Traci Fenton

Traci Fenton is the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., a leadership and business design studio specializing in organizational democracy and freedom-centered leadership. As a leading expert in organizational democracy, she is recognized as one of the business thought-leaders of her generation as well as of the next generation of business. Fenton has been published in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper and has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report (online edition) as well as several dozen other magazines, online journals, radio shows and blogs.

Fenton also frequently addresses audiences in organizations ranging from Yahoo! to Fox Interactive Media to the CIA to Harvard University on organizational democracy and freedom-centered leadership and has shared her message with individuals from over 100 countries.

Fenton has spent over a decade pioneering methods and tools for designing and building democratic companies, including the WorldBlu Democratic Design System™. Her unique vision has created events like WorldBlu LIVE™, a first-of-its kind global conference on organizational democracy. Fenton also pioneered the groundbreaking WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™, an annual listing of the most democratic organizations in the world that premiered in 2007.

Drawing from over a decade of original research and hundreds of conversations with business executives and leading practitioners about how freedom, rather than fear and control, can be practiced within a business environment, Fenton is currently working on her first book highlighting innovative case studies in organizational democracy.

Prior to becoming Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc., Fenton founded the WorldBlu Foundation, a non-profit think-tank. Previously in her career she worked in public relations and advertising for a Fortune 500 company, was a social venture capitalist for the NASDAQ Stock Market’s multi-million dollar educational foundation, and was a social entrepreneurial consultant for a national non-profit organization.

Fenton has traveled throughout Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and Europe. She earned a BA in global studies and entrepreneurship from Principia College and a master's degree in international development from American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC. In her free time Fenton loves traveling, learning how to play the cello, running, yoga, spending time outdoors, and writing poetry.

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Secrets of the World’s Most Democratic Workplaces

Business as usual, characterized by an omnipotent CEO, layers of management, and closed-door deal-making is officially becoming a recipe for failure in the new world of work. At a time when the Internet has made everybody a somebody, where speed is king, and where Generations X & Y are increasingly taking the leadership helm, businesses all over the world must radically rethink the way they are designed and operated.

In this new world, the most successful companies are practicing organizational democracy as a key to their competitive advantage – a disciplined yet freedom-centered strategy for fully engaging employees, tapping their potential, sparking innovation, and building trust.

Sharing best practices and stories from the companies featured on the groundbreaking WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™, and drawing from over a decade of her research into successful democratic companies around the world, Fenton shares secrets to building a world-class democratic workplace. Along the way she challenges audiences to rethink their assumptions about what democracy actually is and explains with spirit and insight why “getting naked,” “renouncing rankism,” and “pointing fingers” is the best way to attract top talent, boost the bottom-line, and reinvent your workplace for business in a Democratic Age.