| COMPARE |
The Old Way |
The New Way |
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Power is measured by the size of one’s staff and budget. |
Power is measured by one’s ability to empower others. |
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Objective |
Power rests with those who have the authority to control budgets and staff members. |
Power rests with those who have the ability to delight the customer, achieve team results, and empower others in these pursuits. |
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Method |
Power is contained in various positions and titles at key junctures in the hierarchy. As such, it is used by the individuals who hold these positions and titles, to further their personal careers. Internal systems are designed to support and maintain the hierarchy. |
Power rests in various teams and offices that are responsible for the company’s vital processes of production and development. As such, power is used to further the company’s goals of improved performance and customer satisfaction. Internal systems are designed to serve and support customers through teamwork. |
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Reasoning |
Responsibility, and therefore power as well, must ultimately rest on one individual’s shoulders. This is the only way to make individuals accountable. |
Responsibility and power should rest with the team, as this is the only way to make individual team members collectively accountable for the team’s results. |
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Employee Outcome |
Most employees are servants to those few members with formal staff or budget control. Political warfare often heats up when "turf" is infringed, or when there is an opening higher up in the hierarchy. Ambitious employees are unsatisfied unless they are climbing the hierarchy. |
Employees who have formal power over staff and budgets are responsible for supporting the efforts of those who do not. Managers view their workers as customers whose needs must be met, if the company’s external customers are to be satisfied. Political warfare is banned in this organization, where collaborators are more highly valued than champions. |
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Market Outcome |
The focus on internal matters blinds this company to the needs of customers, and to the emerging realities of the marketplace. Market share erodes. |
The focus on customers serves to educate this company on the emerging realities of the marketplace. Market share grows. |
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