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Quotations

Participation: From Users and Choosers to Makers and Shapers

Quotations

Having a right to participate means being recognized by the state as having an entitlement to be informed and involved. Making that right calls for amplifying and channeling citizen voices on the one hand and strengthening the state accountability on the other. Reinventing peoples´ role in this way—”from users and choosers to makers and shapers”— [...]

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Fairness is for Employees as …

Quotations

Fairness is for employees like quality is for customers—it takes years to build up but collapses over a singe incident. Ricardo Semler, Maverick, 1993, p.150.

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Round Pyramid, or Rounding the Pyramid

In the Workplace

Used by Ricardo Semler in Maverick to describe the circular hierarchy created at Semco in Brazil. (Chapter 24, “Rounding the Pyramid,” pp. 187-196.)

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Work, Not Business

Quotations

This is not a business book. It is a book about work, and how it can be changed for the better. Ricardo Semler in Maverick, 1993, in a statement following the acknowledgements. Maverick was originally published in Portuguese as Turning the Tables in 1988.

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Democracy Is a Lot of Work

Quotations

Democracy is a lot of work, I kept telling myself and anyone else who would listen. It needs to be exercised with conviction and without subterfuge or exception. And it begins with the little things, like neckties, time clocks, parking spaces, and petroleum blue uniforms. Ricardo Semler in Maverick, 1993, p. 136. Maverick was originally published [...]

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Full Disclosure

Quotations

No one can expect the spirit of involvement and partnership to flourish without an abundance of information available even to the most humble employee. I know all the arguments against a policy of full disclosure. … But the advantages of openness and truthfulness far outweigh the disadvantages. And a company that doesn’t share information when [...]

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