Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Top-Down Business Structure May Lead Us to Aristocracy

The surface of American society is, if I may use the expression, covered with a layer of democracy, from beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep.
 This is a description of America democracy, by French aristocrat, Alexis de Toqueville, in Democracy in America I (1835), only 48 years after the founding of the United States. He explains that the vestiges of aristocracy still exist because the American majority is not familiar with civil law and does not question it:
Civil laws are only familiarly known to legal men, whose direct interest it is to maintain them as they are, whether good or bad, simply because they themselves are conversant with them...The body of the country is scarcely acquainted with them...and obeys them without premeditation.
In other words, there are civil laws (laws regulating private relations) in society that still reek of the English aristocracy because the majority of citizens never question them. So, what are these aristocratic civil laws of American society? According to Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America II (1840) the most aristocratic, civil structure of American society is the top-down business structure:
Manufacturers may possibly in their turn bring men back to aristocracy...When a workman is unceasingly and exclusively engaged in the fabrication of one thing, he ultimately does his work with singular dexterity; but at the same time he loses the general faculty of applying his mind to the direction of the work…as the workman improves the man is degraded...On the other hand, more considerable, wealthy and educated men come forward to emabark in manufactures...The magnitude of the efforts required, and the importance of the results to be obtained, attract him. Thus at the very time at which the science of manufactures lowers the class of workmen, it raises the class of masters. 
Whereas the workman concentrates his faculties more and more upon the study of a single detail, the master surveys a more extensive whole, and the mind of the latter is enlarged in proportion as that of the former is narrowed. In a short time the one will require nothing but physical strength without intelligence; the other stands in need of science, and almost of genius, to insure success. This man resembles more and more the administrator of a vast empire--that man, a brute. The master and the workman have then here no similarity, and their differences increase every day...the one is continually, closely, and necessarily dependent upon the other, and seems as much born to obey as that other is to command. What is this but aristocracy?
When workers focus only on the tasks at hand and do not apply their minds to the direction of the work they become narrow-minded and dependent. On the other hand, managers must see the big picture, be leaders, and envision the future. Over time, the divide becomes so large between managers and workers that managers despise workers' lack of perspective and workers despise managers' lack of empathy. This is aristocracy, and when the majority of citizens are in this environment, as is the case today, managers and executives are treated as kings and geniuses and paid hundreds of times more than workers. In the political arena, these same workers/citizens treat their political managers as kings and geniuses. Politicians become saviors and heroes that will rescue us and fix the problems of the people. These unfair expectations of our leaders cause deficient governance and nurture the seeds of aristocracy and the dependency of men. If left unchecked, America may fully become an aristocracy--or more appropriately a plutocracy (i.e., rule by the wealthy).

On a brighter note, de Tocqueville offered consolation. He saw that some Americans had "commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part." At the beginning of our democratic experiment, many Americans could see as de Tocqueville did that entrepreneurially-minded, informed citizens that open their minds to opportunities and willingly take risks are necessary to maintain our democracy. Democracy cannot exist among human machines that have no vision of the future.

The top-down business structure is a trace of English aristocratic control that grooms the majority to be dependent upon business and political managers. Moreover, the top-down business structure (as defined by civil law) is one of the most difficult aspect of our society to change. If we are to change it and if we are to improve our democracy, we must gain vision and perspective. We must acquaint ourselves with civil law and ask, "Why?". We must expand our minds and believe as Thomas Jefferson did that "men can be trusted to govern themselves without a master."


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Employee-Owned Companies with an Ownership Culture

"Studies consistently show that employee-owned companies with an ownership culture--and that's the important part, with an ownership culture--out perform employee-owned companies that do not have an ownership culture, and they also outperform non-employee-owned companies."

"Autonomy, responsibility, open communication, and mutual respect leads to everyone in the company thinking like an owner and concentrating on satisfying the customer."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N_TSwRKZ6KU#!
http://www.oeockent.org/

Friday, January 6, 2012

Mindvalley: Productivity Through Blissipline

Favorite Quotes:
"The Paradox of Intention: you must have goals, but your happiness cannot be tied to those goals...You will acceleration towards those dreams faster if you are happy in the now...The happiness comes from the journey, not the destination."

"Blissipline: the discipline of keeping yourself happy (and in flow)...If the happiness isn't there, your impact will be limited."

"What you appreciate, appreciates...Expressing gratitude for a few minutes daily, after 30 days, your happiness goes up by 25%."

"Every month 10% of our profits go straight to employees. As a result, peoples' salary checks literally double."

"This is one of the reasons why we won the award for World's Most Democratic Workplace. We call it the sweet-sugar-love machine...So, we created a software to allow people to appreciate and praise their coworkers...Every single day my employees get on this system and they send little symbolic gifts to their peers. Since we launched this, office politics, pettiness, people being too busy on their own stuff to help coworkers, all of that disappeared, and we started getting this really close-knit team. But, it did have a side-effect...right now 30% of my staff are dating someone else in the company."

"We have this rule in our company called the 45:5 rule. You only should work 45 hours per week...Five of those 45 hours you must invest in learning new stuff."

"We toss the biggest Halloween party in our city every year."

"The five closest people you hang out with will average out to who you become."

"You're happy when you help others become happy. That's what the Dalai Lama said."

"Start with small experiments and test your experiments. If it works, you expand that experiment."

How Will You Measure Your Life?

I recently read this article by Clayton Christiansen out of Harvard entitled, “How will you measure your life?” It is what he tells his students on the final day of his class.

One of the items that he mentions sticks out to me. It reads as follows:

“One of the theories, . . . . . how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more [people think] that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people."

I’m sure you can see why it sticks out.