The next organisational paradigm - bringing together Agile and Deliberative Democracy

As our society and its over-centralised, industrial age systems continue to creak against the contradiction of capabilities in a distributed age. We can look to the corporate world, once more, for a model to weather our woes.

Yet, this is not about financing incentives, efficiency savings or responsible guardianship. It is about valuing individuals, adaptability, and collaboration. It is about embedding democratic practices. It is about Agile.

I first came across Agile while researching how to embed democratic participation in organisations. Not the out-of-date, self-selecting electoral type of democracy though, but the new paradigm of inclusive participation underpinned by representation through lot.

My interest peaked when I realised a practice I’d originally reserved for niche enthusiasts shared a vision with an industry projected to be worth $63.8 billion by 2026. It has been adopted by at least 71% of companies across the US, including the big 5 tech firms.

Agile is a system of operating which removes centralised decision making. It started life as a project management methodology for developers to bring new software to market faster. It has since evolved into an organisational philosophy applied to an ever-growing range of industries. At its heart, it is about adopting a flexible approach and empowering employees to make their own decisions on how to make progress towards shared goals. ?

Agile is the umbrella term for several operating frameworks to facilitate its adoption including Kanban, Scaled Agile Framework (SaFE) and Scrum. I recently pulled on the number 9 shirt myself and completed the certified Scrum Master training. Unsurprisingly, I was alone among my course mates in my motivation to apply this learning towards a democratic revolution. ?

?The agile manifesto runs as such:

Individuals and interactions?over processes and tools

Working software?over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration?over contract negotiation

Responding to change?over following a plan.

Familiar ground for my fellow democracy advocates. In fact, while not explicitly stated, presumably for reasons to protect the financial credibility of a billion-dollar industry, there is at least quiet acceptance of its democratic character. ?This report by PA consulting on the evolution of agile organisation, it states, “Agility is a thoroughly democratic attribute.”

A quick Google search on ‘Agile Democracy’ brings up numerous efforts to align the two, from hobby projects, to professional coaches and government institutes. The common theme is that future facing agile has lessons for an outdated democracy. And I would agree with that. However, I would also focus on the fact that this applies to the more familiar electoral democracy. There are democratic approaches that better align with agile principles, namely deliberative democracy. The next democratic paradigm championed by organisations such as DemocracyNext and the Sortition Foundation, and evidenced in hundreds of examples over the past few decades.

Fundamentally, both are off shoots of an organisational reality based around human knowledge rather than subservience to a linear, industrial model.

For the uninitiated, this new democratic paradigm is about localising decision making and the globalising collaboration, by putting everyday citizens rather than self-selecting politicians at the heart of power. To take the mantra of Democracy Next - “by tapping into the ideas, energy, and collective wisdom of everyone, we are better equipped to address societal challenges, overcome polarisation, and strengthen trust.”

To further illustrate this point, here’s the manifesto with subtle changes made to apply to how society should be governed:

Interaction with the public over party processes

Flexible frameworks over comprehensive legislation

Public collaboration over negotiation

Responding to change over following a manifesto.

There is an opportunity here, not yet taken, to build on this synergy of purpose. For corporations to unleash their agile potential beyond the confines of product delivery. And for democracy advocates to use agile’s corporate credibility to advance the case for a move towards a better, distributed democracy.

To overcome this, I believe there are two areas of contention to address, one from either side. I will confront both and offer some thoughts on a way forward. For ease of argument, I generalise both into homogenous blocks, despite recognising diversity in approach and opinion exist across both sectors. Regardless of where one sits on the spectrum, the purpose here is to open the door to greater resonance across it.

Why democracy isn’t embraced by agile enthusiasts and what can be done to solve this?

Democracy has an image problem. The goal of Agile working is about being efficient, flexible, fast. Democracy is its accepted form is none of these things. Trust is collapsing, as the process of governing is undermined by polarisation and competition. It is stranded in an centuries old industrial model, emerging at time when access to information and communication were limited. A time when it made sense to delegate our decisions to ‘representatives’. In the same way, the circumstances of time called for King’s to devolve power to Lords and then from Lords to elected representatives. The time to embrace the next evolution from elected representatives to citizens has come.

Similar problems plague ‘workplace democracy’, most closely associated with the trade union movement, which struggles to adapt to a knowledge-based economy, displaced from simple binaries of labour and capital.

It is important to state at this stage, of course, some representation is better than none. Trade unions and elected politicians have bought about some of the most important reforms to improve the human condition. The underlying point here is that over the past hundred years, the nature of society, its organisations, its workforce, and its collaborative capabilities have fundamentally shifted. The models for leadership and governance have not.

Below is the Tannenbaum-Schmidt Leadership Continuum, used to illustrate the evolution of leadership in organisations. Successful Agile leaders strive to be delegative. Now let’s translate TC (Team Captain) to ‘Prime Minister’ and Team to the public and the gap becomes apparent. Our political leaders are hovering between “SELL” and “SUGGEST”. No wonder decisions are neither efficient, flexible, or fast!

Democracy, both in the workplace and wider society has to put forward a compelling vision for the future to regain its credibility. At the same time, organisations who have adopted agile approaches can do more to embed democratic character, or even a commitment to being genuinely delegative in their wider culture. So what can be done to resolve this, here is one model that can be used, fusing the principles of agile and deliberative democracy.

When the needs of the organisation require slower, longer term, wider reaching, reflective thinking, something that could be termed an “organisation wide retrospective” or an “Organisational Assembly” could be implemented. It would be perfect opportunity to use select a representative proportion of the organisation through a lottery and let them deliberate, make decisions, and present the findings to a leadership which has transcended to ‘ABDICATE’.

This is just one example of how to better impel the narrative of democracy within organisations to move from opposition to collaboration and to deliberation not demands.

Why agile isn’t embraced by democracy enthusiasts and what can be done to solve this?

Despite efforts to emphasise its true nature, agile is fundamentally a project management system. On the other hand, ‘Democracy’ isn’t just a mechanism, it is a value, one which defines a fundamental belief in what it means to be human. To activists and advocates, comparisons to an organising system which is built to maximise profits through increasing speed and scale to customers is an affront to its core.

Therefore, to help soften the sharp edge of this sentimentalism, I’ll introduce another model to establish a useful link between the agile and deliberative democracy. The key here is changing the overwhelming focus on the ‘customers’ to ‘Citizens’, as outlined in the book of the same name by Jon Alexander. Alexander uses the aphorism that we hear humans described as consumers over 3,000 times per day, imagine if we used that same energy into seeing each other as citizens.

This approach would even go some way to embedding the core Scrum values of commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect across society, with organisations driven by purpose not profit.

Regardless of the number of carefully prepared Mission, Vision, Value statements, I recognise that most corporate sector organisations will not renounce profit motivations overnight. However, any steps towards considering its purpose linked to society when making decisions is a positive step.

For now, the most immediate target to establish a working link between agile and democracy are charities, public sector institutions and not-for-profits, organisations with a human focused purpose at their core. Having worked in these sectors for most of my adult life, I can attest that they can be some of the most backwardly hierarchical institutions, seemingly immune to innovation. Therefore, following the example of the Children’s Society, an agile restructure empowering employees and embedding adaptability would only accelerate the potential for impact.

The heart of the current mismatch it that for agile enthusiasts, agile is the goal, the democracy is circumstantial. For deliberative democracy advocates, democracy is the goal, and the agile tenants are circumstantial. This in itself is natural and unproblematic. The problem is when this leads to potential for coaction being ignored or misunderstood.

To tackle the biggest, most complex issues facing humanity the response must be interdisciplinary. We need to look for and embrace opportunities for convergence. Despite the best efforts here, there are, of course grey areas in the overlap between agile and democracy. However, there is a unified by purpose - a new paradigm of collaboration fit for the future, one which empowers individuals and distributes decision making. And therefore, lessons to be learned.

This article is very much the opening gambit, for what I hope is a synergy to build upon. My own practice as a collaboration consultant is about fusing together experience from both fields to build spaces for the purposeful human to flourish. So, here’s a callout to agile enthusiasts, democracy advocates and the curious undefined. Let’s collaborate!

SORTED: A Collaboration Consultancy is set up to harness innovations in participatory approaches to accelerate the shift towards more human centred organisations, fit for the future. If you want to explore these ideas further please reach out via LinkedIn or [email protected].