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I don’t talk about this a lot here, but one of the most invigorating, exciting, and positive impacts on my life right now has been our research in democratic worker-owned cooperatives and workplace democracy.
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I used to think coops were the domain of hippy coffee shops, but they are actually very commonplace and incredibly successful at wildly different scales (no offence hippy coffee shops… I love you). They are just rare in our industry in Canada/US.
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The Wikipedia page has a surprisingly good summary of stats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative
In short they:
• Are more resilient in unstable times
• Have less pay inequality
• Are more productive
• Have better working conditions
• Have longer retention
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In short they:
• Are more resilient in unstable times
• Have less pay inequality
• Are more productive
• Have better working conditions
• Have longer retention
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I'm surprised how rare coops are in tech/design considering the obsession about being "flat." I suspect this comes from a) a lack of coop awareness b) misunderstanding power c) the defaults of setting up a company d) the default rules of capitalism (more on this later)
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After working for a "flat" organization for a few years, I was always aware of the invisible hierarchy and power structures that inherently come with having one or a few owners, but could not see a practical way around it.
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Traditional corporations that are "flat" still have a hidden power dynamic that manifests in the power to hire, fire, pay people, purchase, choose/veto clients/projects, among other things. It also has little protection against sexism, racism, and other social power dynamics.
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The common reaction is to give up on "flatness" and dive deeper into a coercive, hierarchy-based, traditional organization, which is by far the most common structure. I call these little dictatorships (even when they're benevolent). They aren't the only answer.
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For the first 7 years, @louderthanten was just me and @thestraymuse as equal owners mostly subcontracting for larger digital agencies so it was never a big deal. But after we pivoted and started growing, the dictator structure never sat right with me.
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When we started, we'd been instinctually rejecting the more authoritarian aspects of project management and building democracy into our curriculum, but really had no idea of the scope (scientific management was developed for slavery, BTW). https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674972094
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Even with democratic PM, you ultimately run into the same barrier of authority and hidden power. I started making this realization around the same time I discovered the great @profwolff and his work with @democracyatwrk. For the first time, I discovered the magic of the coop.
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Sidebar: Here's a great lecture on coops by @profwolff:
It also does a great job of demystifying what capitalism is and isn't; as well as modern socialism (hint: it's all about ownership).
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It also does a great job of demystifying what capitalism is and isn't; as well as modern socialism (hint: it's all about ownership).
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So over the past couple years I've been devouring books and case studies about worker-owned coops and democratic workplaces and slowly envisioning how these principles could be applied to both our curriculum and our company itself.
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Our commitment was put into overdrive after I discovered a book called Companies We Keep, by @SouthMountainCo. It's an incredible, captivating case study of a democratic coop that is heavily inspiring where we want to go with @louderthanten. https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/companies-we-keep/
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It helped us not only map out a practical roadmap, but how we could reject the widely accepted extractive practices of capitalism (growth at all costs, competition, exploitation of labour, coercion, acquisition, etc), and give legitimate power to many.
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A spiritually-related book is Owning Our Future by @marjorie_kelly. It helped me understand "the real structure is found in the rules of the game by which the system operates." The default rules are 1) Maximize financial gain 2) Minimize financial risk http://www.marjoriekelly.com/books/owning-our-future/
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Those two rules are the core operating instructions of virtually every business book, conference talk, piece of legal or accounting advice, project/product management decision, design direction in our industry. And they are the defaults when you create a corporation.
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Alone, they promote an extractive model, not because of what they specify, but by what they ignore. Every other operating rule is subservient to the wealth generation of the owners unless deliberately and ruthlessly countered with alternative rules and ownership structures.
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The opposite of an extractive model is a generative one, where the operating rules benefit the labourers, the environment, and the surrounding community. Worker ownership sets this framework and is accountable to a broader mission and benefit of the world.
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A fascinating example of a generative system is outlined in Owning Our Future, is Mexico's cooperative approach to conservation. I'll let this article explain it for me: https://www.hcn.org/issues/44.7/a-mexican-rancher-struggles-to-shift-from-cattle-to-conservation/how-conservation-works-south-of-the-border
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I am convinced that this the most ethical and sustainable way to run an organization. But beyond that, it is one of the most practical and impactful vehicles we can use to fight climate change, white supremacy, class stratification, and poverty.
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(btw, both @marjorie_kelly and @SouthMountainCo distance themselves from socialism in their books, but anyone who watches @profwolff's video above can see that they're clearly pinkos like me. I suspect many of you are too 
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Anyway… back to how we're applying things:
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)Anyway… back to how we're applying things:
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At @louderthanten we discovered that we've been inadvertently training people to be consensus-based worker-owners who are responsible for operational and project success. And guess what… it fucking works.
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If you look through our case studies and speak to our most successful clients, in nearly all cases they made dramatically big shifts in profitability, sustainability, and work satisfaction as a direct result of becoming MORE democratic.
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It started with things like getting team consent on new clients/projects, having people who do the work estimate it, sharing financials, and understanding how their orgs make money. Turns out people do better when they're valued, heard, and consulted. Imagine that!
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We've been mostly silent about this aspect of @louderthanten and have always considered it more of a hidden iceberg agenda that people weren't ready for. But I think that time is over. Taking a break and continuing this thread in a bit…
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Okay back…
This is a good tweet by my friend @scrivs (by the way this thread is dedicated to him for challenging me to be more positive and helpful on here):
https://twitter.com/scrivs/status/1293918826774462469
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This is a good tweet by my friend @scrivs (by the way this thread is dedicated to him for challenging me to be more positive and helpful on here):
https://twitter.com/scrivs/status/1293918826774462469
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I think most of us feel this healthy reaction after working at a traditional corporation with enough time. As an employee, you will always be expendable. It's why I wanted to be independent in the first place.
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Capitalism constantly pushes us into two career modes: Fight like dogs against your peers to occupy one of the few top-level positions in a mini dictatorship or create your own dictatorship from the ground up.
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I now believe this is a false dichotomy. Our default reaction is to own our own thing, but I think we need to deconstruct what it is that we're really looking for with business ownership.
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My feeling is that most of us would just prefer to work in places where we are respected, have secure employment, are free from coercion, are paid fairly, have sane working hours, and have a say in things that affect us.
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I want to emphasize that coops are not inherently a miracle cure. They have the same issues with social power, team disfunction, poor leadership, personal coercion, etc. But they do provide a framework that gives us material security and freedom.
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As a company, we feel like we've started down a good path for helping our clients become more democratic, healthy, and cohesive. This is our sweet spot, but we know full-well that without shared ownership, democracy will always be limited.
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This is going to be difficult for existing owners of established businesses. Most owners I know (including many of our clients) will not readily give up portions of their company any time soon no matter how much business sense it makes (though DM me if you are).
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The bittersweet truth is that many of these organizations will cease to exist by this time next year. We're going to have a host of fresh starts and new companies. My hope is that at least some consider the coop path and we make this a common option in our industry.
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At @louderthanten we're in the early stages of a multi-year process to officially convert. Taking a queue from @SouthMountainCo, we're here to build a cathedral that will hopefully outlast me and @thestraymuse, so we want to take our time and make sure we do this right.
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In the meantime we're documenting our processes, researching better ways of making decisions, and learning how to operate as if everyone is already an owner. If you are someone who has done this or is interested in it, please DM me. Let's work together. Whew!
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Oh! This thread would not be complete without sharing the incredible work by @BlackSocialists and their indispensable collection of resources on coops (especially the rich history of coops among Black revolutionaries): https://blacksocialists.us/resource-guide
