The WorldBlu Blog

I’m so pleased to share with you that today I have an opinion piece in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper entitled, “Even big companies are embracing a democratic style.”

There is also a seven-minute audio interview that I did with the Monitor’s opinion page editor, Josh Burek. You can listen to the interview by clicking here.

The piece appears in both print and online form, reaching an audience of over five million people worldwide.

People usually think that only small or mid-size firms can operate democratically. So for years now, I’ve wanted to write a piece about how large, Fortune 500 companies can run democratically as well. The opportunity finally presented itself when the first Fortune 500 company, DaVita, made this year’s WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2008.

In the piece, I explain how DaVita, the largest dialysis provider in the US with 30,000 employees and over $5 billion in sales, made a remarkable turnaround when it embraced a democratic style. As I state in the op-ed, the impact to the bottom line was huge:

“As a result [of embracing a democratic style], DaVita dramatically reduced its turnover rate, stimulated organic growth above the industry average, and became the industry leader. Net operating revenue grew from $1.45 billion in 1999 to $5.26 billion in 2007. And over the past five years, DaVita’s stock has soared 279 percent, while the S&P 500 Index has returned 52 percent.”

I also raise this question –

Do big businesses have a responsibility to be organized democratically because of the power they wield?

I think they do and I hope my op-ed further awakens business leaders to the power, potential and responsibility they have to embrace a democratic management style.

I hope you enjoy the piece – let me know what you think!

I’m very happy to share that US News & World Report, which reaches 13 million people online each month, is the first major media news outlet to write about this year’s WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2008.

They’ve written four stories — one about the concept of organizational democracy, one a Q&A with me and then two profiles of WorldBlu List companies Equal Exchange and Linden Lab, makers of Second Life.

Both Equal Exchange and Linden Lab have sustained their place on the WorldBlu List for a second year in a row.

You can check out the stories below:

Why Workplace Democracy Can Be Good Business

Democracy in Action at Linden Labs

Equal Exchange Serves Up a Cup of Cooperation

Q & A: WorldBlu’s Fenton on Workplace Democracy

We’ll keep you updated as more press coverage happens in the coming weeks and months ahead!

Today, Democracy in the Workplace Day, we’re thrilled to announce the second annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces!

This year’s list is comprised of 25 various organizations including for-profit and non-profit organizations from the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Malaysia from industries such as technology, healthcare, telecommunications, media, manufacturing and retail, representing nearly $8 billion in combined annual sales.

Below are a few highlights of WorldBlu List companies and what makes them democratic:

DaVita Inc.®, located in El Segundo, California, is the first FORTUNE 500® company and first healthcare company to make the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces. It is the largest independent provider of dialysis services in the US, with over 1,300 clinics and 30,000 employees.

DaVita practices organizational democracy through regular “Town Hall” meetings and at its quarterly “DaVita Voice of the Village” meetings where “teammates” can ask any question to the CEO and senior leadership. Also, each year the company’s CEO and COO share their successes and failures in front of more than 2,000 teammate leaders. Teammates are also regularly asked to vote on various new practices and all of the 1,300 individual clinics are empowered to develop their own set of rules and guidelines, decentralizing power by allowing each clinic to be its own boss.

Equal Exchange, located in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, is owned and governed by their employees on a one-person/one-share/one-vote basis, without regard to seniority or rank. Employee-owners also elect the Board of Directors and hold six of the nine seats.

Dreamhost, headquartered in Los Angeles, is a web hosting company where they use email discussion lists almost exclusively to make critical business decisions, practicing full transparency so that every voice is heard and decisions are made with everyone’s best interests in mind.

The Grammy® Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, based in New York City, is completely conductorless, rotating leadership amongst orchestra members.

At Great Harvest Bread Company, headquartered in Dillon, Montana, they have designed their franchise model with more than 200 stores across the US using a “freedom franchise” approach, a method they developed in to order to nurture creativity, excellence and a true sense of ownership.

At Pandora, an Oakland, California-based personalized online radio service with more than twelve million listeners, they decentralize leadership, empowering all employees to make decisions with the fewest people necessary.

At Innovation Partners International in Portland, Maine they pride themselves on rotating all leadership roles on a regular basis, from president to CFO.

King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont and sweetriot, based in New York City, practice employee-ownership and open-book management, respectively, common practices in most democratic workplaces.

At San Francisco-based Linden Lab, makers of the highly successful Second Life® online virtual world, key company data is openly shared in real-time on flat-screen TVs and employees are encouraged to choose their own work based on company objectives. Their “A and Os,” or Achievement and Objectives platform, is a weekly self-reporting tool where each employee shares with the company via email what they will work on that week and what they accomplished the previous week. Their “Distributor” tool is a points system where employees pledge on projects they believe will be of the greatest benefit to the company or to people who deserve them. Employees can show appreciation for one another by “sending love” through their “Love Machine” software application.

Here’s what some of the CEOs had to say about making the WorldBlu List 2008 and why they believe in organizational democracy:

Dallas Kashuba, CEO of Dreamhost:
A democratic workplace is simply more effective. When everyone has a chance to be a part of the decision-making process, the decisions made are more universally accepted. We can spend less time managing and more time doing what we do best. Open lines of communication within the organization also lead directly to better communication with the customer.

Dave Balter, founder and CEO BzzAgent:
Openness and transparency are not only hallmarks of democracy, they are also bellwethers for successful businesses. Today’s consumer has countless opportunities to voice his opinions about brands and companies. Shouldn’t employees have that same right?

Brian Scudemore, Founder and CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Creating the world’s largest junk removal service is completely in alignment with being recognized as one of the world’s most democratic places to work. We know that our steady growth and customer satisfaction relies on our ability to carry out these democratic processes.

Philip Rosedale, CEO, Linden Lab (makers of Second Life):
In order to meet the unique challenges we face as the creators of the virtual world of Second Life, we strongly believe in the wisdom of the crowds because, often times, our issues are larger than any one person can solve on their own. We truly believe that distributing the decision-making makes us a stronger, more agile enterprise.

Chris Mann, CEO of Guayaki:
At Guayakí we are pioneering a new business model that demands creative solutions. We find that through democratic practices we all bring our whole selves to the process and that elevates the quality of our decisions.

Tim Westergren, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Pandora
There’s nothing more potent than a talented, motivated employee who feels respected and empowered by their company. They are happier and more effective, plain and simple. That’s what a democratic workplace means to us.

Ann Price, Founder and CEO, Motek
Motek’s strong culture enables us to attract and retain incredible people. It’s an incredibly fierce advantage.

I’m always asked if I see any themes amongst democratic workplaces. All of them have built a healthy and robust democratic organization because they’ve operationalized the 10 principles essential to organizational democracy. Beyond that, however, there are few shared best practices and common themes. Here are few I’ve noticed:

• They practice open-book management.
• They think and treat employees like entrepreneurs or intra-preneurs rather than employees.
• Many have developed a kind of free market system within the organization.
• Employees are rewarded based on merit, not titles.
• There is an open-source mindset and the “wisdom of crowds” rather than “groupthink” is recognized as a strength.

You can learn much more about WorldBlu List organizations and the way they use democracy as a key to their competitive advantage at WorldBlu LIVE happening this October 16-17, 2008 in New York City. Click here to register now.

I’ve absolutely loved getting to know this year’s awardees and I hope you do too. Enjoy and help us spread the good news!

Today we officially announced the opening of registration for WorldBlu LIVE 2008, which will be held in New York City, October 16-17, 2008!

Our last WorldBlu LIVE conference was in October 2005 and it was a huge success. The quality of both the speakers and the participants was amazing. People came from as far away as China and Iraq to learn about how to build a democratic workplace. Speakers included Bill Taylor, co-founding editor of Fast Company magazine, Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, Rita Bailey, former Southwest Airlines University’s Director of People, Mike Ferretti, CEO of Great Harvest Bread Company and more.

I believe this year’s WorldBlu LIVE will be the best one yet because for the first time the majority of the speakers will be the CEOs of companies that are on the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces. (We will announce this year’s list on Thursday, April 24th so stay tuned!). Participants will get to hear first-hand how you design, build, and sustain a democratic workplace.

We have also partnered with WorldBlu List awardee the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra so that the opening night of WorldBlu Live – Thursday, October 16th — all conference attendees will have the opportunity to see them perform live at Carnegie Hall. Orpheus has been around for 30+ years and is a conductorless and democratic Grammy award-winning orchestra based in NYC. I’ve seen Orpheus perform in NYC and DC and had the privilege of sitting in on one of their rehearsals out in Napa Valley a little over a year ago. It is amazing to watch them work together — without a conductor — to produce their music.

The reason we partnered with Orpheus this year was that we wanted people to have the opportunity to experience organizational democracy for themselves (if they don’t work in a democratic workplace already).

As many of us know, so much is shifting in the business and global landscape these days. It’s a privilege to watch these world-class democratic organizations fearlessly chart a NEW path – one that is about honoring and valuing the potential that is in all of us.

To that end, I hope you’ll be able to join me and the other extraordinary thought-leaders, social entrepreneurs, change agents, business leaders and mavericks who will be at WorldBlu LIVE this fall.

See you October 16-17th!

Recently, I had my first trip to the beautiful coast of Alabama for a speech I was giving there for the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. I have never been to Alabama and was looking forward to seeing a bit of it, staying at the beautiful Grand Hotel Marriott Resort (a place you should definitely check out if you’re looking for a lovely Southern experience!) and being near the ocean (the place that inspires our name, WorldBlu).

But beyond the environs, I was really looking forward to meeting Egil “Bud” Krogh, a man I had heard about for quite some time. Bud and I would both be giving keynote addresses at the event, however, the prospect of sharing the stage with such a great thinker was a bit daunting to me.

For those of you who are not familiar with Bud’s name, he was one of the original White House “plumbers” and a right-hand man to former President Richard Nixon. Bud was only in his early thirties when he became inextricably linked to what would become the Watergate scandal and later Nixon’s resignation. However, unlike the President and his peers at the time, Bud took full ownership for his responsibilities and plead “guilty.” As a result, he spent nearly five months in prison.

Bud has recently penned a book entitled, Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices and Life Lessons From the White House, which chronicles the events that lead to the breakdown of integrity during his days at the White House.

Bud wrote an op-ed to President George W. Bush about integrity in the White House shortly after he took office. The piece was entitled, “Memo to Bush White House Staff”, and was published in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper on February 12, 2001. In it, he pointed out two fundamental questions to make sure those in the White House (and beyond) are acting from integrity.

Those two questions are:

1. Is the choice whole and complete? (In other words, is what you are designing fully capable of accomplishing its purpose or have any critical items been left out?)

2. Is it right?

It’s been over 30 years since the series of events that lead to Watergate, but the lessons Bud shares still ring true.

I had the opportunity to meet Bud the day before our speeches, first at an informal gathering and then later at a dinner event. I loved listening to his stories and his clarity around the issue of integrity and its impact on our world today. As you can see from the picture, the man oozes with integrity and compassion. He has the presence of one who has been through the fire – and redeemed.

Bud spoke after I did, and one of the highlights for me was when he said, “Had we practiced organizational democracy as Traci has described I never would have gone to jail and there never would have been a Watergate.” Wow.

The comment resonated with me at a deep level as I think about the power of these ideas and their potential impact on the betterment of society. To be sure, “integrity” is one of the 10 principles of organizational democracy.

I invite you to check out Bud’s book and the tools he’s developed to help people and organizations make integrity-based decisions. His is an amazing and inspiring story. I encourage you to take the opportunity to learn from this living legend.

I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Just over a week ago we had our second WorldBlu Council meeting, a mastermind group for the CEOs of organizations on the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces. Our first Council was in November at Continuum and this Council was held at the democratic company Linden Lab (makers of Second Life.) The day and a half Council was fantastic and full of lessons and best practices that I want to share with you here.

The Council format has two main components. First is the opportunity for the CEOs to share some of their “best practices” in organizational democracy.

The second major component is a peer assist in which the CEOs have he opportunity to talk through any challenges they made be having. The Council participants work through the challenge together sharing democratic best practices they’ve developed in their own organizations. What makes it really interesting is that it’s a diversity of industries but everyone shares the same commitment to running their organizations democratically, which makes for a very unique experience.

It was so fulfilling for me to see each one of the CEOs have a major ah-ha! moment as we helped them work through any challenges and move to the next level of democratic performance.

Although the Council meeting is largely confidential, it is possible for me to share some of the major points that came out of our time together as well as some of their best practices, which hopefully you can apply to your organization.

First off, some lessons learned, courtesy of CEOs of some of the most democratic workplaces in the world:

1. The more complex the product or service your company is developing the more democratic the process should be.

2. Accountability — where everyone knows what he or she is responsible for and what everyone else is responsible for as well — is the best antidote to the entitlement mentality that plagues many companies.

3. Freedom takes discipline. It expects the best of each one of us.

4. Being democratic isn’t always easy. We’re all still learning and sometimes it can be really, really hard.

5. Sometimes even democratic leaders throw a fit. But just know that if they do, they feel really bad about it. ☺

6. Being a democratic leader is all about tough love. Command and control or authoritarian leadership is easy. Democratic leadership – which requires heart and backbone — isn’t for the weak.

7. Running a company democratically is about changing people’s lives – as well as the world – for the better.

8. Try to take personality out of the equation. Develop robust democratic systems and processes based on principles, not personality.

9. The role of a CEO in a democratic company is to see the big picture, rally people around that vision, and make sure they have the tools they need to get it done. A democratic CEO must be an evangelist.

10. It’s all about positive peer pressure rather than creating a police state. Transparency creates the positive peer pressure on everyone.

11. Every company should have a VP of Transparency.

12. Democracy isn’t just great internally; it’s a great way to engage your customers and build brand loyalty too.

13. As long as people feel like there’s open communication, they don’t feel like they have have a ton of meetings.

14. When hiring for a democratic company, you have to look for people who can recover quickly. When the spotlight of transparency is always on — no matter your ups and downs – you have to be able to recover quickly and with grace. Not everyone can handle that, so chose your team wisely.

15. There are trade-offs to running a company democratically. You’re going to get noise, passion and confusion at times. The result, however, is more innovation, less turnover, a high quality product, etc. It’s worth the trade-offs.

In addition to the words of wisdom and lesson learned above, I thought it might be helpful to share some of the best practices in organizational democracy shared at the meeting as well.

Since our meeting was at Linden Lab, which has around 250 employees, I thought I’d share some of their best practices with you first:

The Love Machine
Linden Lab has a very cool tool called the Love Machine which is an internal website where anyone can send an 80-character “love note” to anyone else in the company when they see them doing a great job at something. All love notes are transparently shared on an internal site, also making it a great performance review tool and a great way to get a quick take on how things are going company-wide. At the end of each quarter everyone gets a pink envelope with $1 for every love note they got.

Open Reviews Shared on a Wiki
Picture a Wikipedia-like website which has each person’s performance reviews posted transparently for everyone else to see. Yup, that’s what they do at Linden Lab.

The Tao of Linden
These are Linden Lab’s seven guiding principles they call “The Tao of Linden.” My favorites are “No Politics” and “Choose Your Work.” At Linden Lab you can be fired for advancing your own agenda at the determent of others. How’s that for taking the ego out of the workplace?! I was told they have let people go for this reason.

The Choose Your Own work principles allows Linden Lab to function more like an open marketplace where people can think of themselves like independent contractors picking the jobs they want to do. It’s a highly very effective system which Tom Malone also talks about in his book, The Future of Work.

CEO Review
Each quarter, Linden Lab’s visionary CEO, Philip Rosedale, sends out a review on himself for everyone to answer. He asks just two questions:

1. In a forced choice, do you want to keep me or throw me out?
2. Am I getting better or worse at my job and why?

Also, he asked everyone to develop a metric where if his overall performance score dips below that point he’s out as CEO. All the feedback (except for the “why” part of the question in order to allow people to speak candidly) is transparent and shared in his performance-page wiki. Who says you can’t vote for your CEO?!

Other Best Practices of Democratic Companies as shared at the WorldBlu Council Meeting:

Open-Book Management
Data empowers people to make smart decisions as long as they know how to make sense of it all. All democratic companies share this common best practice called open-book management.

The 10-Word Rule
This is a simple best practice started at Great Harvest Bread Company about three years ago. It works like this: Everyone knows that in business you sometimes have to have tough conversations. So at GHB, if you’re in a conversation with someone and they’re about 10 words away form totally pissing you off, you call, “10-Word Rule!” The idea is that we all have our hot points and if you have a tool to say when your approaching yours it keeps people from shutting down completely or getting irrevocable mad. Since they started this practice, their CEO, Mike Ferretti, says that everyone has become much more tolerate and understating of each other.

Have an “Equal Onus” Culture
The idea here is that there’s an equal onus on everyone – not just top leaders, to make the company thrive and perform.

“Rumor Talk”
This is where people can post on a board the rumors they hear about the company and then on a regular basis people get together to talk about the rumors to clear up any misconceptions. Since rumors are one of the biggest time and energy wasters in a company, I really like this practice. The key is to keep the conversation light while still addressing the issues.

What Questions Should the CEO Answer?
One of the CEOs in the council meeting said that one of his policies is that he ONLY answers questions that his team can’t answer for themselves. In other words, he wants to empower people to come up with solutions themselves and he wants to know that they’ve thoroughly thought through the issues before thy come to him.

Key Questions to Ask in a Daily Huddle
Many of the CEOs had daily “huddles” of some sort with their organizations. One CEO shared that there are two questions he asks in the huddle:

1. Is everything under control – Yes or No?
2. If not, what do you plan to do about it and what are your roadblocks?

(Thanks to Mark Dowds, CEO of BrainPark and WorldBlu Advisory Group member for the last four abovementioned best practices. ☺)

So that’s a bit of the inside scoop from the WorldBlu Council meeting in SF. Get your company on the WorldBlu List and you too can hang with us. We’d love to have you!

Hey everybody! There’s been a ton going on here in WorldBlu-land and I thought you might like an update. My buddy Cameron Martindell knows how busy I am but also reminded me that every post doesn’t have to be uber-deep and that you all might like to just know what’s going on. So thanks Cam for the nudge. Here’s a quick update:

As I write this I’m jammin to Earth, Wind, and Fire and Erasure (don’t laugh!) on my iPod while I fly from Atlanta to San Francisco. This week is our second of three WorldBlu Council meetings, a new thing we launched last November. The WorldBlu Council is a mastermind group for the CEOs of WorldBlu List companies and is a place where the best of the best can come together to share their democratic practices, talk through challenges and be a support and community for one another. In November we had our first WorldBlu Council meeting at Continuum, the design and innovation studio based in Boston. Later this week we’ll be meeting at the very cool Linden Lab (makers of Second Life).

We have a fantastic group of CEOs coming and even though our sessions are closed and confidential, like last time I will share some highlights afterwards. This will be my third trip out to Linden Lab in the last year. Each time I gain more and more respect for the way Philip Rosedale is running Linden Lab democratically. It’s an amazing example about the power of a fully empowered workforce to develop a very innovative and provocative product.

Our meeting is on Thursday and Friday, so during the rest of the week I’ll be meeting with some very cool folks. On Tuesday I’ll meet with Nathan Shedroff, courtesy of our mutual friend, Susan Goldstein. Nathan is the author of Experience Design and the book, Design is the Problem… and the Solution: The future of design must be sustainable and the head of the MBA in Design Strategy program at the California College of the Arts. I continue to be really into exploring the relationship between design and the future of business so I’m really looking forward to the conversation with Nathan.

Also on this theme, just last week I was in New York City scoping out cool places and partnerships for our next WorldBlu Live conference happening Oct. 16-17th. We’ve got some rad things in the works including partnerships with those on the cutting edge of business and design thinking, so stay tuned!

While in NYC I also got to hang with my very good friend Sarah Endline, CEO of Sweet Riot. We had dinner one night with our new friend Rachel Stern, CEO of Ground Report. Rachel is doing a fantastic job of democratizing the media with citizen journalism.

Back to my trip to SF – So I’m meeting with Nathan and I’m also meeting with my visionary new friend, Ingrid Vandervelt, CEO of Club E Network and host of a show on CNBC called, “American Made.” Ingrid is also a part of a small group of female entrepreneurs, which I am also a part of as well called the Billionaire Girls Club (inspired by Jon Bischke, co-founder of EduFire. Thanks Jon!) Our goal is to create enough value for the world that as a by-product we create billion-dollars businesses to inspire and help the world in our chosen areas of focus. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s fun and also purpose-driven for each one of us. Ingrid and I have talked several times over the phone but this will be the first time we get to meet in person, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve also agreed to launch and be the president the first Club E chapter in Atlanta where I now live, so if you’re an entrepreneur in Atlanta, let me know! I plan to launch the chapter in May.

I’m also meeting with quantum physicist Laurence Doyle. Laurance was one of my undergrad professors and is largely responsible for my love of democracy. When I was in college, Laurance recommended that I read Jack Weatherford’s book, Indian Givers. Weatherford’s book is a fantastic read focused on the fact that the American model of democracy came from the Iroquois, not the Greeks as many assume.

While in San Fran I’m also meeting with wonderful Jeff Klein, who is the executive director of FLOW, an organization John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, started to raise awareness about “conscious capitalism.” There is a lot in common between WorldBlu and FLOW, so I’m looking forward to the conversation with him.

I also get to see my new friend Greg Scott who is the founder and CEO of Jiibe while in SF. Greg is flying in from Vancouver and will be joining us at the WorldBlu Council meeting. He’s also the newest member of the WorldBlu Global Advisory Board. Also joining us at the WorldBlu Council meeting is the magnificent Mark Dowds, co-founder of CreationStep and BrainPark. Mark, who is originally from Ireland, is flying in from Toronto and is bound to be the life of the WorldBlu council meeting!

So it’s a really full active for me (as always!) Lots of travel and lots of good stuff being planned for 2008. Meanwhile, companies all over the world are in the process of applying for the second annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces 2008. We anticipate a stellar list so stay tuned!

I trust all is going well for each of you. Keep the ideas, links, articles, emails, and messages and inspiration coming. I appreciate it so much!

~ t ☺

Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer, author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5, a member of the WorldBlu Global Advisory Group AND a very dear friend of mine is someone you need to know about if you don’t already. Alexander is single-handedly helping to usher in a new era happiness, democracy and profits in the world of work and making thousands of lives all over the world better as a result.

Just the other day Alexander had a fantastic op-ed come out in the Christian Science Monitor entitled, “Yes, you can be happy at work.”

Alex’s main point is that Americans still don’t believe that work in and of itself can be a happy experience, unlike our counterparts in Scandinavia. Alex writes, “In Denmark, employees fully expect to like their jobs. Few Danes put up with bad management, stress, overwork, bullying, or anything else that makes us unhappy at work. What’s more, in Scandinavia in general, companies have a genuine commitment to their employees’ well-being.” [Read more. . . ]

I had the opportunity to learn about and also visit a couple of the amazingly happy (and democratically-run!) companies Alex talks about when I was in Denmark a little over a year ago. Those companies were Kjaer Group and Aarstiderne. I whole-heartedly agree with Alex’s point as well based on my experience over there. It’s a keen observation he makes and one we as Americans must consider more seriously.

I believe that part of the recipe for helping Americans feel happy at work is to have democratically-designed companies which people can fully engage in and feel that their work-life has meaning. I believe this is key to a lasting sense of happiness, both individually and collectively.

Alex and his message are being embraced all over the world in a HUGE way. In addition to his fantastic book (which I highly recommend) and his blog (which is read by hundreds of thousand of people, subscribe today!) Alex is now an official happiness superstar. He just teamed up with HP in the UK to help make workplaces happier!

Read all about it under his blog post entitled, “HP and I team up to make the UK happy at work.”

Lastly, here’s a sneak peak – Alexander will be speaking at the WorldBlu Live 2008 conference in New York City October 16-17, 2008. You don’t want to miss him, so mark your calendar now!

Today I had a life-changing experience. In the US on this day we celebrate the pioneering life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I decided to spend part of the day joining in the celebration at the church where Dr. King used to preach, Ebenezer Baptist Church, located just blocks from where I live. It was an experience I am still trying to catch my breath from it was so remarkable.

When I moved to Atlanta from Washington, DC late last summer, I did not realize at the time that I was moving into MLK’s old neighborhood, the Old Fourth Ward. I live just a few blocks from the Martin Luther King Jr. historical museum and monument (as well as Ebenezer Baptist Church) and just a mile down the road from the Carter Center. As someone who considers herself a modern-day freedom fighter, I draw deep inspiration as I work each day in the same neighborhood where Dr. King worked and where President Carter also works and built his center.

So this morning, thanks to my good friend Keith who found out the details of the event (thanks Keith!), I was able to attend the 40th anniversary celebration of Dr. King. A few weeks earlier my good friend Kevin was in town and we toured the monument. He was working on a speech he was giving about spiritual freedom and wanted to parallel his message with Dr. King’s. As we toured the museum, read and listened to Dr. King’s great words and saw many of his historical acts of courage and nonviolence captured on film, I couldn’t help but notice that his quest was about more than just civil rights – it was a quest to help humankind connect with a freedom that is divine and inviolate.

While at the MLK museum and at the recommendation of my friend Kevin, I also picked up a collection of Dr. King’s speeches entitled, “A Knock at Midnight.” They are phenomenal and I highly recommend them.

This morning’s celebration was nothing short of spectacular. One by one the various speakers took the stage to deliver their message of hope and remembrance and each time I was deeply moved by their messages.

At 8:15 am, the church’s gospel choir started singing and had us all dancing and clapping and having a great time! At 10:00 am the celebration official began and lasted until about 2:00 pm. Dr. Christine King Farris, the sister of Martin Luther King Jr. and author of My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers, presided, with great dignity, over the celebration.

We opened with the Star Spangled Banner and then sang what is considered the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” A rabbi gave a scriptural reading from the Old Testament and a priest gave one from the New Testament. Then senator Johnny Isakson spoke, along with the Lieutenant Governor, Casey Cagle and US Congressman Sanford Bishop. The premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Sibusiso Ndebele also spoke. (I had the opportunity to visit KwaZulu-Natal four years ago when I was in South Africa, so it was fun to see a representative from that beautiful part of the world.) The new senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, also spoke. He is just 35 years old and apparently the people love him!

All of the speakers were fantastic orators. I was amazed. There is something about the South that really brings out the soul in people. But it was our lovely mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, who impressed me the most. She is by far one of the most gifted and moving speakers – let alone a politician! – I have ever heard. Her style was very Dr. King-esque, and with her own vibrancy and flair she reminded us how far we’ve come as a people. It was electric and she had us all on our feet clapping and stomping and shouting in agreement!

There were school children that spoke and a group of young dancers dressed in white who danced to the late Yolanda Denise King’s dedicatory speech about her father recorded a few years ago. Ms. King passed away this past year, so it was a moving tribute to her and her energy and dedication continuing her father’s work, as all of the King children have.

The president of Morehouse and Agnes Scott also spoke. Then came another speech that made me misty-eyed. It was from Dr. Sen Yang, the President of Mid-USA Falun Dafa Association. Dr. Yang is originally from China and he spoke about how when he first got to the US 15 years ago he was overcome with how everyone could express themselves without getting arrested, worship as they chose, do what they love and live life out loud. There was only one word for it and it was “freedom.” His speech reminded all of us what a gift it is to live in a country where we can be free.

Several more speeches and music and then a special guest spoke – former President Bill Clinton. As you can imagine, the people in the audience were thrilled to see him. Sporting a bright purple tie, President Clinton took the stage and delivered a beautiful and heart-felt speech. It was the first time I had seen him speak in person and I enjoyed it immensely.

President Clinton told about when he was about 17 years old sitting alone in his home in Arkansas watching Dr. King’s famous, “I Have a Dream Speech” and asking himself what he could do to be a part of the American King envisioned. Clinton reminded us how Dr. King spoke about how each one of us can be great through acts of service to others, and that even if you are a street sweeper your act of service is what truly makes you great.

Clinton said that throughout his political career he has often wondered, “What would Dr. King do?” When he was governor of Arkansas, a state that had the fewest number of African-Americans of all the southern states (just 14 percent), his cabinet was 50 percent African-American. When he was President of the US, he had the most diverse administration of all the previous presidents combined. He said he did it not for himself, but because of what Dr. King inspired him to do.

The day concluded with a rousing message from Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was amazing and dared all of us to not only dream as Dr. King did but to also act on it. She reminded us of the game many of us played as children when we “dared” or “double-dared” someone to do something. She “double-dared” all of us to come back in one year a bigger and better version of ourselves.

Another message that came out of the celebration was the idea that to truly honor Dr. King we must do two things – we must give ourselves permission to dream and we must act from conscious.

A connection I made that I had never thought about before was how much Dr. King stood for non-violent change and living a non-violent life. I was thinking about how this could translate to our work-life, and how often people are treated in dehumanizing and violent ways at work all over the world.

So on this Martin Luther King Jr. 40th year celebration, let me add to the day my dream, because I have a dream also:

My dream is that one day ALL people may be able to work in a democratic workplace, whether it’s a non-profit organization, a government agency, or a Fortune 500 company.

To convey to you how I feel about this topic, I’ve taken some liberties to Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and adapted in my own words as they related to building democratically-run companies. I hope you enjoy it:

My “I Have a Dream” Speech for the Democratic Workplace
by Traci Fenton (adapted from Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech August 28, 1963)

I have a dream that one day this nation (and world!) will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all workers are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day the current state of the corporation, an organization that is often in a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that one day my children will come to me and say, “You mean there was a time when all companies weren’t run democratically Mom?”

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day employees and managers, CEOs and the rank-and-file, will be able to join hands with each other in mutuality and respect.

I have a dream today.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go to the world with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair for so many employees a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our workplaces into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to create together, to struggle together, and succeed together knowing that we did so democratically.

This will be the day when all employees will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My company, ’tis of thee, sweet workplace of liberty, of thee I sing. Office where I lived my potential, office where I made a contribution, from every cubicle and desk, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the businesses of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the companies on Wall Street in New York. Let freedom ring from Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the organizations in the Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the corporations in California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from the businesses of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from the non-profits of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every blue-collar worker in Mississippi.

From every cubicle, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every small business and every large enterprise, from every board room and every receptionist’s desk, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

“Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Recently, the consulting giant Deloitte interviewed me for their internal newsletter called Decibel, which goes out to over 146,000 employees. They were very interested in organizational democracy and how it could relate to their world of work.

I had a great talk with the guy who wrote the story and he was hopeful that Deloitte was taking steps, however small, towards becoming more democratic. I thought the way he wrote the article was really fun – he said I “spoke with the passion and conviction of a Vince Lombardi pre-game speech,” so I thought I’d share it with you here. Enjoy!

Nothing to Prove: Organizational Democracy
By Patrick Mobley

A recent email bubbled to the top of my inbox, aided by a creative header. The mail told me to get naked at work. The message came courtesy of acolleague, who last week forwarded Traci Fenton’s article, “Make Your Workplace More Democratic: Initiate Change from the Bottom (or Middle!) Up.”

Fenton is the founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., which claims to be the world’s only business design studio specializing in organizational democracy. I recently spoke with Fenton.

From the outset you could tell she was dedicated to her philosophy and spoke with the passion and conviction of a Vince Lombardi pre-game speech. She focused on what she termed a new style of organizational design and leadership. She placed the spotlight on increasing collaboration among all levels of a corporation without regard to status or opinion. In Fenton’s world, everyone has a say.

Fenton made it clear that both the organizational leader and employee must not be consumed by the feeling that he or she has something to prove. Rather, the leader and employee must understand the power of teamwork among all levels to reach a decision. According to Fenton, all of this leads to higher morale, quicker distribution of products, and lower employee turnover. It sounded like a corporate Garden of Eden (although my garden would also include an all-you-can-eat buffet and midday massages).

Her articles listed ‘10 Principles for a Democratic Workplace’, the product of a decade of research. She also offers ideas for how people can implement these principles in their organizations. Getting “naked” was top on the list. I wondered how this would all translate to our world, the year-end process, and whether exposing myself would get me to that elusive ‘1′ or get me floored with the first ‘6′ in firm history.

The 10 principles:

1. Get naked.
Be as authentic, open, and as transparent as possible. In your next meeting, don’t have a hidden agenda. Share what you might otherwise keep secret. Watch how it helps build trust with others.

2. Have a conversation.
Don’t perpetuate the dysfunctional silence that characterizes most companies. Invite people to engage in a dialogue about the issues that matter.

3. Loathe rankism.
Treat others fairly and with dignity. Forget the high school clique mentality of treating people like “somebodys” or “nobodys.”

4. Understand the meaning of life.
Understand what your purpose and vision is for your life and make sure it’s
aligned with the work you are doing. If it’s not, think about changing or
finding a new job.

5. Point fingers.
This finger pointing is not to be done in the typical blaming way, but
instead in a liberating way. Get clear about who is responsible for what and
then hold yourself and others accountable.

6. The individual is as important as the whole.
Each person has unique gifts. Overcome the feeling of being a cog in the
machine by recognizing the value each person plays in achieving collective
goals.

7. One size doesn’t fit all.
Do what you can to make sure you and your colleagues have a choice
regarding the kind of work they do and the schedule they work. Choices
keep people from feeling trapped.

8. Have backbone.
Integrity is the name of the game, so make sure all work is done ethically.
Freedom takes discipline.

9. Be vain.
Commit yourself to looking in the mirror each day and asking, “How can I
be better?” Reflection leads to improvements that help you and your
company perform on a whole new level.

10. Say no to pyramid schemes.
Although there are times where we all want to pull a power-trip, don’t. Do
what you can to empower your colleagues by distributing power rather than
hoarding it.

Get a buddy, start practicing these principles, and watch the results. The
best way to win at work is to create an environment in which everyone can
thrive. Find a way to make progress in a democratic direction each day,
and your workplace will never be the same again.

Closer to home
Many of these principles can be seen in the Deloitte member firms’ culture.
They exemplify some of what works here and they are also laden with
truths about some things we need to fix. According to Fenton, leadership in
a democratic workplace should not be centered on command and control.
The old image of your boss, Ebenezer Scrooge, who looked down upon you
with no regard for anyone’s wellbeing, will now be replaced with a more
open and honest leader: Dr. Phil. According to Fenton, ‘Dr. Phil’ will lead by
example, hear your opinions, and work with you to solve a problem.

Deloitte Consulting recently began rolling out a new program called Mass
Career Customization (MCC). This allows employees to manage and shape
their careers according to the expectations they have in life. This will
provide more flexibility to — among other things — work from home, raise
children, or participate in community events. Fenton said this program
exhibited steps 6 and 7 of her 10 principles. She was pleased to hear that
such a large company was taking measures to develop a democratic
workplace.