Radically expand the scope of employee autonomy

Freedom isn’t a perk you earn after paying your dues—it’s increasingly a basic right of all working people. And, just as important, it’s a powerful strategy for unleashing the full imagination, initiative, and passion of every individual in the organization—when paired with crucial accountability (to peers, to customers, to the broader mission of the organization). With its rigid policy guidelines, tight spending limits, and lack of self-directed time, bureaucracy kills initiative and dampens passion—crucial ingredients for adaptable and innovative organizations.

To make progress on this front, companies should redesign management systems so they:

• push P&L; responsibility and the ability to resolve trade-offs as deep in the organization as possible
• encourage bottom-up initiatives