I am excited to share the news that WorldBlu, a company specializing in democracy in the workplace, has announced that Messiah Village is one of 44 organizations globally named to the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces^TM. Messiah Village is one of two Pennsylvania organizations and the only retirement community that made this year’s list.

The announcement of the 2010 winners was made today as part of the fourth annual Democracy in the Workplace Day. The list includes for-profit and non-profit organizations from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, India, the Netherlands and Malaysia in industries such as technology, healthcare, telecommunications, media, manufacturing, aerospace and retail. They represent more than $12 billion in combined annual sales.

This year’s 2010 winners include Zappos.com, Meetup, DaVita, 3i Infotech, HCL Technologies, Great Harvest Bread Company, Equal Exchange, Continuum, Menlo Innovations, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, BetterWorld Telecom, Chroma Technology Corp., and I Love Rewards. We are certainly in good company!

This award is particularly gratifying because it is based on how Messiah Village employees rated their workplace environment. More than 80 percent of Village employees completed the WorldBlu Democratic Workplace Scorecard™, evaluating the organization’s practice of 10 democratic principles, including transparency, dialogue and listening, integrity, accountability and choice on a leadership, individual, and a systems and processes level. The scorecard results showed that Village employees feel more positive about their workplace than those that did not make the list and rate it at a high level similar to many outstanding organizations around the world.

We did not win this award because of anything I did, but because of what employees themselves said about their experience working at the Village.

WorldBlu defines an organizational democracy as a system of organization that is based on freedom instead of fear and control. It developed the scorecard tool based on a decade of research into what makes a world-class democratic organization. The system is a way of designing organizations to amplify the possibilities of human potential – and the organization as a whole. To learn more, visit www.worldblu.com.

We first entered the WorldBlu program to help us evaluate our transformation to a “person-centered, community-minded” organization. Many of the principles of the person-centered care movement are similar to the principles of democratic organizations. The results indicate that we have made good progress in our transformation. There is still more work to do, but we are moving forward and have a great foundation to go to the next level in our transformational journey.

The principles of a democratic organization create both a positive workplace and a participatory, enriching community for residents and clients to live and receive support. We strive to be an organization that offers a spectrum of aging services that invites older adult participation, offers choices, creates compassionate communities and encourages purposeful aging. We believe it is important for the workplace culture to align with the culture experienced by residents and clients. Living out the principles of organizational democracy has always been important to Messiah Village because they reflect many of the same values of the faith tradition upon which Messiah Village was founded and are a prime way to accomplish our mission and vision.

I believe this award gives us the confidence and courage to continue on our important journey. It is also an indicator of what we already know: Messiah Village is a unique, rewarding place to live and work. I consider this one of our top organizational highlights over the past several years.

We will celebrate this world-class award on Friday, April 16, with special events for employees and residents. Additionally, we will hold a drawing to select two employees to join me at the WorldBlu award conference in Las Vegas in June.

Sincerely,

Emerson L. Lesher, president