Control without Controlling

Executives and big companies love the idea of control - through in reality they never have real control, only the illusion of control. And the bigger a company gets and the higher the rank of an executive, the less control they have! (Though they have much more influence)

People hate to be controlled, whether through arbitrary rules and regulations or management that is afraid of any kind of risk. Who needs a new parent? Not only is control frustrating to people, it kills the kind of new ideas and energy that creates new kinds of businesses through innovation! Managers can choose to exert another kind of control: control of quality and results through vision, learning and development of judgment, rather than through rules and regulations.

Control through vision and alignment
If people have a clear vision of what is important to their team and company, have aligned goals, and are encouraged to learn through experience in making appropriate decisions and judgments, the need to 'control' in the first place will naturally go away. It's much more effective to spend time on developing and communicating compelling vision, values and goals than it is on creating and enforcing rules and regulations.