Q: How can I promote new ideas within the workplace while also supporting my employees’ personal development?

A: Seventh Generation, a Vermont-based company, is committed to becoming the world’s most trusted brand of authentic, safe, and environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home.

In the past year, Seventh Generation has replaced their traditional performance management system, which was based on management-driven goal-setting, with a completely new Personal Development process, the key part of which they’re calling Promises Beyond Ableness (or PBAs).

The Promises Beyond Ablness process invites employees to identify what THEY would most like to contribute to in support of the company’s strategy – rather than the company TELLING them what they will contribute. Their PBA plan is not limited to their identified function either, but can be expansive in scope. Employees are then invited to develop these ideas into a plan of action.

Seventh Generation Founder Jeffrey Hollender explains, “As I’ve long maintained, ‘you can’t grow a business without growing people.’ There’s no doubt in my mind that our investment in people and their capacity to contribute to our success is working. Over the course of time, we’ve created a huge amount of new capability, capability that’s reflected in sales growth, but more importantly, in the personal growth of individuals with the capacity to lead us into the new frontier of values-led business.”

For more information on Seventh Generation and their democratic practices, click here.