Finding It

Recently, I was at a popular electronic "super store" (think Circuit City/Best Buy type). I was browsing through the DVDs and noticed a flaw, basically due to the fact that I'm a big trivia geek: most of The Thin Man mystery series were shelved with movie musicals like Grease, West Side Story and everything Elvis. Odd, right? One of them is titled 'Song of the Thin Man', so I could see why that one may have gotten mixed within the musicals. But what about all the other titles in the series? Seemed peculiar to me, so I asked an employee. He said he knew about the discrepancy and laughed about it. Before he left me, I asked why he didn't correct or report the mistake. He shrugged, 'Well that's how our company has it categorized'.

Whatever happened to empowerment in organizations? What happened to taking initiative? Good will? Common sense?

Following are some titles that deal with empowerment. Just a little reminder for those who think that one person can't do anything to change the way another person, or for that matter, a company thinks.

Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment by William C. Byham
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Noel M. Tichy and Stratford Sherman
Heroz: Empower Yourself, Your Coworkers, Your Company by William Byham and Jeff Cox
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly
You're in Charge, Now What? by Catherine Fredman/Thomas J. Neff/James M. Citrin
Getting it Done: How to Lead When You're in Charge by Roger Fisher
Managing Your Boss by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter