About Us

Effective management unlocks talent and distributes leadership, increases job satisfaction, and cultivates collaboration in the workplace. The School for Democratic Management gives you tools you can use right away to build the culture that your company needs. Democratic management is committed to high levels of participation - not as an option, but as an imperative.

Learn From Our Experts

Our School is unique in the field of management training; instructors are current and former managers of successful companies with employee ownership, as well as consultants who work with them. We work closely with our instructors to identify key lessons and tools for actualizing company values. Content is practically oriented to be short yet intensive, covering best practices from a range of companies and industries.

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Our Framework

Courses are structured around four core elements of a democratic workplace:
Financial Return: Employees see the rewards of financial success
Information Sharing: Workers are empowered to participate meaningfully
Power Sharing: Everyone is clear about who makes what decisions and why
Human Development: Democracy requires building skills and developing capacity  

Our Mentor and Advisors

The School’s design and content draws from the research and practice of experts in the field:
Jack Stack, and his approach to Open Book Management as articulated in The Great Game of Business
Chris Mackin, and the theories honed through his consulting practice, Ownership Associates
Paul Bernstein in his seminal book, Workplace Democratization 
The ICA Group's accessible work on Democratic Governance 

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Founding Advisors of the School include: Rob Brown, Cooperative Development Institute; Aaron Dawson, Industrial Commons; Molly Hemstreet, Opportunity Threads; Karla Reyes, Dreamco Marketing & Consulting; and Ginny Vanderslice, Praxis Consulting Group. Our mandate to educate workers for democracy comes from the late Frank Adams, author of Putting Democracy to Work.  This School draws inspiration, too, from the Work People’s College of the early 20th century, which was formed by workers to teach workers how to manage their own companies.


Our Impact

Unique Offerings

 Between our webinars, tools, and in-person programs, we have hosted 200+ new offerings since the School launched.

Organizations Represented

The businesses represented at our trainings range from micro to large in a variety of industries with different levels of employee ownership.

Registrations

We have reached workers and owners internationally through participatory trainings on diverse topics.
 "The opportunity to hear the instructor's rich experience was valuable, to get a broad based exposure to ideas. It is clear that there is a lot of passion and experience with the topics."
Nicole Koch, Technicians For Sustainability 
"All cooperatives go through ups and downs, but hearing that from managers of respected cooperatives gives me a bigger view of things."
Geovani Aguilar, A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative 
  "I can use and build off of existing tools. We don’t have to start from zero. We can fast forward that way, when there’s already something in existence."
Patty Guzmán, The Working World

Worker Cooperatives and Organizations We've Helped

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