In the high-octane world of modern business, you hear a lot of theories about what it takes to increase employee productivity. Empowerment is one of the philosophies discussed most often, especially as it relates to the corporate team environment. The idea is simple enough: by implementing practices that help employees feel confident, capable, and in control of the outcome of their work, they feel empowered to do that work effectively and without excessive oversight or micromanagement. Ideally, this ensures commitment to the company's core mission and vision, which results in greater productivity over the long term. That's the theory, anyway. But as any scientist will tell you, all that really matters is how well a theory stands up to testing. If it's a dud, a few experimental runs out … [Read more...]