Empowerment Eleanor

My purpose in writing this piece is to reflect upon a series of conversations in which I participated on the subject of empowerment over the past year. I believe that empowerment is key to innovation. For me, the essential aspect of the paper is my personal attempt to sort out why it is that employers, service providers and governments say they want to but do not reliably create empowerment in employees, clients and citizens. The answer to this question is, I believe, related to the different perspectives on empowerment. Each actor is trying to achieve his objectives. From the perspective of those who have control over tools, resources and authority– employers, intrinsically (self-) motivated individuals, governments–empowerment is usually considered a technique for securing buy-in, engagement and commitment from others to support their goals and objectives. From the perspective of employees, the extrinsically motivated, and citizens, it is more about having sufficient skills, tools, resources, authority and will to set goals and objectives jointly with those who have power.