America’s 250th birthday is a good time to reflect about democracy in the work place. The USAs semiquincentennial coincides with Riga’s 825th birthday. I am in Riga this summer. While centuries old, Riga has had democratic rule for only 50 years. Democratically speaking, Latvia is a toddler compared to America’s grand-old experiment of self-rule.
A long time ago, William Cobbett (1763-1835) ,writing as Peter Porcupine, praised a new country:
This America, this scene of happiness under a free government, is the beam in the eye, the thorn in the side, the worm in the vitals, of every despot upon the face of the earth.”
And, I would add, that freedom (which derives from subsidiarity*) is and always has been anathema to workplace tyrants, large and small.
But, can we really trust the worker with decision making, a form of self-rule? Is that not like the cliché, of the “inmates running the asylum”? Or, closer to every bureaucrat’s heart, “Staff are not paid to make decisions. That’s my job!”
I expect that devout fans of the hierarchy (did someone say, Theory X?) are nodding vigorously in agreement. “If humans are to accomplish anything, they need direction, the firmer the better!”
There is some truth to that notion, some workers want to be told what to do and do not want to think about work.
If that surprises you, try it out. I, thinking democratically, convened monthly clerical staff meetings to consider how to get better at our jobs.
Many had no interest and while humoring my eccentricity, offered no ideas! But, a few did, and those few were responsible for major productivity achievements!
Unlike ants, humans are imbued (divinely or over time through evolution) with freedom and the capacity to make choices (bad and good), to decide for ourselves. Also, we have the unique attribute of language to argue for and explain our choices.
Despite what some critics claim, most humans willingly cooperate, just not consistently. Is this a fatal weakness for our kind?
Does taking away a worker’s or citizen’s elbow-room for making decisions harm or hinder production, i.e. getting the job done better than the last time?
How does limiting freedom play out in a real-world organization?
My friend Sam’s organization works well below capacity. Morale is abysmal. Turnover is well above the norm for his business. Sam, the boss, trusts none of his staff and, this lack of confidence creates dysfunction. His micromanagement exasperates and enfeebles staff; many either leave or endure in silence.
Not surprisingly, innovation is rare in Sam’s organization. Most of us, when faced with frequent discouraging words, give-up and focus on other things that provide us with a measure of satisfaction of a job well done. Of course, that’s often outside the workplace. Under Sam, “We work to live”, not “We live to work”.
If Sam or someone like him were to ask me for advice about leadership, I’d start the conversation with a valuable bit of philosophy from Charles Handy, that champion of subsidiarity, about an individual’s freedom to choose: “Choices, in fact, are our privilege (our right), although they come disguised as problems, and stealing people’s choices is wrong.”
If Sam mulls that over and wants more, I would recommend Rebecca Knight’s article, How to Stop Micromanaging Your Team from the 2015 Harvard Business Review.
Knight writes about the harm of micromanagement: It “displaces the real work of leaders, which is developing and articulating a compelling and strategically relevant vision for your team.”
In my experience, leaders who do real work develop highly productive and successful organizations.
I’d ask Sam: Can you give people the space they need to succeed and learn? Can you give people the freedom to decide?
And, if Sam wants more, I’d prescribe a cross-evaluation assessment, conducted by a trusted third party to gather confidential data from staff.
No easy task. The trusted “assessor” has to be insightful, possess a sense of humor and to be kind. He or she has to be able to go from confidential specifics to generalities and back again without revealing identities.
Problem is, will Sam deny the brutal findings?
And, likely he will say, truculently, something like this, ”Who says?” or “Who sez?”
That responese reminds me of a Nikita Khrushchev anecdote. In a meeting with Kremlin journalists Mr. K was responding to written anonymous questions. One asked, “Why did you not speak up against Stalin?” He glowered at everyone in the room, and roared, “Who asked that?” Not a sound. After a half a minute of silence, he said, “That’s why.”
But, if Sam can subjugate his bruised ego, he might begin to understand the negative impact his micromanaging has on his organization, and, maybe, he will seek to make constructive changes.
Looking back on my own career, that cross-evaluation assessment would have benefited me, an extreme macromanager, (sometimes, hands off is worse than hands on!)
And, I could have been a better boss for my subordinates by asking one or more of these questions:
How can I best help you? What do you want me to do less of? More of? Are my overall objectives clear to you? Do you have the support and resources to accomplish them?
I always assumed that my high-flying objectives were clear to others. Bad assumption.
So, there’s a balance to strive for.
The newbie employee needs direction and supervision, the veteran less so. It comes down to knowing when to let go.
Tough question: Can someone like Sam, hard core Theory X, ever convert to Theory Y ways of working? Can Sam let go?
*This essay is drawn in part from two previous posts, Ants & Democracy and Stealing Choice. According to Merriam/Webster, subsidiarity is a “principle in social organization holding that functions which are performed effectively by subordinate or local organizations belong more properly to them than to a dominant central organization.”
***************
My book, Fables for Leaders, all about how ancient stories apply to today’s workplace, can be purchased here. The link will take you to BookBaby, the company that prints and fills orders for Fables for Leaders.
My other book, Leading from the Middle, with essays on team building, followers, leaders, innovation and several case studies of exceptional leaders and organizations, can be purchased here at Amazon.
N.B. For other essays on numerous topics on leadership and literature and fables go to my Nucleus archive from 2010-early 2025.
© Copyright by John Lubans 2012, 2024 & 2026