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Honoring democratically run organizations

Do you know a company that operates democratically? If so, nominate them for the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2008 award!

Any organization -- profit, non-profit, NGO, small, midsize, or large can apply for the honor. Each applying organization must submit a survey to its employees. Then, each is given a rating score that determines whether they make the 2008 list. Such a list helps to honor the organization and to show other organizations the incredible positive value of transforming their organizations out of the negative command and control style into the collaborative democratic style.

Traci Fenton, whom I call an internationally active “trimtabber” for democratic workplaces, founded WORLDBLU as a leadership and business design studio dedicated to helping build “a more democratic world one organization at a time.” (See Fenton’s recent article on this at www.csmonitor.com/2007/1019/p09s01-coop.html) Having herself experience the toxic workplace environment of command and control management at a Fortune 500 company where she was employed, Traci quickly immersed herself in understanding organization management, researching organizations in which everyone matters. From this grew her WORLDBLU company and now the WORLBLU List of Most Democratic Workplaces.

To learn more about how to apply, see which organizations made the 2007 list, and watch a video by Traci Fenton, go to http://www.worldblu.com/scorecard. Organizations have until Dec. 31, 2007 to apply as a nominee.

Because I see democratic management as the key way for making our schools work for everyone (which is my mission), I include a section on WOLRDBLU in the final chapter of my free study Crisis in School Management.

Comments (3)

This is a great idea. More offices should be doing business this way. Democracy and collaboration in the workplace spawns creativity and new ideas.

posted by katiek on 11/ 6/2007 4:44 pm

There is a vague memory here of an article in one edition of Ode, about a company run by a Brazilian entrepreneur who runs his company in the most democratic way possible, but can't remember the edition. If anyone else remembers - Ode staff to the rescue, perhaps? - might be worth nominating it just from what we've read about it!

posted by adamgilliland on 11/ 7/2007 2:32 am

Adam, ODE wrote about Ricardo Semler and SEMCO of Brazil in the Jan/Feb Issue of this year. Here's the link:www.odemagazine.com/search/?search=semler&submitButtonName=GO SEMCOM is already on WorldBlu's 2007 list. Check http//www.worldblue.com for stories about organizations n the 2007 list. I'm particularly interested in Semler's endeavors because he has also founded a school in Brazil that is being run democratically in the same way his company is run. (I helped found a similar school in NY in 1969 and taught there for ten years. If you are interested in democratically run schools, you can find information on my web sit www.crisisinschoolmanagement.com and lots more at www.squidoo.com/makingourschoolswork

Ricardo Semler has written a number of books about his style of democratic management and one of the hot ones is his THE SEVEN DAY WEEKEND. Good thoughts, Jim

posted by jimevers on 11/10/2007 12:29 pm

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