Culture Shock: A Handbook For 21st Century Business

Specific Processes and Tools

In practical terms, when we consider how to make such decisions, it’s useful to look at some of the most frequently used approaches.

One Person One Vote

The simplest manifestation of democracy is ‘one person equals one vote’. In this mode, you will need to agree what your quorum is – that is, the minimum necessary number of people to make a decision collectively – and agree what percentage of votes can carry a decision. These are important design decisions and they can be moulded over time. To begin with, go with something simple like 80% of the whole team/organization makes quorum and ‘most votes wins’.

‘One person one vote’ is an attractive place to start because it is so damn simple. Hard to go wrong. However, ...