Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

I often say to executives, “Have an opinion; take a stand; be right most of the time.” Opinions aren’t helpful unless the people who hold them are willing to take a stand in their defense by making a fact-based case.

Being given a great problem to tackle and the right colleagues to tackle it with is the best incentive of all.

A company’s job isn’t to empower people; it’s to remind people that they walk in the door with power and to create the conditions for them to exercise it. Do that, and you will be astonished by the great work they will do for you.

Perhaps the worst problem with anonymous surveys, though, is that they send the message that it’s best to be most honest when people don’t know who you are.

we had cultivated the practice of asking people about the nature of problems they were tackling rather than assuming an understanding of them.

If people ask in a true spirit of interest about the problems others are wrestling with, remarkable bridges of understanding can be built.

Too often upper management thinks that sharing about problems confronting the business will heighten anxiety among staff, but what’s much more anxiety provoking is not knowing. You can’t protect your people from hard truths anyway. And holding back the truth, or telling them half-truths, will only breed contempt.

you are absolutely not always going to be right, and the satisfaction of being right can be very dangerous.

“fact driven,” not “data driven.”