What do online retailer Zappos, global IT services provider HCL Technologies, the WD-40 household-products company, and Rhode Island’s own Innovation Partners International have in common? They are four of 52 organizations named to the 2011 WorldBlu list of Most Democratic Workplaces. The 2011 list includes a diverse range of public, private, nonprofit and educational organizations from across the globe that range in size from five to 80,000 employees.
These organizations have found that the democratic workplace is a catalyst for unleashing human potential and creating success. The cost of not engaging your work force can be dramatic. According to Gallup estimates, disengaged workers represent $300 billion annually of lost productivity in the United States.
Political democracy is a fairly well-understood global concept, and the application of democratic principles to the workplace is gaining acceptance and momentum.
Employee Engagement
is Key
Successful organizations realize that the key to a high-performance culture is meaningful employee engagement supported by transparent and just systems of accountability designed by those who do the work. These aren’t just feel-good activities, but rather initiatives that drive business results and tap into the unique strengths and talents of employees.
Positive change is about taking action and doing things that move your organization toward its vision of a better future. When this vision is shared among those responsible for making change happen, implementation time goes down and engagement and performance go up.
Solutions generated or adapted from inside organizations are much more likely to work than those imposed from experts on the outside. And when employees are included in the process, they are more engaged and able to take immediate action. Simply put: people commit to and achieve what they help create.
A positive, strength-focused approach is at the root of workplace democracy. Rather than focusing on problems and solutions, this approach explores the best of an organization and how to unleash employee potential and engagement. It’s about working with employees to incorporate a strength-based strategy for goal-setting and evaluations. This approach also works well for talent acquisition, retention and development.
The positive principle asserts that positive emotions – like hope, excitement, inspiration, camaraderie, sense of urgent purpose, and sheer joy – broaden thinking and build and sustain momentum. Increasing positivity in the work environment leads to lasting positive change.
For example, this spring, IPI designed and facilitated a strategic planning process for South County Habitat for Humanity (SCHFH) using appreciative inquiry – an approach that helps organizations identify and build on what they do really well. Habitat’s key priorities included serving families through sustainable housing solutions, expanding its ReStore operations, and strengthening fundraising and development. Embracing a democratic, highly inclusive approach, our process engaged diverse stakeholders ranging from staff and board to volunteers, community members and government agencies. More than tapping into each person’s wisdom and input for the plan, this process secured commitment and generated momentum for swift implementation.
“This unique process allowed us to fine-tune and prioritize issues, engage a wide-range of people, and gain clarity around the results we wanted to achieve,” said Deedra Durocher, board president, Habitat for Humanity of South County. “People are excited and doing their parts to move us closer to our shared vision.”
Research has identified six basic human requirements for people to be productive and psychologically healthy. These needs are experienced to different degrees in different people, and the democratic workplace takes all of these requirements into consideration:
• Elbow room for decision-making. People need to feel that they are their own bosses, and except in exceptional circumstances, that they have room to make decisions they can call their own.
• Opportunity to learn on the job. Learning is a basic human need and activity. Learning is possible only when people are able to set personal goals that are reasonably challenging as well as get feedback in time to correct behavior.
• Variety. People need to be able to vary their work to avoid boredom and fatigue.
• Mutual support and respect. People need help and respect from their co-workers. They need to avoid conditions where people are pitted against each other where one person’s gain is another’s loss.
• Meaningfulness. People need to be able to relate what they do and what they produce to their social life. This makes it possible for a person to see a real connection between their daily work and the world.
• A desirable future. Put simply, people need a job that leads to a desirable future, not a dead-end. This desirable future is not necessarily a promotion, but a career path that will continue to allow personal growth and increased skills.
To learn more about workplace democracy and the companies that have found this to be the key to their success, visit www.WorldBlu.com. •
Jen Hetzel Silbert and Tony Silbert live in Wakefield and are partners with Innovation Partners International, an organization-development company. Visit Innovation Partner International’s website at www.innovationpartners.com.
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