When you look at many of the new companies that are success stories today, you see a very loose leadership style. Lots of empowerment, self responsibility, teamwork etc. Apple, Google, 37 Signals, Innocents Smoothies and so on, are all companies where you will see this 'new' way of working.
However I wonder if there is a missed message sometimes. I have watched small business try to copy this 'loose' style and in many cases seen it fail because of the hidden part of the 'loose' strategy. the bit you rarely see or hear from the companies that advocate this approach in the workplace.
I know I have suffered from not fully understanding this in this past in my own business.
I call it the loose/tight paradox - simply that for a loose strategy to work, it actually has to be really tight! If you don't have the systems and procedures nailed (please still keep them simple - I am not talking about huge manuals that no one looks at) then all you have is 'loose' and that won't work.
A tight strategy where nothing happens without 5 meetings just isn't viable in this fast moving world, however just having a loose strategy will end up with no action being taken - we need both!
A loose/tight strategy!!
