Wresting authority from central functions was a challenge, yet several plants made progressânone more than Olsztyn. The key, local managers realized, was to win permission for a targeted experiment and then use the results to gain further autonomy.
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To paraphrase the Nobel acceptance speech of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek:
If managers are to do more good than harm in improving organizational performance, they must learn that in a complex environment, they canât acquire sufficient knowledge to orchestrate the desired outcomes. Instead, they must use whatever knowledge they have not to shape results as a craftsman shapes a piece of handiwork, but to cultivate growth by providing a proper environment, much as a gardener does for plants.
In a significant twist, the launch team at Olsztyn identified âtrustâ as the keyword for its experiments. As plant manager Jaroslaw Michalak explained:
We used to operate with the implicit assumption that operators werenât trustworthy, and that trust must be earned. We now start by completely trusting everyone, and itâs up to the individual to lose trust based on his or her actions. It sounds like a trivial shift in perspective, but itâs had a big impact. When we consider changes to our practices now, the burden of proof is on the side of those who want to keep control.
The goal was to build commitment rather than force the adoption of detailed protocols. Ballarin understood that real change happens through persuasion and persistence, not via mandates and metrics. As Michelinâs apostle of autonomy, Ballarin traveled from plant to plant looking for believers and converts. He knew it was their support, more than anything else, that would ultimately determine whether his mission flourished or floundered.
Even when an organization is led by a pioneering CEO like Jan Wallander or Zhang Ruimin, crafting a new management model is more about âdiscover and testâ than âengineer and impose.
People desire and thrive on jobs that give them control over their own decisions. Since the 1980s, management literature has been filled with instructions for how to delegate more and âempower employees to empower themselves.â The thinking is exactly what weâve heard from Paolo. The more people are given control over their own projects, the more ownership they feel, and the more motivated they are to do their best work. Telling employees what to do is so old-fashioned, it leads to screams of âmicromanager!â âdictator!â and âautocrat!