This week’s focus: In an interview earlier this week the Pope has warned that the Catholic Church is too focused on doctrines. He said the Church had become tied up in “small-minded rules” and risked losing its true moral purpose. Similarly, the evidence in the UK is growing that NHS nurses have become so pre-occupied with processes, checklists and action plans that they are failing to deliver on their primary role – providing care to their patients.
I’m currently working with a fast-growing business that has become successful largely on the basis of the autonomy of its local teams. As we’ve developed new growth strategies together, we have had to keep catching ourselves to make sure that our ideas build on, rather than stifle, the autonomy that has created the growth to date.
What about your business? Where is your desire for management control inhibiting your people from doing the right thing and deadening the experience of your customers?
Off the record: An Audience With The Pope by Elbow
I have an audience with the Pope
And I’m saving the world at eight
But, if she says she needs me
If she says she needs me
Everybody’s going to have to wait
© Stuart Cross 2013. All rights reserved.