Some may call it democratic. I currently prefer the term āmeaningfulā. Ā I will probably come up with a better name and description over the coming months, or years.
What Iām talking about is creating a workplace with a different focus and value than a more traditional business.
Some people call this a ādemocratic workplaceā āĀ operating a business democratically through things like transparency, listening, fairness and dignity, power sharing, employee choice and accountability.
Whilst I share this vision, Iām personally reluctant to use the ādemocraticā name as it makes me think and feel about politics. Ā Politics is supposed to be democratic, but to me, it currently feels anything but that. Ā (However, letās not go down that rabbit hole, Ā this post shall not be about politics!). Ā I donāt wish to get hung up on names or labels.
For me, itās about creating a work culture with meaning and jam packed with common sense, where the people who work for us come first. Ā I currently have the opportunity to create this culture as my team is starting to grow. Ā Many of the thoughts and ideas come not only from my research over the past few years, but also from how I have been personally (trying to approach) working for the past 3Ā years or so.
There is nothing set in stone, but I have certain beliefs that would probably be core to our work culture. Ā Practically these will involve things like:
- We will not monitor work hours, or holidays, or sicknessā¦
- Though we will strive for a 20 hour work week
- Everyone can choose their pay and terms of work
- Everyone can see any and all of our company finances at the click of a button
- We will put our health before wealth
- We will be family friendly
- We will be friends first
- We will respect each other, at every level
- We will focus on work that we love and brings us joy
- We will experiment
- We will embrace and learn from failure
- We will have fun
- We are all believers in what our company is trying to achieveā¦.
- We will define together what we are trying to achieveā¦
- We believe in great ideas, but they are nothing without hard action from us
- We will strive for a sustainable and profitable business
- We will create awesome products/services that we are proud of
This is my first blog post on this topic. Ā I plan to openly blog about the things we do and achievements we make (or not!)
Stay tuned!