Principle 8

Perhaps unsurprisingly, people like to maintain control over their decisions and actions.  For example, when playing a game of chance, they like to roll the dice themselves, as if they can roll better than anyone else.  Similarly, they tend to prefer the appearance of Ikea furniture they have constructed themselves to the same furniture that someone else constructed, called the IKEA effect.

Similar inclinations pervade workplaces.  For example, leaders are often reluctant to delegate tasks to other people, such as inexperienced staff.  The problem, however, is that

• leaders tend to underestimate the capacity of their staff to change and to develop over time,
• their teams, therefore, do not develop skills and capabilities as rapidly or as extensively as do their rivals,
• in contrast, when leaders empower their staff, these teams tend to trust one another, perform effectively, and demonstrate great innovation. 

Workplaces thrive not only when leaders delegate tasks but also when leaders relinquish equity.  For example

• since the advent of employee ownership share plans, studies reveal that companies that offer employees shares in the company tend to attract more value to their shareholders,
• indeed, Ownership Works, an organisation that faciltates these schemes, has collated many case studies of companies in which financial performance escalated after these plans were introduced.

Rather than distributing money to empower people, organisations and governments can also distribute time.   For example, in many nations, individuals need to record their attempts to seek work or to develop their capabilities to receive unemployment benefits.  Yet, as considerable evidence shows, these activities consume significant time and actually diminish the likelihood that individuals will secure work or develop a small business. 

This mindset, in which leaders strive to relinquish some control now to enhance performance later, can significantly enhance the efficiency of organisations and sectors.  One telling illustration revolves around multi-organisation schools:

• Although the precise configuration varies across nations, in general, a multi-organisation school is a formal network, usually comprising between 100 and 100 schools.
• To assist each principal, a single executive team govern the entire network of schools.
• The network of schools can thus share resources, management practices, and many other procedures.
• These formalised networks are especially effective when the schools share a philosophy but are located in diverse regions.