I'm not sure when it happened, but there was a definite inflection point some time in my software career, where we all stopped asking "What does the user want to do with their computer?" and moved over to "What do we want the user to do with our software? And, it's been downhill since then. We stopped treating the user as the driver of the car, and pushed him into the passenger seat. Now users are just along for the ride and they're going where tech companies are driving, whether they want to or not. User need is no longer a driver in product decisions. Users are just the denominator in all the metrics everyone is chasing.

> People start out wanting to achieve things, change things to be better, do a good job.

Like all generalizations, this is only partly true. There are bad actors.

> The active issue is disempowerment, created by other people (usually but not always senior) within the organisation.

Disempowerment (is that a word?) is necessary. So necessary, that entire departments incorporate it as a large part of their mandate. HR, finance, QA...

> So the question isn't "how to empower people", but rather "how to prevent disempowerment of people".

Or more, how to focus the disempowerment on things that matter?

> This isn't always popular, as it shifts the focus and responsibility for different behaviour away from the disempowered rank and file, towards the dysfunctional leadership.

Maybe it's not always popular because some disempowerment is necessary, and framing the entire issue as a necessity for its removal and those who disagree as dysfunctional is needlessly inflammatory and counterproductive?

There are a lot of ads where you are “empowered” to choose between provided choices.

“Manage your privacy your way! Simply sign in to choose what is right for you!”

Nah, I am going to use something else.

I think it is part 3 of: lead, follow or get out of the way