Cambridge Assessment English case study:

Question: How do you enable people to help themselves and their colleagues to feel more empowered?

Answer: The answer lay in the rich research that Cambridge Assessment English had already conducted into hierarchy. They had uncovered a mass of stories, some positive, some negative and some that made for uncomfortable reading.

Great though this research was it failed to answer the million-dollar question of, “Why?... why, do people feel disempowered, and what are they going to do to change this?” The culture of Cambridge Assessment English is steeped in tradition and academic rigour. This can prove challenging when the organisation wants to foster devolved decision-making and empowerment across its global operation.

Rather than beating people over the head with a blunt stick and telling them, “YOU ARE EMPOWERED!”, we created a half-day workshop to provide an immersive experience and give people the opportunity to explore what currently works well for them and what they might want to do differently to create a more empowered culture across the organisation.

The cornerstone of the workshop was an explorium packed full of information taken from a vast array of sources on current-day thought leadership around hierarchy and empowerment. These included articles, excerpts from books, TED talks, interviews, company handbooks, verbatims from their own employee satisfaction surveys, to name but a few.

Our intention in creating the workshop was not to provide a solution, but to lift the lid on the issues faced and encourage open dicussion about the challenges and frustrations people experience day to day. By the end of the session, participants had committed to specific actions each would take to challenge unnecessary hierarchy and encourage a more supportive, empowered way of working.

Results: a sample of comments from participants follows.

This should be the start of a massive initiative on empowerment. We should not be scared to use the amazing and vibrant pool of talent we have.

Thank you MtD team - I found the event really helpful, plenty of food for thought and I came away with a clear sense that there's more I can (and should, and will) do.

Thank you for another opportunity to have my say in an open and relaxed forum.  Thanks for including me. 

I think it's really good that we're trying to do something with this theme now. It really is a huge issue. And I could see a lot of effort went into this - everyone will appreciate that.

I remain optimistic that these sessions will help to bring about a better working environment as long as they are followed up. Senior managers, directors, assistant directors are encouraged to work together and review the approach they have to really empowering people at all levels