empowerment

We are having our "all store meeting" tomorrow. For those of you new to Whole Foods Market lingo; it is a meeting that we have every 4-6 weeks with our entire store and team members. It will be the second meeting for the new Vancouver store. It is an opportunity to share information, appreciate fellow team members and meet as a whole. I have always enjoyed the store meeting because it brings us together as one team and is inspiring. Retail inspiring? Sounds iffy? I have been asked to lead a discussion group (15 people) on the topic of empowerment. That particular word is getting a lot of buzz these days, but how many of us know what it means?

So here are two definitions I pulled up

Empowerment: A condition whereby employees have the authority to make decisions and take action in their work areas without prior approval. For example, an operator can stop a production process if he or she detects a problem, or a customer service representative can send out a replacement product if a customer calls with a problem.

Empowerment
The act of providing decision-making power to someone, often associated with redistributing responsibility from managers to their team members. Empowerment helps employees accept authority and responsibility and take initiative.

For me, I feel empowered everyday.

I am wondering how many other people out there feel empowered...
How much of the population in their day to day lives, actually get to make decisions? Or bet yet want to make decisions?