What makes a Democratic Workplace?
April 9, 2013
Haiti Partners is honored to be on the 2013 WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces. We draw inspiration from WorldBlu Founder and CEO, Traci Fenton and her team. We share their vision that for the world to be a better place, there needs to be well functioning democratic societies that are able to solve new problems and seize new opportunities.
We believe that there is truth in the common analysis that many of the global problems we’re facing are as a result of political crisis. We see in a country like the US, with over two centuries of experience in democracy that people across party lines are unable to work together effectively for the common good. In places newer to democracy like Haiti, the polarization between sides is even greater.
Haiti Partners joins with others in the WorldBlu network believing that establishing democratic practices in the work place where the average person spends significant time is not only key to a more productive and creative workforce, but that it’s also key to our societies–our countries–becoming more effective at democracy and working together for the common good.
Haiti Partners strives to practice all ten of the principles and we love the evaluation tool that WorldBlu has developed that allows our members of staff to evaluate our organization in general and our leadership in particular. To learn more about democratic workplace principles click here.
Traci from WorldBlu (see photo below) had this to say after her visit with Haiti Partners.
My co-workers and I witnessed first-hand the amazing work of Haiti Partners in helping leaders and educators develop skills in freedom centered leadership and democratic decision-making. We visited in December 2011 and did a seminar with 40 grassroots and organizational Haitian leaders. Haiti Partners co-founder, John Engle, an American who worked in business before he moved to Haiti in 1991, will speak at WorldBlu Live about the challenges in helping an extremely top-down and even dictatorial culture to rethink their approach and opt for more bottom up.
(Traci with Henri Christophe students)
