The Shape of Empowerment

Work that happens at an organization spans across efforts that are lofty and open-ended all the way down to tiny, hyperspecific slices of change. Within that full spectrum are overlapping chunks of territory that reflect subsets of work areas occupied by people's roles, teams, and projects.

Visualizing these subareas is a way of understanding each scope of empowerment and autonomy. No matter how sharp or diffuse the boundaries, static or dynamic, formal or informal, they are footprints where people operate and have a say in what happens. They are areas of concern, influence, and most importantly freedom of action.

Individual contributor roles and teams are more likely to span targeted slices of work and leaderships roles and teams are more likely to span broader, more ambiguous initiatives, though how "short" or "tall" those shapes are exactly varies by organization. For visual reference, I like John Cutler's Mandate Levels model.

When troubleshooting empowerment, there's an important distinction between the shape on paper versus the shape in practice. There's likely some difference between the realm of activity being asked of people versus the structural and cultural empowerment actually enabled and constrained at the organization.

Personal "fit" can also be explored by visualizing how the shape of someone's empowered work aligns with their current preferences, experiences, or aspirations.