In a joint press release Senate majority leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner announced that Congressional leaders will mark the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration with a tribute today at noon. Reading this note and hearing President Kennedy’s address on NPR reminded me of what was without doubt the most memorable moment in that speech, when Kennedy urged the nation to “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” With so many companies asking what the country can do for them, the past three years of economic crisis have given new meaning and urgency to Kennedy’s imperative. The Responsible Business asks itself seriously–what can and must it do for the country? For starters, it must help make democracy work.

Here are three things The Responsible Business knows about democracy and consistently fosters in its stakeholders.

  1. Democracy requires citizens to become involved in intelligent governance. In The Responsible Business people develop critical thinking skills and engage in making society work, not only for themselves but for everyone and all of life. The Responsible Business builds the capability to engage in dialogue so that its people can become aware of how their decisions and actions affect others. It educates its people in responsibility and enables them to use it in their work every day. This carries over inevitably to citizenship.
  2. Democracy requires that people hold themselves accountable for their choices. The Responsible Business structures work and management systems so that personal accountability is the foundation of business. The ability to reflect and self-assess is paramount to self-accountability. Responsible businesses know that hierarchies make personal accountability impossible. They trade in their hierarchical forms of organization and create self-organizing teams that are responsible for all decisions that affect stakeholders.
  3. Democracy requires that people exercise agency by putting their own creativity to work. In fact, economies can only be healthy when constituents bring themselves fully to creative endeavors. The Responsible Business builds work designs within which individuals are able to express personal creativity in service to stakeholders.

Find free articles on this website that describe how businesses have helped create better democracies by changing how they do business in order to become more effective.