Empowerment starts with an articulated mission and specific objectives at the unit level. Then, instead of keeping measurements secret, you must display the results against the mission so that everyone knows the score. The point is that what gets measured and looked at gets done. They let people focus on the winning activities that make a difference to their mission and the organization's bottom line.
People like to win games when they have a way to keep score.
Organizations without performance or financial measures are like pilots who are trying to fly through a storm without instruments. Good measurements keeps everyone honest and prevents problems and opportunities from being swept under the rug of organizational face-saving. Now, if you pick the wrong measures, you can get good numbers and still not make a profit. Throughput doesn't mean production. It means products sold.