First draft: Five principles of organizational democracy
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008This is a first draft. I’m curious for your comments. In plain English, we might call these principles of organizational democracy:
1) Choosing the work you do and how to do it,
2) Choosing your leaders and representatives,
3) Experimentation, responsibility and delegation,
4) Balance of power, and
5) Community, reputation and benefits.
I will continue to write about these concepts in the future, since many of us have only experienced them rarely in our lives, whether in the United States or a city, state or country which we typically think of as a “democracy,” or perhaps in a religious group, or at school, or among friends, or among families, or observed in an ecosystem, or in business. People I speak with mention “great experiences at work” as being experiences where at least some of these concepts were present — more so than at other times which were not so good in their lives.
Five Principles of Organizational Democracy:
1) Choosing the work you do and how to do it - self-directed teams - for fulfilling work relationships and successful results.
Everyone who works together knows and agrees on their and their coworkers’: wishes for what they want from the work, vision for how they want to change their part of the world from the work, what work they want to do themselves, and their shared timeline.
Everyone on the team does the work by: regularly working together in the same space and exchanging feedback and doing at least some hands-on work on the product or service. Approvals for resources are based on the reputation of the participants.
2) Choosing your leaders and representatives - term limits for representatives or any position with a title – creates a dynamic, self-aware organization.
Any representative or official leader with a title has a limited number of years in office, and can only be re-elected to that office a limited number of times.
3) Experimentation, responsibility and delegation - participative, representative, and federal.
Participative: Instead of lots of verbal discussion where agreement must be reached, the focus is on participating to try things out and getting things done, so instead of forcing everyone to work in the same direction, people can form risk-taking groups to try new things.
Representative: Instead of everyone deciding everything all the time, everyone has an equal vote or is included in consensus to choose at least their direct representative(s), if not each of their representatives at all levels. Representatives are delegated with responsibilities.
Federal: Instead of one group where it becomes too big to know everyone, people in groups choose representatives to represent them in higher-level, more centralized, groups. Actions too big for one person or group to do him/her/themselves can be given to higher-level groups representing many groups of people.
4) Balance of power - checks and balances – prevents one person, a small group, or a majority from systematically overpowering other people.
Examples of techniques:
Vetos: one group or branch can block decisions by another group or branch, although the veto may be overturned by a larger majority or other measure of resolve.
Vertical: a majority of lower circles can veto decisions by higher circles.
Horizontal: separate branches of decision-making, such as Executive, Legislative and Judicial, can veto decisions by other branches.
Action Teams: an Action Team can work out details, which can be vetoed by a Representatives Circle or a Popular vote.
Historical: a Constitution or Charter can specify fundamental rights which will need to be amended by a larger majority than usual.
Popular: a majority of people can overturn a decision by any level of their representatives.
Separation of power: prevents any person or group from leading multiple groups simultaneously.
Divorce: individuals may leave groups, and groups may separate from other groups.
Other checks and balances include term limits and impeachment.
5) Community, reputation and benefits - local currency – provides stakeholders with profit without force over coworkers, as well as feedback on how a group is doing.
Groups within the company can have and sell the equivalent of only Class B stock — where ownership of the stock has no voting rights or control of anything other than buying, selling or building on their shares, and those owners can sell their currency to anyone at a profit or loss.
Additionally, coworkers’ work can be rated by customers, coworkers and stakeholders. As coworkers’ reputation increases or decreases in value, the exchange rate of that group’s currency increases or decreases.
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