Today’s forward-looking entrepreneurs have much to gain from adopting new ways to manage the people-side of their businesses. If they can just break with the past and experiment, they will be able to create effective, productive workplaces that support individuals’ aspirations to live truly satisfying, multidimensional lives.

Do you have a sense of mission, a belief that you have a product or service that can improve lives? Are you convinced that to make your vision a reality you need others to work with you who share that vision and are committed to it? If so, you’re probably ready to consider an alternative to the organizational models that have been in play for the past few hundred years.

But, first, a quick look at the prevailing models. Although nobody starting a business wants to end up in “The Dilbert Zone,” people still follow organizational models that are almost certain to lead there. These models treat employees as interchangeable parts in the machinery of business­-as costs, as assets, as capital­-rather than as fellow humans for whom work is a potential source of satisfaction at multiple levels of their existence. In these models the boss is­-THE BOSS: the decision-maker, the power on the throne. Whether the power is exercised benevolently or not is important­-but not as important as the fact that it resides in one person. All employees understand that the boss has his or her finger on the switch marked “you’re fired.” It’s tough being a boss; but that’s just the way it has to be­-right? Wrong.

I’ve been fortunate enough to observe first-hand an alternative that I believe is more in tune with the potential of 21st century business­-call it a “shared management” or “shared power” model. Implementing the model removes the deep-seated fear of the boss, which is the biggest block to people’s living to their full potential as they work toward realizing the vision of the business. If you’ve always been self-employed, you might never have experienced this fear directly. But if you’ve ever worked for someone else, you know what I’m talking about. Now, imagine yourself working free of fear of the boss. There’s quite a difference in the amount of energy you have available for the work, isn’t there? And your co-workers: how does removing the fear change how you view them and how willing you are to help them? What’s happening to workplace “politics” as the fear disappears? I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

My hope is that new entrepreneurs will begin to question old assumptions about the people-side of business just as they have questioned the limits to innovation in products and services. I believe all of us want for ourselves a workplace without fear of the boss. For those workplaces to become the prevailing reality, more of us must be willing to step into the unknown to create them. One thing is certain: the benefits, especially in human terms, of innovating successfully on the people-side of managing will far outweigh the time and effort expended.