When Dr. Stephen R. Covey visited the nuclear powered submarine I commanded, the USS Santa Fe, he told me it was the “most empowering workplace he’d ever seen.” It was a bit ironic for me, because I’m sour on the word empowerment and I’m sour on empowerment programs. To me, saying we need an empowerment program is like saying we need a swimming program. The implication is that swimming isn’t a natural occurring behavior for our people. So, what we are saying when we say we need an empowerment program is that the fundamental way we run our organization is dis-empowering, or is it de-empowering?