowerment solely from the perspective of the individual, then it may seem like a zero-sum proposition where as some individuals gain power, the necessary result is that others lose power. But if you think in terms of teams, then suddenly empowerment takes on a multi-dimensional aspect where the empowerment of the individual turns into the general empowerment of the team as a whole.

To understand how this works, we need to be reminded of what a team is. It's not just a group of individuals working together; it is a group of individuals working together toward a shared goal, in ways that takes advantage of each individual's unique contribution, combining each contribution to create an outcome that is greater than any individual could have possibly achieved on his or her own. This is where the empowerment of the team creates a context for the empowerment of the individual.

The group then becomes a body where the development of one member of the body increases the power of the body as a whole. This concept is also found in the Bible, particularly in the writings of the Apostle Paul who visualized "one body" with individuals who are "members one of another" (Rom 12:4-5; 1Cor 12:20). As Paul points out, in a body paradigm, the individual members move outside themselves and become concerned with the success of all the other members of the body (1Cor 12:24).

In the organizational context, this means that employees become concerned not only with the success of their immediate responsibility, but also with the success of the other members of the team. From the organization's perspective, the team has been empowered as a whole to produce a certain outcomes and given the freedom to design the processes and strategies that will produce those outcomes.

Here are some questions to consider in reference to teams and empowerment:

1. What has been your experience with teams and empowerment? Did you feel more empowered by working in a team or less?
2. What can management do to empower teams?
3. What are some characteristics within teams themselves that may hinder empowerment?
4. Is it a good thing to always seek the highest level of empowerment for all teams?
5. How have you used teams in your organization?