How Democracy Really Works - Aditya Yadav

1. “Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76
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2. *
*A Typical Global Company
*Fortune 500/1000
*200 Divisions
*40 Countries
*25000 Employees

3. @ Acme Inc.
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4. *
*Original Question “How do we establish a
Democratic Decision making process in our
organization?”
*The Correct Question - “We should be asking.
How do we establish a collaborative decision
making process which is fact based? Democracy
is probably the best thing for your
Organization. Should I explain why not?”

5. And The Philosophy Behind The Answer
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6. *
*Disclaimer: I’m not against Democracy. I live in and
love one of the largest democracies in the world
*You all know what Democracy is..
*But two things stand out (The only two things that
matter to us in an Organization implementing
Democracy or something like that)
*Every Idiot has a Vote!!!
*The Voters Paradox – The Cost Of Voting is way
higher than the benefit we could ever derive from
the results of our Voting

7. *
* It seems to me that everything in this world is a Popularity
Contest
* People start Yay! Or Nay! And take decisions
* They talk about representation, majority, inclusivity etc. etc.
which I don’t want to repeat as to what they mean
* Is that what we should be doing? Especially in our
organizations?
* Obviously we all would agree we probably need a bottom up
decision making process, and we also need a collaborative
decision making process…
* But does it have to be democratic? Is the question.
* I’m going to say a Big No! and that’s what the rest of the
presentation is all about

8. *
* [I know everyone has a Feel Good feeling about Democracy and how
its better than those Other forms of Governance. And hence we try
to use the same concepts in our Organizations.]
1. Well! Democracy starts with a Popularity Contest where
Representatives are Elected…
2. Next! the Representatives then use a Fact based or some sort of
Rationale based process to take Decisions
***Its even worse if a Democratic process is directly used to take
decisions. I will come to that in a bit
* This basically means that Democracy is a amalgamation of Two
Paradigms
* In the First Part, people express their Opinions (which could be
rational or not, mostly not)
* In the Second part the Representatives Hopefully take Rational
Decisions in the best interest of everyone (???)

9. *
* The most popular guy is nominated for the Elections. Whatever you
want to call him. Crowd Puller, Vote Attractor etc.
* Once elected the Experts and Specialists behind the scenes work
together to formulate decisions which He presents to the whole
world.
* If we understand this then its obvious why some Elected Leaders are
not considered very capable (Hey popularity got them there)
* Have you ever seen an MIT Professor try and contest the Elections?
And Succeed? Many have tried in India, it won’t work though it has
higher chances of succeeding in the US
* The person who tries to run the country by popularity instead of
rationale never helps the Country to succeed. He himself might and
in the reverse case The Country might actually benefit but he himself
might be kicked out of Government
* Such are the problems with a Democratic Governance Process in
Organizations.

10. *
* …in your Organization. Ask yourself this…
* Do you understand the Two Paradigms? Their interplay. The impossibility of managing crossing over and mixing the Two Paradigms
* If we define the first Paradigm as a Popularity Contest through Voting using Opinions about Decisions, Policies, Processes, etc.
* And you r’ber Every Idiot Has a Vote. Would you want to run your Organization by a Popularity Contest?
* Do you really want to promise…
* That everyone will be happy by the decisions?
* Everyone’s Opinions will be represented?
* Trust me no one will be happy that way…
* The popularity contest Paradigm has to stop. Your organization has to be run on Critical Thinking
* Opinions always deadlock, your organization will end up with the nonsense of endless debates and no decisions or actions or
execution.
* Democratic Governance of Organizations could get very bad…
* What you need is Fact & Rationale based Decision Making. You want Collaborative and Bottom Up decision making. You don’t want
a popularity contest.
* Collaborative Decision Making is not mutually exclusive from a Rationale/Fact based decision making process. Actually that’s the
best combination to have when it starts working.
* The best way to go about doing that is TO SET THE BASELINE EXPECTATION of How Decisions Will Be Taken.
* Except ofcourse when the need is to decide about the Mess Food, Parking, Team Outings etc. etc.
* Now you will ask, isn’t this in conflict with the processes of Gamification and Innovation Crowdsourcing? If Voting is the sole
process then it’s a problem. But usually the primary criteria for Knowledge Ecosystems is quality and quantity of knowledge
sharing, for Gamification is well bounded criteria and games, and for Innovation is the value or impact of the innovation in the
context of the Boundaries of the Problem. Nothing’s perfect but a pure popularity contest doesn’t cut it. If your ecosystem
deteriorates to that level then that’s the lowest level you could ever fall to.

11. *
Aditya!!!