Institutions As Enablers of Excellence

The aim is not to institutionalize people, making them dependent, but to build enabling institutions: scaffolds that expand human ability by making cooperation reliable and enabling. At their best, institutions are conspiracies to make ordinary people more capable of making a difference in their world, giving people more agency and all that comes with that – from learning to belonging to confidence that one’s effort matters.

W. Edwards Deming put the point more plainly. One of his most radical management principles was that people have a right to take pride in their work. Not pride in themselves alone, but pride in what they helped create. When institutions work, they allow people to say, “Look what I played a part in making possible.” When they fail, they turn effort into frustration—work into motion without meaning.