Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 01

“Enablement allows people to release their inner passion about work. It transforms jobs into careers, and careers into callings. It goes beyond empowerment, which focuses mainly on giving employees the authority to do something, but not necessarily providing them with the tools to do it.” January/February 2018 // Canadian Government Executive / 39 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT Barriers prevent organizations from seizing opportunities. Organizations often need to innovate to improve productivity, integrate assets and operations, change culture, and adopt new strategies for prosperity and well-being. But they get stalled by silo parochialism, bottom-line pressure, complacency, rules and procedures, and too few change leaders. Sometimes, the things people say become barriers. Employees are heard to say: “We can’t do that.” “That’s too hard.” “It’s just not done that way.” “We tried that, but it didn’t work.” These become excuses for settling for less and not tackling barriers. In the short term, barriers may impact the success of decisions. Managers need to know the probability that risks will occur and the seriousness of their effects if they do. They can then better judge the relative threat of different choices. Assessing total threat rather than the number of adverse consequences helps avoid di- saster and balance benefits and risks. In the long term, managers want to ensure the success of actions or plans. They make the best use of resources by zeroing in on po- tential problems requiring their attention. Again, probability and seriousness are assessed to determine the greatest threats to the plan. Managers concentrate limited resources on higher threats and accept the risk associated with lower threats. These assessments require middle managers to be vigilant in fol- lowing up feedback, whether good or bad. They deploy outreach tactics like surveys and ombudspersons to probe the assumptions behind concerns. The questions asked can bring critical clarity, update information, and prompt dialogue on better solutions. Barriers are more easily mitigated when the feasibility of plans and the timeliness of responses are known. Engaging stakehold- ers to manage risk takes time to put people at the centre of change. The payback is invaluable when their commitment ultimately makes or breaks successful change. Converting threats into opportunities Purposeful, coordinated execution of the vision is about enabling action by removing barriers. In 2008, The Economist Intelligence Unit published a monograph entitled Ready, Willing and Enabled: A Formula for Performance. It defined “enablement” as giving em- ployees what they need to do their jobs well – structures, technolo- gies, and resources that let them choose how best to contribute. Enablement furnishes the conditions for managers to make op- timal decisions and take smart risks: • Operational autonomy to make the best organizational choices; • Information systems and tools to do the best possible job; • Access to finances to buy tools and hire enough people to handle the workload; • Collaborative workplaces that motivate people and reduce the cost of teamwork; • Performance incentives, both financial and non-financial; and • Clarity of policies and procedures. Even though less enabled than they might think, 87 per cent of those surveyed recognize the importance: “Enablement allows people to release their inner passion about work. It transforms jobs into careers, and careers into callings. It goes beyond empowerment, which focuses mainly on giving employees the authority to do something, but not necessarily providing them with the tools to do it. Enabled people are both ready and able to do their jobs.” J ohn W ilkins is Executive in Residence: Public Management at York University. He was a career public servant and diplomat. (jwilkins@schulich.yorku.ca )