2) Decision rights gap – My managers have all the authority they need

A VP told me recently: “My managers are already empowered.”

He meant it. And he’s probably right.

His mine managers can make hiring decisions. They control their budgets. They can stop work for safety. They have authority over their domains.

But here’s what I’ve noticed across dozens of sites:

The decisions that fragment the system don’t happen in the mine manager’s office. They happen in the 6am maintenance planning meeting. The shift handover. The scheduling session. Dozens of daily micro-decisions, each one rational within its local context.

The mine manager has authority over maintenance. They could intervene. But they’re not in those rooms. And overriding their superintendent repeatedly - on professional judgments that look defensible,  erodes trust, damages relationships, and feels like micromanaging.

So they don’t. They pick their battles. They let the KPI system run.

This isn’t a failure of empowerment. It’s authority that exists but can’t be used surgically because it is exercised too far from where the decisions actually happen.

When every department head is measured on local optimisation, they’ll advocate for their metrics in every conversation. Not because they’re difficult. Because that’s what rational professionals do.

The empowerment is real.

The gap is also real.

Both can be true.