Dr David Cliff explores how leaders can foster decisionmaking and create a culture of autonomy.
I am not someone who believes people should be “maverick” for its own sake. Rules and procedures are necessary-they provide consistency, protect rights, and ensure a minimum standard of service.
Over a century ago, sociologist Max Weber viewed bureaucracy as a potentially fair and egalitarian means of distributing services across populations. He saw it as a way to bring order to the inherent variability of human systems, even advocating for impersonal relationships in the name of efficiency and consistency.
However, in many organisations today, the same mechanisms meant to promote fairness are often used to avoid risk. Everything is templated, scripted, and standardised-or at least appears to be. Internally, this creates a shared understanding of what constitutes customer service while externally minimising liability. But this procedural “de-risking” often fails to meet the real, in-the-moment needs of individuals. Staff are left unable to respond meaningfully because, in effect, the computer says no- or more accurately, the rules say no.
This results in service that is organisationally focused, not customercentred. It can be inefficient, dismal, uninspiring, or simply frustrating for those on the receiving end-whether they are paying clients or citizens meeting obligations like taxation.
Examples of this are everywhere. We now click through multiple screens to meet data privacy laws, at the cost of productivity. HMRC callers wait hours just to hand over their hard-earned money. We’re required to use online portals when many simply want to speak to a person. The victims of the infected blood scandal are treated equally-so equally that many will die uncompensated, awaiting resolution. National call centres have replaced local offices, and staff-under tight time management-are left fielding the frustration of customers they can’t help beyond the template.
If we want staff to be robotic, administering only what’s prescribed, then we will continue to see what we already have: low initiative, burnout, poor productivity, systemic delays, and in public services, long waiting lists. But if we encourage independent thought-and crucially, support it even when it leads to mistakes- organisational cultures change. We begin to nurture learning, autonomy, behavioural flexibility, mental well-being, and, most importantly, meaningful service.
This all hinges on leaders’ attitude to risk. It’s far easier to lean on procedures and reassure stakeholders that “we followed the rules.” But that approach has a limited shelf life. Before long, AI will be able to handle rule-following perfectly. If human contribution is limited to box-ticking, why have humans at all? We edge closer to a bland, Weberian world of bureaucratic certainty and lacklustre delivery- administered without thought, compassion, or responsibility, and defended only by procedural compliance.
Does anyone truly want to live in a world like that?
True leaders don’t settle for this. They empower, foster autonomy, encourage unique responses to unique situations, and value human individuality. They preserve humanity in an overloaded world-and, in doing so, make the extraordinary possible.
www.gedanken.co.uk