I have a friend who is a change-management consultant, and her clients are traditional corporations. Her values are the best. She educates corporate leaders about compassion, listening, and creating psychological safety in the workplace.
When I told her I had begun working with a non-hierarchical, worker-owned cooperative, that we had no leaders (or even managers) in the traditional sense, and that all decisions were based on consensus, I could see the gears spinning in her head. Her immediate reaction was, “You have to tell me how that works!”
“Well,” I told her, “the short answer is ‘with lots of conversation.’” The long answer is very long indeed, so I tried to outline some basics. Mostly, I wanted to convey what it feels like to work at CoLab.
Our company governance is loosely based on the principles of sociocracy, which according to Wikipedia, “is a theory of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision making by people who have a shared goal or work process.”
CoLab’s workers are either member owners, or contractors working toward member ownership, which takes about a year. Rarely, we’ll have a lovely, productive contractor who isn’t interested in member ownership. They’re welcome to work here as long as they like, and attend governance meetings at which their thoughts are heard and included in decision making.
There’s something about being a worker owner that changes your world.
At CoLab, no one can tell anyone to do anything. We have to ask, and be willing to hear “no”. A common phrase you hear is “Would you be willing to…?” Any worker can turn down work with a particular project or a particular client.
We also make our own hours. Some people work 10-15 hours a week, some 40.
Does all this sometimes make capacity planning difficult? Yup.
Of course, people have defined roles and responsibilities, or nothing would get done. Workers who are interested in being part of governance (and we hope everyone will pitch in, but it’s not required) form themselves into Circles. I’m in the Business Development Circle, the Marketing Circle, and I lead the Culture Circle.
In sociocracy, Circles are the basis of all consent-based decision making. A Circle can be formed around any company function. We set the aims and priorities for our Circles, and in general, other CoLabrs just let us get on with running our own domains.
We have a Happiness Circle that sees after the wellbeing of all workers. Anyone can request a happiness check-in at any time, if they’re experiencing difficulties. If a CoLabr is having a problem with another worker, or with a client, and they feel they can’t resolve the situation successfully, with compassion and understanding, they can request a facilitated conversation.
Our compensation model is odd even by cooperative standards.
- We pay ourselves the same rate for internal work as for billable client work.
- Our hourly rates are based on job descriptions, not where you live. If you’re a senior technician, for example, you’re paid the same rate as our senior technicians in Taiwan, India, Slovenia, Nigeria, the UK, the US, Colombia, and Brazil.
Does that mean that some of us are financially better off than others, given the cost of living in our location? Yes. Ask any CoLabr why we do it this way, and you’ll get lots of answers, all of which we considered when we came to a consensus on the standard rate. We’re likely to cite social justice, equal pay for equal work, or compensating for the after-effects of colonialism. Or maybe just because it felt right.
We’re never sure our compensation, governance, or business model is the right one – it’s just the one we have right now. We regularly challenge ourselves to reconsider our decisions, if something’s not working. Always looking for a better way is part of the joy of being a CoLabr – no one is telling us how to run our business.
There’s something about being a worker owner that changes your world. You can’t rely on other people to make the big decisions – there are no other people. No one is taking big profits from your work; you and your co-workers profit equally. And when you do an excellent job, and the client’s mission has become a reality, and CoLab is solvent, then you know you made that happen.
“So,” I finally said to my friend, “what do you think?”
She said, “The top of my head is coming off.”
I asked, “Can cooperative ideas be incorporated into traditional corporations, in a way that makes positive change?”
She said, “I don’t know, but let’s keep talking.”
So now you know what it’s like to work at a non-hierarchical cooperative, does it sound completely mad? As if it would take too much extra mental energy?
Or does it sound good? If yes, join a cooperative. Start your own cooperative. Join ours.