Empowerment in a time of crisis is risky. When the future of your organization is on the line, every decision and every commitment takes on a monumental importance. But if you can’t trust those employees on the front line—meaning those employees who deal most closely with your customers—to continue to make the right decisions in a time of crisis, then your hiring, training, and management practices are so flawed that your organization may very well be doomed to fail, regardless of senior-level intervention.
