In purely top-down structures, key information and insights from below are often missed. Decisions take too long and are not as targeted and effective as they would be if information from front-line employees were taken into account.
But what governance system to use? Not a model based on consensus or democracy. Consensus often devolves into the least-common-denominator approach. People give in to what the largest egos or most insistent people in the room demand. And democracy tends to crush minority voices. Besides, the majority rarely knows best.
After investigating several alternatives, we were impressed most by sociocracy, an organizational governance system envisioned in 1945 by a Dutch entrepreneur as a way to adapt Quaker egalitarian principles to secular organizations.
Author: Brian Robertson
Source: strategy+business
Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior
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