While not precisely the same thing, it reminds me of the lesson of delegation in Tim Ferris' book Four Hour Work Week where he kept increasing the amount of money for which customer service subordinates were pre-authorized to settle customer service disputes. The result was a near complete drop-off in messages that passed the decision to him and an increase in customer satisfaction. The effect is the same -- have subordinates solve problems instead of kicking it up the chain -- but it's proactive and empowering as opposed to sending the message that I'm going to treat your concerns as so irrelevant that I'm not going to acknowledge the message unless it becomes a major catastrophe.