“Democracy is essential in organizations that rely on the creativity of all workers to produce continuous innovation.  Innovation requires democratic processes:  the sharing of information across departments, functions and organizational levels; team decision making; conflict resolution; and deference to the person with the best idea rather than the most senior title.  Also, democracy is inevitable in environments that must accommodate rapid and endless change.  Democracy in industry is not an idealistic conception but a hard necessity in those areas where change is ever present and creative scientific enterprise must be nourished.  For democracy is the only system of organization that is compatible with perpetual change.”

These words taken from Charles Garfield’s book:  Second To None…The Productive Power of Putting People First are so SO important when strategizing on how your business or organization should function and go forward.

As you think about all of the very important factors included in those quotations, take a minute or two and apply them to your world of work.  Does your entity have:

• An open design for soliciting ideas and improvement suggestions from anywhere within the organization?
• An ongoing succession process for moving the right people into the right positions to facilitate progressive change and innovation?
• A time/structure/system for quality, thorough, communication up and down and across your business/organization to ensure productivity/service understanding and competency is always the priority?

It is a pleasure to use the term “Democracy” in this TRIPLE III TIME message as a positive element in the area of Continuous Innovation & Change!  I recommend re-reading the quotes and consider even more high-value applications of it’s meaning.