One Minute Manager

by Ken Blanchard


Sharing Information Is Key


People without information cannot act.
People with information cannot help but act.

You will get little argument today if you tell managers that employees are their most important resource. Some even argue that customers should come second-that without committed and empowered employees, good service will never be provided. You can't treat your employees poorly and expect them to treat your customers well.

Why are your employees so important? Because these days your organization is evaluated on how quickly it responds to customer needs. "I'll have to talk to my boss" doesn't cut it anymore. Nobody cares who the boss is. The only people customers care about are the ones who answer the telephone, greet them, write up orders, make deliveries or respond to their complaints. They want fast, exceptional service. This means you need committed and empowered employees.

In my new book, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, co-authored with John Carlos and Alan Randolph, we argue that people already have power through their knowledge, experience and motivation. So we feel empowerment means letting this power out!

The first secret to empowerment is sharing information. What kind of information should be shared? Everything about the business is important. Last year, Inc. magazine devoted an issue to what it called "the open book revolution." According to author John Case, open book management is a way of running a company so that everyone focuses on helping the business make money. Nothing more, nothing less.

It throws out the old approach to management in which bosses run the show and employees do what they're told-or what they can get away with. In an open book company, employees understand why they're selected to solve problems, cut costs and reduce defects. They serve customers better because they have good reason to do so.

In Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, we argue that people without information cannot act. People with information cannot help but act. There is a growing realization today that to be competitive, you must make your employees your business partners.

For instance, in some companies, new employees can't get a raise until they read their company's balance sheet and understand where and how their individual efforts impact the company's profit-and-loss statement. When they understand how their organization makes money, these workers are much more apt to roll up their sleeves and help.

Traditionally, managers have been reluctant to share financial information. But these days, "open book management" is a response from companies that are aware of the financial gains to be made by sharing previously sensitive data.
For example, one of our consultants was having a hard time convincing a restaurant company president of the merits of sharing important financial data with employees. To influence the president's stance on the matter, the consultant went to the firm's largest restaurant one night at closing. After dividing the employees-cooks, dishwashers, waiters, buspeople and receptionist-into groups of five or six, he asked them to come to an agreement about the answer to the question: "Of every dollar that comes into this restaurant, how many cents fall to the bottom line-money that can be returned to investors as profit or reinvested in the business?"

The lowest amount any group guessed was 40 cents. Several tables guessed 70 cents. The reality in the restaurant business is that if you can keep 5 cents on the dollar, you're excited; if you can keep 10 cents, you're ecstatic! Can you imagine the attitudes toward such things as food costs, labor costs and breakage among employees when they thought this company was a money machine? After sharing the actual figures, the president was impressed when a chef asked, "You mean if I burn a $6 steak, with a 5-percent profit, we have to sell at least 20 more steaks for essentially nothing to make up for my wastage?" He already had things figured out.

People can't contribute to something they know little about. If the intent is to make them your business partners and take responsibility for the financial success of the company, then everyone must have the same information. Remember, people without information cannot act. People with information cannot help but act. Empowerment starts with the sharing of information.

About the author

Ken Blanchard is co-author of the best-selling One Minute Manager series of books. He has written and co-authored 11 other books. His latest book is Everyone's a Coach, co-authored with Don Shula.

© 1996 by Blanchard Management Report, Blanchard Training and Development Inc., Attn.: Bob Nelson, Publisher, 125 State Place, Escondido, CA 92029. Past articles, interviews and subscriptions are available. Telephone (800) 728-6000, ext. 528, fax (619) 489-8407.