Vivien Maidaborn
maidaborn.com
What makes an organization hum beyond expectations, so people queue to work there and where growth even in the “grumpy” NZ economy is assured? What would make your organization a kickass happening place?
Around the world, the answer people are finding to this question is ‘become democratic’.
A democratic organization is one where people are peers; the company ecosystem is designed to support this idea rather than to reinforce the old parent child relationships inherent in hierarchical organizations.
Seven ‘Rules’ of Democratic Organisations
1. Transparency
The first is Transparency – of information, financials, agenda and strategy. This results in smarter decisions throughout the company - open book management, and even open salary information. The simple reality is that high transparency results in a high trust culture.
2. Dialogue + Listening
Instead of the top-down monologue or dysfunctional silence that characterizes most work places, democratic organizations are committed to having conversations that bring out new levels of meaning and connection. This means democratic organizations design tools for engagement and processes for people to participate. No more meetings where people put up with rubbish behaviour from a team member on the one hand, or on the other are silenced by a manager throwing their power around.
3. Accountability
Democratic organizations point fingers, not in a blaming way but in a liberating way. They are crystal clear about who is accountable to whom and for what. Where there are no secrets about accountability or performance, everyone is able to both take responsibility and to hold each other to account when things are not done or not done right.
4. Individual + Collective
In democratic organizations, the individual is just as important as the whole, meaning employees are valued for their individual contribution as well as for what they do to help achieve the collective goals of the organization.
5. Choice
Democratic organizations thrive on giving employees meaningful choices. This might be in projects they are engaged with, or flexible hours or working some hours from home. Choices add up to people feeling valued and working in ways that deliver for the company.
6. Integrity
Integrity is the name of the game, and democratic companies have a lot of it. They understand that freedom takes discipline and also doing what is morally and ethically right is a line every business walks. In a democratic company, this line will be transparent and will be regularly contested by people with different views within the agency.
7. Decentralization
Democratic organizations make sure power is appropriately shared and distributed among people throughout the organization. Distribution of power includes decision making, resources allocation and mandate.
Democratic organisations are growing in NZ. Boost New Media, a Wellington based web and software development company, are part of WorldBlu an international network of democratic organizations.
www.boost.co.nz
worldblu.com
Enspiral is a social enterprise incubator, also in Wellington, and is structured as a collective with sophisticated systems for whole group (60 people) decision making and transparency.
www.enspiral.com
One of the start-up companies at Enspiral is Loomio. Their website says Loomio is an online tool for collaborative decision-making.
“Groups of all sizes make better decisions when all voices are heard, so we’re building a system that makes it easy and efficient for anyone to participate in decisions that affect them.”
loomio.org
Hierarchical organizations were designed for an age that is gone, to create a kickass culture in your organization where people are engaged and bring their whole self to work be a democratic workplace. The first easy step is to become transparent.
Hierarchical organizations were designed for an age that is gone. To create a kickass culture in your organization where people are engaged and bring their whole self to work and be a democratic workplace, the first easy step is to become transparent.
Vivien Maidaborn
Director of Maidaborn, a consulting company working in places where money and meaning meet.
maidaborn.com
