Election Day: Iroquois Influence on U.S. Democracy & Self Management Systems

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Skash** (0:18)
Hello and welcome back to the show. Did you know the US government use principles from the Iroquois people to structure the government? These principles can also apply to your self-managed teams at work. And that's what we're going to dive into today. I'm Stephen Skash here again with Tulio, Syragusa, and Ashmar. Hey, guys. Hey, guys.
All right. So it's Presidential Election Day in America. I know people are probably feeling nauseous about the whole process, but this is, believe it or not, a day that represents one of the greatest expressions of democracy. So yeah, you may be feeling nauseous, but let's all get through it and see where things land.

**Tulio Syragusa** (1:07)
We might be on a long line, and you could watch us live while you're waiting.

**Stephen Skash** (1:10)
You could listen while you're in that voting line. So, but what many people may not realize is that much of the democratic process we take part in today was influenced by the governance model of the Iroquois Confederacy. And what we're going to do today is something I don't think anyone's done before, is we're going to show how their system of government governance can work for self-managed teams in business. In fact, we just implemented this as our system for decision-making for our self-managed teams. But before we do that, let's step back in time. The Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Haudenosaunee, or People of the Longhouse, was a league of six nations that formed one of the earliest examples of participatory democracy, some 500, 600 years before the United States was formed. So the founding fathers of the United States, particularly Ben Franklin, studied and admired the Iroquois decision-making process when drafting the Constitution. Franklin, in fact, advocated for a similar structure to the Iroquois Confederacy, where representatives from different groups would come together to make decisions in the spirit of unity and collaboration.
So if you read any of the self-managed books out there or that talk about self-management being the next stage of business, you will see that they discuss some strikingly similar key elements here. And one of the key aspects of the Iroquois governance was their use of consensus-based decision-making. So instead of relying on majority rule, where the loudest voices might drown out the other voices, as we've seen for the past year or so, just the constant bit of that, the Iroquois believed in a system where all voices were heard and decisions were made with collective agreement. So the approach not only prevented sort of unnecessary division, but ensured that decisions consider the well-being of all people and the future generations to come. So they're even considering down the line how their decisions impacted that. So as we watch the election unfold today, keep in mind that some of the most profound ideas of governance come long before the birth of this nation. And with that, let's drive into how the wisdom of the Iroquois can help us guide in building stronger, more connected, and more purpose-driven businesses. So you may be asking, how does this tie into business? Well, these principles that they've used, shared values, thoughtful deliberation, consensus, they're perfectly applied to teams within organizations. So we're going to explore that. So let's do this. Tulio, let's jump into a little more details here. Just on some of the background, I've tried to cover some of that, but let's give a little more historical context as well.

**Tulio Syragusa** (4:22)
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to tie it into one of my favorite self-management system, so sociocracy, because it's got a lot of similarities. So wherever I invent the cancel culture, this was the opposite. This was not about cancel culture. This was inclusive culture. And in fact, what made the Iroquois Confederacy governance so remarkable is that it was built, number one, on the concept of peace, peace, cooperation, and collective decision-making. So it was like an enshrine in the way that they called the Great Law of Peace. So you can imagine this wasn't about arguing to prove a point, as it was more about being in relationship to come together to gain consensus. So a lot of relationship building in this. So, and they had a few set of rules. It was very comprehensive, very comprehensive work and framework, which was designed in living harmoniously, with balance of power and ensuring that all the voices were heard. So similar to the Great Law of Peace, a lot of the core principles, for example, in the US Constitution have striking similarities. The Iroquois system was essentially like this federal system in nature, much like the United States government. Each of the six nations maintained autonomy over its internal affairs, but came together for larger decisions that impacted the larger community. So similar to how we have federal system and state system, and then also different branches to avoid any one particular department or system to over control another, there was a lot of that in place. So in our modern system, for example, decisions often come down to who gets the most votes. But in their earquares, they actually believe in something for more collaborative. So in fact, their goal wasn't to get to 51 percent of the group to agree, leaving the other 49 percent discontent. They would actually discuss issues until everyone was on the same page. So could you imagine, could you imagine where instead of having two sides fighting each other, they just decide, let's find ways to all be in agreement. This is how it operated. So no one would end up feeling like, hey, a group of us won and a group of us lost. So that was not the intent, because that does not create peace. So this was a system based on maintaining peace. So when it comes to self-management system, very similar to this is a system called sociocracy. While it wasn't directly born out of the Iroquois Confederacy governance structure, it shares very similar philosophies, particularly around the idea of collective decision-making and equality.