Summary
What It Is
The work group is the fundamental organization of the business. The members of the group select their group leader, determine group work methods, divide group work, and manage group membership.
What Problem It Solves
Putting the workers in charge of their immediate work world increases morale, reduces turnover, and increases productivity. Worker governance of the group puts the people who are most aware of opportunities to improve in charge of realizing them.
How It Works
The work group leader is chosen by workers. Workers determine their own method of dividing group responsibilities and assignments. Workers volunteer for work or accept assignments of their own free will and choice. Workers vote to add and remove members from their group.
Discussion
The sharing of governance between the owners and the workers is a continuum. At one end are matters about which the owners care much and the workers don’t. The selection of the president is an example. At this end, the owners have more say than the workers. At the other end are matters about which the workers care very much, but the owners don’t care as much. The selection of the work group leader is an example of the latter. It makes sense that the workers should have more say about things that affect them most, but affect the owners very little.
This is in keeping with the concept that decisions which affect nothing external should be made by those inside the unit. As long as the works gets done with appropriate excellence, on time, and on budget (all issues affecting others outside the group), no one outside the group should care who did what nor how they did it. These internal affairs are the purview of the work group.
The most preferred work system is where every worker has maximum freedom, adequate resources, complete responsibility and accountability for his or her work. This is most preferred because many workers desire it. In addition, it provides the optimum environment for the dignity and development of each worker.
Of course, wisdom must be used in determining what maximum freedom is. Too much freedom and corresponding responsibility forced upon one who is not ready may overwhelm him. The resulting poor performance may damage the worker as well as harm the business. On the other hand, too little freedom stymies the growth of the worker and produces lack luster results for the business.
Why should a business care about the development of its worker? To a very large degree, the workers are the business. Developing workers increases the value and competitiveness of the business. Businesses who value industry standard, interchangeable, and replaceable workers will get what they value: a standard business which is indistinguishable from any other such business and whose customers have no reason other than price to choose their products over the competition’s.
Work Group Leader
Selecting the Work Group Leader
All other leaders in the business are selected by the owners or by leaders above them. Why is there a change for work groups? First, the question should be restated, “In a democratically run business, why aren’t all the leaders elected?” The work group is the one place where the democratic selection of the leaders makes sense. The workers know what makes a good work group leader and what does not. In most cases, they will know the potential leaders very well. And they care very much about who their work group leader is. Assuming that there is a good voting process, all the factors are present for the selection of a good leader through democratic means.
The workers should be free to determine their leader by whatever process they prefer. In some small groups, one worker will naturally arise as the leader because of his or her aptitude, inclination, and rapport with the other workers. In this case, there will be consensus about who should be the leader. Actual voting may be done merely as a formality or it may not be done at all. In other groups (college faculty departments come to mind as an example), no one will want to be leader. The group may then develop a leadership rotation plan to evenly share the unwanted responsibility of leadership. At other times, the group may need to recruit a new member to be the leader, possibly even from outside the business. It is conceivable that in a large group there might be multiple candidates and even a little campaigning! The goal is that the work group has a leader who the members have selected through a process they have determined.
There should be certain safeguards in place to prevent trouble. The unit leader should support the selection process by understanding how the group is determining their leader, offering advice if needed, and talking with individuals if he or she senses that the process is not democratic. The unit leader has the right to protest to the unit court the election of a group leader if he thinks that the group leader will be detrimental to the functioning of the unit or that the election was not fair and democratic. If any worker, whether a member of the work group or not, has evidence that the election process was not fair or democratic, he or she may file a protest with the unit court. If the unit court receives a protest from the unit leader or from two or more workers, the court shall investigate the work group election. If the court finds that the process was not democratic or not fair or if the court finds that the properly elected leader would be detrimental to the functioning of the unit, the court can remand the election back to the work group with instructions on how to remedy the election process.
Work Group Leader Term of Service and Recall
The work group decides how long the term of service is for the work group leader prior to the selection. With the consent of the leader, the work group could extend the term, if they choose. It is good practice for the work group to affirm their support of the leader annually by taking a sustaining vote. This could be done by secret ballot or public vote. Any of those who do not choose to support the leader should find a way to explain their reasons to the leader. This will give both the opportunity to improve the situation.
Workers should seek to settle their differences with their leader as issues arise. They should include the unit leader in their efforts. However, there could come a time when these differences are irreconcilable and it is too long before the leader’s term ends. The recall election is provided for this instance as a last resort. When a petition bearing the signatures of at least 10% of the work group members is brought to the unit court and verified by the court, the unit judge shall hold a recall election. A majority of the work group members (not just a majority of those voting) must vote in favor of the recall in order for it to be successful.
Determine Work Methods
Self-managed work teams have been utilized in business for many years now. A sufficient body of knowledge has been developed to guide work groups in managing their own methods.
Divide Group Work
One of the fundamentals of the democratic workplace is the worker’s right to choose what work she will do and what she won’t. Or in other words, no one should tell a worker what work he will do. What needs to be done is identified and the worker chooses work to do.
Allowing the worker to exercise their agency to choose is not only respectful of the individual, it increases the worker’s ownership of the work done. Where this individual pride is engaged, the quality rises and the worker’s commitment to the success of the business is increased.
Surely, there is some work that everybody wants to do and other work that nobody wants to do. The workers know this. They have already been doing these kinds of work for years. They know it needs to be done. Giving the worker the right to choose what work she will do does not mean that some work will not be done. The workers will decide how to fairly divide up this less desirable work and then, they will choose to do it, whether they like it or not. In Liberty Workforce, they don’t make money unless all the work gets done. It will all get done.
Work Group Size and Formation
Work Groups size depends on considerations such as the preferences of the workers, the complexity and frequency of the interactions between workers, physical proximity of the the workers, the skill level maturity of the workers, the work being done, and the diversity of the worker occupations. Work groups could be as small as two or three workers. As a work group is a direct democracy, it would seem that 30 to 50 workers might be the practical upper limit in size. The workers should be free to determine for themselves their group size. Where there are frequent complex interactions between workers, efficient group sizes would tend toward smaller. The evolving nature of software programming may favor small groups while the autonomous nature of a call center operator may be fine with a very large work group. As greater physical separation decreases the amount of informal communication necessary for successful group functioning, workers separated by great distances should probably break into separate groups where workers can be close together. Where work groups have workers who are still developing their skills, the work group size should be smaller to facilitate mentoring by the group leader. A work group should be formed around natural segments of the business process. For example, if a manufacturing cell requires five workers, those five workers should be their own group. Where there is no physical structure to the business process such as in architectural and engineering services, the work groups would form around similar disciplines, e.g., mechanical group, electrical group, etc. As there is a certain per work group administrative expense, all other things being equal, the largest acceptable work group size should be selected. However, the key factor in determining the right work group size is the size that the workers prefer.
Work groups can also be temporary. They may form to complete a project, solve a problem, investigate an opportunity, etc. The membership of such groups could be very fluid, changing over the project life as the work progresses.
Work groups can also be informal or with limited features. For example, the team leaders of several groups may form their own informal work group to address issues common to their individual work groups. Such work groups could not make decisions binding on their own work groups, but could create common solutions that each individual work group could vote to accept. These work groups could also facilitate inter-group communication.
Workers can be members of several work groups at the same time, but they must be the member of at least one permanent group. For example, an engineer may be a member of his discipline group and a cross-functional product group. She may have work assignments in both groups or just one.
Workers or the unit leader (for new groups) or group leaders upon vote of their members (for group division, merger, or dissolution) apply to the unit legislative body (i.e., worker council or “town” meeting) for approval to create or dissolve permanent work groups. The unit leader must also approve. Informal or temporary work groups do not require approval of any sort besides the members forming them.
Managing Group Membership
The workers should also have a say in which workers are members of their group. Workers spend much of their life with each other. If for no other reason than as a courtesy, the workers should be involved. However, there are business reasons to involve the workers. Workers have many more interactions with their co-workers than do managers. While some workers are capable of fooling managers, it is much more difficult to fool their co-workers, also. Co-workers tend to know who is capable of what and who is really productive rather than just looks busy, etc. Better personnel selections and firings might be made if what the workers knew about candidates was part of the process. And finally, there is a fairness issue. It is not right to hamper a work group’s performance by forcing them to tolerate a non-performing co-worker. Neither is it fair to expose them to danger caused by co-workers who will not follow safety rules. It is good for business and a benefit to workers to involve them in determining who their co-workers are.
Selecting New Group Workers
The work group leader has the responsibility to find and select new group members, but the selection is made with the approval of the other workers in the group. The workers of the group could suggest candidates. They might also wish to review resumes and participate in some of the interviewing process.
Removing Group Workers
When a group member is causing problems or not performing, the group leader and the other group workers should do what they can to help the errant group member remedy the situation. This will solve most, but not all problems. As a last resort, there should be a process to separate the poor performing worker from the work group. The first step in the process is written, confidential complaints filed with the group leader and forwarded to the unit leader and the judge. [if the complaints made are punishable if true, the unit leader may choose to call a grand jury to investigate whether charges should be filed.] There must be at least two of these complaints to go to the next step. These complaints could be from the leader or the group workers. The complaint must list: 1) the grievance; 2) what the complaining worker tried to do to resolve the issue; and 3) what effects these efforts had. If the complaints only came from workers, the leader will try to verify the complaint and resolve the situation before proceeding to the next step. Once two complaints have been verified, the judge hold a secret ballot in the work group. The complaints will not be explained in the vote. The ballot will simply state, “A motion has been made to remove (state the name of the worker) from our work group. If you agree that he or she should be removed, vote YES. Otherwise, vote NO.” If the complainers are just the complaining type, they should not be given a platform to spread their problem. If the complaints are real, most everyone in the group will already know something about them without having to be told. A simple majority of the group workers is required to remove the member, not just of those who voted. An abstention is counted as a negative vote.
Process for Removed Worker
When a group member is removed, he is still a member of the workerle and still receives income. The unit leader works with the group member to find a new work group, whether in the unit or in another unit. The unit leader will also try to help the worker change and effect reconciliation with the former work group if it makes sense. If new work is found that is a different pay scale than the old work, the worker’s pay will be adjusted according to the new job. If, within a certain period of time (30 days?), no work can be found for the worker, then the worker’s case will be taken up by the Court. If all procedures have been followed, the Court will document the case and separate the worker from the workerle. If not, the Court will remand the case to the unit leader and/or work group.
There certainly will be a stigma associated with a worker being separated from a work group that could make it hard for the worker to find work within the workerle. However, this will not always be the case. More often than not, poor work performance can be remedied. Sometimes, poor performance results because a person skills and aptitudes do not match those required by the job. Thus, finding a better match will result in changing poor performance to good performance. Other times, it might the work group that is difficult and not the separated worker. Most of the unit will know this and not hesitate to accept the worker if possible. Also, the separated worker might be a maverick who is of great benefit to the workerle, but has trouble working with others. The unit leader may be able to find a position for him that takes better advantage of his abilities.
Sometimes, however, poor performance results from lack of skills and knowledge. Being separated from a work group might be the needed impetus to get a recalcitrant worker to change and acquire the needed skills. Such a humbled and penitent worker would likely be a great asset to the workerle.
Benefits of a Comprehensive Worker Removal Procedure
This separation and removal process may seem onerous and therefore not useful to an organization seeking high performance. However, a closer examination might result in a different conclusion. First, for those with a good selection process, firing due to poor performance should rarely be needed. Or in other words, due to its very infrequent use, the added burden of this process will have a negligible effect on the bottom line. Second, and more important, the very existence of this process will provide benefits that make it less likely to be needed. When workers know that fellow workers can cause them to be separated (and almost fired), they will be more motivated to please them. And when workers know they can get someone separated if the need arises, they will be less frustrated with their fellow workers and more willing to try to work things out. These two will act together to smooth out work life and reduce the need to ever use this separation procedure.