The Starfish and the Spider

My latest reading has been two important books, The Starfish and the Spider and Groundswell. Both discuss the growing phenomenon of decentralization, specifically as it relates to organizations/businesses and media. In other words, power and influence are being distributed to "the little guys" through wikis, social networking, blogging, etc. (as Groundswell points out), and the same should be happening in business, as leaders delegate idea generation, creative control and ultimately executive responsibility to their teams (as The Starfish and the Spider advocates). A similar argument was made by Dennis Bakke in Joy at Work--Dennis only allowed the executives at his multi-billion dollar company to make two decisions per year. All the rest had to be delegated to managers and team members. Of course, all this makes for good talk, and many organizations boast of decentralization. But I've discovered that actually making it happen is tough, for at least one reason: me.

"I'll just do it myself," is something I've always found myself thinking--and sometimes even saying. But, that statement is loaded with hubris (i.e. "I can do it better than anyone else"), impatience (i.e. "It will take too long for you to do it") and selfishness ("I don't want to show you how to do it, because then you'll be one step closer to stealing my job"). Ultimately, it's an attitude that harms ministries and organizations because it consolidates knowledge and skills in individuals rather than teams, it makes continuity tough during transition and it assumes that leaders are better at certain things simply because they're leaders. It's an attitude that feigns industriousness by always being busy but rarely empowering others to excel. It's an attitude that feigns responsibility by always assuming the burden of decision making, but rarely entrusting others with challenging solutions. Simply put, it's a sure-fire way to make yourself burn out and your team rust out. Either way, what a waste of resources.

The solution? Every day, I'm exploring how I can empower someone to make a decision that I would normally make, to discover a solution I would normally attempt to solve alone or begin to learn a skill that I'm not all that good at anyhow.