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| | | | |  | Welcome to the Joy at Work Journal. This month, we'll look at what I mean by fairness or justice. When it comes to "fairness," I often think we chose the right value but the wrong word. In my lectures, I often ask people to complete the sentence. "Fairness means treating everyone _______." Ninety-five percent of the people I ask respond, "the same." I usually respond, "I mean just the opposite." The word "justice" better describes the standard we set for ourselves and AES. I like the traditional Jewish definition of justice: "To each person what he deserves, to each one what is appropriate." If I combine this definition with an assumption that each person is unique, I logically complete the sentence this way: "Fairness or justice means treating everyone differently." We’ve all heard the story of the sergeant who stands before his troops and announces, "Nobody gets special treatment around here!" What fairness meant at AES was that everyone got special treatment. The interpretation of these concepts gets confused because of another concept we hold dear: equality. The logic of equality goes something like this: "I’m the same person or do the same job as another person, so I should be treated the same as that person." Equality and fairness are not synonyms, however, and neither captures organizational justice the way I use it. Each individual who works in the organization is unique and special and deserves to be treated accordingly. Dennis Bakke www.DennisBakke.com p.s. e-mail your questions to askdennis@dennisbakke.com. I'll respond to them in next month's Journal. 
"The traditional way to achieve consistency is to have senior executives make all important decisions and set all company policies and procedures. Trouble is, this process often leads to defining fairness or justice as “sameness" and takes the joy out of work." --Dennis Bakke
Executive Summary>Only have a few minutes? Read the synopsis of Joy at Work online for an overview of the key concepts. Executive Summary
Joy at Whole Foods Market?>Reason magazine featured Milton Friedman, Whole Foods' John Mackey, and Cypress Semiconductor's T.J. Rodgers, debating the social responsibility of business. Whole Foods founder and CEO, John Mackey, says, "In contrast to Friedman, I do not believe maximizing profits for the investors is the only acceptable justification for all corporate actions. The investors are not the only people who matter. Corporations can exist for purposes other than simply maximizing profits." The lively article touches many of the themes in Joy at Work. Read the Article
Harvard Business Review Interview> In one of the bestselling HBR Interviews, Roger Sant and Dennis Bakke reflect on their trials and triumphs in creating an exceptional company. When they founded AES in 1981, Sant and Bakke set out to create an employee-run company where people could have engaging experiences on a daily basis—a company that embodied the principles of fairness, integrity, social responsibility, and fun. Available online at Havard Business School Press
 Note: Visit the Water Cooler Wisdom page to download all the PDF's of Bakke's Top 10. 1. When given the opportunity to use our ability to reason, make decisions, and take responsibility for our actions, we experience joy at work. 2. The purpose of business is not to maximize profits for shareholders but to steward our resources to serve the world in an economically sustainable way. 3. Attempt to create the most fun workplace in the history of the world. 4. Eliminate management, organization charts, job descriptions, and hourly wages. 5. Fairness means treating everybody differently. 6. Principles and values must guide all decisions. 7. Put other stakeholders (shareholders, customers, suppliers, etc.) equal to or above yourself. 8. Everyone must get advice before making a decision. If you don’t seek advice, “you’re fired.” 9. A “good” decision should make all the stakeholders unhappy because no individual or group got all they wanted. 10. Lead with passion, humility, and love. Dennis Bakke breaks down #5: Fairness Means Treating Everybody Differently
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FREE DOWNLOAD - Water Cooler Wisdom - Rule #5 printable 8.5 x 11 pdf document
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Want to start a dialogue in your office about what fairness means? Download the PDF of "Fairness Means Treating Everybody Differently" and stick it up where it will be seen.
Click on the link below to access the Water Cooler Archive http://www.DennisBakke.com/pages/watercoolerwisdom 
Review by Donald Mitchell (#3 Amazon.com Reviewer)
In my writing about CEO best practices, I've had the opportunity to interview Dennis Bakke and write about AES a number of times over the years. Although I always checked the words with him before publishing, I never felt like I got the story right.
Naturally, I was intrigued when I saw that he had written Joy at Work and wanted to find out what he would say about his approach at AES in a more extended manner. I also wondered what he would have to say about his departure from the firm.
If you want to learn more about AES and Dennis Bakke's perspective on the company, you will find this to be a five-star book. If you want a management guide for creating joy at work, that book remains to be written. In the meantime, I recommend that anyone who believes in human dignity and potential should read this book and consider how its lessons can be employed in other organizations.
Mr. Bakke defines joy using a sports analogy. It's like having the chance to make the winning shot at the buzzer in a basketball game. You're in charge, regardless of what your job is in the organization.
If you speak with any management person, they will probably tell you that they hope to work as a CEO someday. Why? I think the motivation mostly relates to wanting to be able to call the shots about something and see how it all turns out. In that sense, the impulse isn't much different from that of a budding chemist conducting an experiment in a high school lab.
In our authoritarian organizations (which includes almost all of them), very few people have the say on any given decision. It's like being a child all of your life . . . while Dad and Mom decide for you.
Bakke argues for the opposite. Put everyone in charge and have the "higher ups" function as support for those on the line. Get rid of staff wherever possible. Abolish the distinction between "management" and "labor" and treat everyone the same. People have argued this point for years, and many companies have small scale experiments where they work on such principles. Bakke and AES are different. The company was built from the ground up with these concepts in mind.
A major challenge came in that AES acquired most of its businesses, which meant that 80% of its employees learned about the AES way after working in the same electrical generating facility or coal mine in the usual authoritarian way. People soon adjusted to the change. Some liked it so much that they gave up financially attractive retirement offers to keep working in the new AES method. The book's epilogue contains many examples that will interest you.
Why did Dennis Bakke take this approach? It was based on the moral decision, grounded in Scripture, that this is the right thing to do. He specifically argues against taking this approach because you think you will make more money. Maybe you will, or maybe you won't . . . but it has to be values and principle based to work properly. That's his point which he explains in more detail in the book's postscript.
I remember when I founded my first company. I wanted to make it a model of how to treat people well. I tried all kinds of things, and most of them didn't work very well. I suspect that if Joy at Work had been around as a model, I would have done better. I'm glad that young entrepreneurs will be able to read this book and make the choice of whether to lead with their values or not.
If you are caught up in the idea that companies only exist for shareholders' gain, this book is a valuable antidote that you need to sweeten your soul.
 Contact Us:
Questions for Dennis Bakke: askdennis@dennisbakke.com
General Inquiries: info@dennisbakke.com
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