Book review
The Seven-Day Weekend: A better way to work in the 21st Century
By Ricardo Semler
Published by Arrow Books 2003, 275 pages, £7.99
ISBN 0-09-942523-8
This is sort of a sequel to 'Maverick', Ricardo Semler's first book about his company Semco and its unique form of democratic organisation. I found it fascinating and an interesting reading — it is something you will read and say to yourself, 'that would never work here!', but it does leave you wondering. Could it work here? Could you design and work in a truly democratic organisation?
Semco began life as an industrial shop, founded by Ricardo's father in 1954. Antonio Curt Semler had patented a centrifuge for separating oils and then started a small machine shop. By the late 1960's it was a successful business and they went into partnership with two British marine pump manufactures. For the next 25 years they built marine pumps. When Ricardo was 21 his father offered him a deal. Until then he had had little interest in the rigid, traditional company his father ran. He knew he was expected to take it over, but dreaded the day. His father offered to step back and allow Ricardo a free hand to re-make the company as he saw fit.
Within days of taking over he had fired two thirds of his father's senior managers. He then spent the next two decades 'questioning, challenging and dismantling the traditional business practises at Semco.' What Ricardo wanted to do was liberate people by creating a new kind of organisation; a truly democratic organisation.
And he describes the way that he has attempted to do just that in his organisation. Replace control and structure with democracy — just what does this mean? Although, when it really comes down to it there are still things that he and/or his top executives WOULD decide, most things are open to discussion including which way the company will go, what it will invest in, who is in and who is out.
Semler tells stories about different people in his organisation. People, for instance, who had the wrong job, not just once, but maybe five or six times until finally one was found that suited them. And it wasn't the organisation that found these different jobs, but the people themselves. It seems that to be successful in Semco, one must take on a large dollop of responsibility and leadership themselves. Isn't that something we try to encourage in our own workplaces? He talks of people who come to Semco and try to find themselves a job, instead of Semco advertising for jobs. This isn't to say that they don't also advertise, but to indicate that their fame has spread. He tells about how they decide to get into different businesses, sharing not just the successes, but also the failures and the learnings that came out of those failures.
Semler reckons that the only way we can get people to embrace change is if it is a non-issue and we replace control with democracy, allowing employees to think and act independently, taking responsibility to do the best for themselves and their colleagues. Well, the theory is fine and I know it works for him, although I've recently heard that the organisation has got so big that they are experiencing some difficulties — I just wonder how it would work in an organisation like the one I work in. There have always been pockets of Camelot in every organisation no matter how toxic it is, just as there are pockets of toxicity in the best organisations. So might we try a small experiment? Just a tiny one — I'm not quite convinced, but it does resonate with my appreciative way of being.
So, if you're up for having your thinking challenged a bit and to feeling uncomfortable as you imagine what it might be like living in the world he describes, this is a book to recommend. It was interesting and I liked the stories. But I have to be honest and say I'm not sure how easy it would be to apply what he is doing in our organisational cultures.