In my experience, you can classify most people as either "yes" people or "no" people.  A YES person is a go-getter, someone who relishes opportunity, embraces challenges and risks failure.  A NO person sees new tasks as burdens, seldom strays from the comfort zone, and shifts duties to others to avoid responsibility. 

With a coalition of YES attitudes, you see proactive initiatives, innovation, true teamwork, and more efficient operations.  Conversely, when a NO attitude pervades, the tendancy is to "pass the buck", "put out fires", and "punch the clock".

Certainly, these are generalizations and not every person is easily classified as one or the other, but when you assess yourself or an employee it can be a simple scale for assessment.  Every company yearning for success wants as many YES people as possible, but how do you shift more people over to the right side of the ledger?

As a company, the most important thing is to create a Culture of Yes.  You cannot expect your employees to embrace the liberating thrill of YES if they toil in an environment of NO.  And building that culture is largely an exercise in conquering your own fears about saying YES.  It's also an exercise in doing what makes sense rather than what precedent tells you to do.

As a company or supervisor...

YES means less red tape.
YES means more open communication.
YES means results take precedence over procedure.
YES means treating employees like partners and not "human resources".

As an employee...

YES means viewing your co-workers as teammates that you assist, no matter your rank in the organization.
YES means thinking beyond your bare minimum responsibilities.
YES means understanding that you do make a huge difference, no matter how large the company.
YES means constant evaluation about how you can improve.

It is so easy for organizations and the individuals that comprise those organizations to focus on units of measure or metrics of performance and to create procedural frameworks that can somehow enforce compliance.  And isn't it ironic that most businesses aspire to operate in a "free market" yet impose procedural regulations that stifle the performance of their own people?

Just like with "free market " capitalism itself, a freer workplace truly does lead to success... and that freedom is encapsulated in the way we perform our own jobs and the way the organization treats its employees.  To be clear, more freedom goes hand in hand with individual responsibility... but businesses and organizations that embrace the YES, the virtue of freedom and action, as opposed to NO, the idea that you must regulate and over-supervise in order to ensure minimal performance, will have a huge competitive advantage.  They will have motivated, proactive employees who are empowered to innovate, to achieve, and to exceed expectations.  Their employees will work in a more flexible environment.  They will not be assessed based on the hours of the day that they worked, but rather by the actual results that they achieve and the impact that they make on the organization as a whole.

For companies, the fear of YES is simply the fear of losing control, of trusting your employees to do the right thing.  But without trust, you really do have nothing, or perhaps an army or workers trying to do nothing plus one.

For you as an employee, the first step toward supporting such a culture in your own company is assuming a YES attitude now.  Volunteer for projects.  Beat all of your deadlines.  Put your own tasks on hold a bit to assist a co-worker who needs your help. 

It really can start with you. And if the attitude becomes contagious, it may spread right up to the top of the ladder, who may just re-christen Human Resources "Partner Management".