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Or is it? The democratic workplace movement is gathering momentum, and the big question is whether to paddle out and catch the wave, or to stand watch from the relative safety of the shore.
Perhaps you’ve heard the waters can be rough, and you fear the dangers of wiping out, but if you could master it, could it be the ultimate ride?
Are you a Democratic, Holacratic or Autocratic organisation system fanatic?
The democratic workplace is a system of organising that empowers people to participate in decentralized decision-making and self government, juxtaposed to the traditional autocratic workplace where typically decision making authority is the prerogative of management.
So what is this holacratic workplace you’ve heard about in industry news? Holacracy is an operating system conceived in 2007 by Brian Robertson, at his start-up, Ternary Software. It distributes leadership authority to duly-empowered roles which sit within a system of circles, each circle (or sub-circle) have a defined purpose and accountabilities, it is not therefore self-directed but it is self-organised to achieve the purpose. Most business decisions made in a Holacratic workplace are made autocratically, by someone in a duly-empowered role but the mechanism by which the decision making process takes place is subject to following the Holocratic Constitution and not via a management hierarchy. In short, holacracy is not democracy!
This distributed leadership environment has raised a number of challenges for those organisations embracing the holacratic system, at leading proponent online shoe retailer Zappos.com:
- They struggled to address operational approaches to compensation practices, career progression and hiring and firing.
- They have been unable to retain talent who were unsure of how to work effectively within the system and who yearned for a manager to consult with when making important decisions (In 2015 Zappos.com turnover rate was 30%)
So let’s return to the relative simplicity of the Democratic Workplace, and point you in the direction of WorldBlu who are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the introduction of the WorldBlu List of Most Freedom-Centered Workplaces in 2016. WorldBlu's purpose is “to develop world-class freedom-centered (rather than fear-based), organisations and leaders.”
WorldBlu developed a diagnostic tool to measure organisational design compared to employee satisfaction or engagement, and certify organisations as Freedom-Centered Workplaces. For benchmarking and inspiration you can discover which organisations have certified against the WorldBlu 10 Principles of Organizational Democracy at WorldBlu Awardee Profiles
Just the other week, WorldBlu hosted an event focused on the ideas of freedom at work, which sadly I was unable to make, but a friend of mine blogged her key learning from the event and for me the stand out quote came from Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development who called upon senior HR leaders to move away from rules based cultures because…
“Rules disassociate people from personal accountability”.
HR is often perceived as the rule-makers (employee handbook policy) and enforcers, “the organisations’ policeforce”.
So if a democratic workplace is your dream destination, why not start with questioning what would happen if you did hit the delete button on 50% of your organisation rules? Could new ideas and fresh approaches be unleashed when accountability for achieving the business goals is assumed by the many and not the few? Would you and your team still ride the waves or would you wipe-out?
And if you took this approach what role for HR? Perhaps our skills are better suited to neighbourhood watch. Whether you are looking for a neighbourhood watch approach to your HR or a more hands-on service, visit the Connor website to find out about our Operational HR and Consulting HR Services.
