Let's Design Democratic Enterprises

Whether from the get-go or following an organizational redesign that grants employees a say-so, with the novel Heave-Ho™ democratic dual-team model, we can finally see America's promise fulfilled in our companies just as we do in our communities. US citizens have civil rights. Why do corporate citizens only seem to have shriveled rights? Let's make them sizzle with the anticipation of juicy projects and career paths of choice, elected team leads, and camaraderie among teammates with whom they've opted to work.

Freedom of choice is always better than the alternative to American sensibilities. So, why don't employees have more than their choice of company? Once in, they're assigned a sole control manager (essentially a work parent) who gets to make all the decisions for them thereafter and can veto their every effort to improve upon existing practices. Why hire experts at all? {It's madness I tell you.}

Imagine if at-will employment extended to being able to opt out of projects at times and switch teams or careers paths at will. If companies had the wherewithal to keep peeps in reserve, they'd have the agility to pop in someone who's already vetted and on board in the relevant function group right away, rather than starting a new head hunt every time they need a backfill, even temporarily, wasting precious financial, temporal, and personnel resources. Having intact functional groups in-house (or shared) isn't a waste; it's just plain smart.

With Heave-Ho, each worker belongs to both a subject and project team — with elected team leads — that roll up to a function and program group, respectively, thereby creating an advocate system. This thwarts the rampant attrition due to one-on-one personality conflicts between managers and employees. With elected leads instead of micromanaging supervisors, no one need leave a large enough company or pooled resource group between partner companies. They just need to shuffle the hands on deck — democratically. Learn more in GrACE: Our Great American Corporate Evolution. Read a FREE sample on Amazon.

We the Work People Can Revolutionize the Work World

Q: Why GrACE? A: GrACE stands for Our Great American Corporate Evolution — and for We the Work People. It’s also the title of my new book that launched just a few short days before The Star-Spangled Banner’s “rockets bursting in air” celebrated America’s 250th anniversary. Let's keep the afterglow going with GrACE.

Q: Who should read this book? A: Employees, executives, and enquirers alike are urged to read GrACE and explore a better way to engage the American workforce, beget company loyalty, eliminate tyranny, and still achieve tremendous success in this new AI·ge.

Q: What are some hallmarks of GrACE? A: The GrACE·ful organization better reflects America’s revolutionary ideals, from freedom to equality to opportunity, representation, and respect. It affords workers significant choice of projects, teammates, and internal career paths; allows them to choose their own team teammates and leads; and gives management more time to focus on strategy and direction, for tremendous success and satisfaction enterprise wide.

Q: Why now? A: This being the country’s semiquincentennial, which just happens to coincide with the explosion of AI, we need a revolutionary new democratic organizational design to meet the moment. This is an approach to management whose time has come.

Q: What’s this new organizational design all about?A: GrACE introduces the novel Heave-Ho™ democratic dual-team model. It’s part balanced matrix, part hierarchy, and part special sauce — which, of course, makes all the difference.

Q: What’s the special sauce? A: You’ll have to read the book to find out exactly because there are a whole host of ingredients. For starters, the Heave-Ho model gives employees a GrACE period and executives better ideas than simply racing to replace as many people as they can with AI.

Q: What happens during this GrACE period? A: A lot. First, we freeze firing to organize people into missing subject matter teams and functional groups in addition to their project teams and program groups. This ensures everyone has an advocate and a support system, especially those in auxiliary roles. Instead of letting sole managers choose who stays and who goes, teams have a consequential say.

Q: What happens next? A: Next, we reallocate most of the middle management layer, removing the direct one-on-one human supervisory element at that level, thereby largely eliminating the tyranny and waste rampant therein.

Q: How else does that differ from a basic hierarchy or matrix again? A: Not only do we cancel the sole midmanager control of a traditional hierarchy but also let team members democratically elect both their project and function team leads and choose their teammates, projects, and internal career paths too.

Q: Who does the managing then? A: Subject and project teams engage in a high degree of self-governance, and named team entities (not sole managers) report to program and function directors — the junior executive layer. The term "manager" no longer means supervisor but owner of some aspect of a project or function, such as a budget manager, application admin, or AI·gent handler.

Q: How does a senior lead become a junior exec? A:  Teammates weigh in on key qualities such as their leaders' competence, respectfulness, and ability to execute over time, essentially promoting them upward through multiple junior and senior team lead stints with increasing responsibility. When it comes time to select a new junior executive program or function director level, the choice will be obvious.

Q: So, executives can't just play favorites? A: They can, but wise ones won't. They're not in the day to day with their teams. When they choose group leaders based on their own claims about themselves instead of letting teammates attest to their leads' abilities, they don't know if they're being played or playing favorites. If they choose someone to lead a group with no prior proof of team lead success, they share the blame for their failure. This system helps executives to suss out the suck-ups and keep them honest with themselves and everyone else.

Q: Is there anything else we should know before we read? A: Just as America’s formation took both sides of the brain — analytical and creative — it took whole hearts, full of courage and compassion, to bring everyone along. Likewise, it’s going to take wholeminded and wholehearted people to accomplish our Great American Corporate Evolution. We need bright minds and smart hearts working together right from the start. We the Work People need steward leaders to step up and into the light.

Q: Where can would-be readers find GrACE? A: Grab your copy in your favorite format beginning on the first of July. You can download the e·book for Kindle, Nook, and other devices, or order the paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Drop a copy on your favorite executive’s desk too, or print out the cover and tape it to their monitor with Ms. Managed's blessing.

Q: Final thoughts? A: We the Work People can revolutionize the work world for the next quarter millennium through GrACE and our executive steward leaders, with greater professional liberty and jobholder justice for all. When everyone in the workplace becomes more respectful and responsible, it might just rub off on society in general — and who doesn’t want that these days? Join the conversation today and help transform company and country alike with GrACE.