Alfie Kohn on human behavior, education, and society

And as I so often do I backed up to the root URL and found the home page of his site - I've only scratched the service but it is full of ideas that challenge conventional thinking. His website is broken into 3 areas : Teaching, Parenting and Managing. I think I will be linking some more to this guy.

Here is the description of one of his lectures by way of a 'taster' :

QUALITY AS DEMOCRACY:
Toward a Participative Workplace

Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.

The latter strategy is exemplified by rewards systems, performance appraisal, and competition -- all symptoms of top-down control.

By contrast, as Kohn explains, the logical conclusion of a "working with" approach to management extends beyond teamwork or empowerment: it requires the replacement of hierarchical systems with real participative democracy.