Sermo means conversation in Latin. Design a team of intelligent, creative, forward-thinking visionaries then Sermo means rocket fuel in English. Dr. Daniel Palestrant, founder and CEO of the Cambridge-based Sermo, Inc. is responsible for creating an online community for physicians, by physicians. The numbers of registered onsite users is growing at an exponential rate and I can see why.

Having visited Sermo’s headquarters in Cambridge one recent Tuesday morning, the image of the office design and flow designed by Dr. Daniel Palestrant continues to resonate. I would be remiss if I didn't add that it was the first time I was ever at a conference table with a dog sitting comfortably at my foot.

Clearly, corporate America’s got it all wrong. No need to despair, however, there are steps that businesses can take to improve morale that starts with the business environment. In no particular order:

1) Mow down all of your gray cubicles and slide them right out the window. Turns out, people can work quite happily when not confined to cell blocks. How can you play on a team when you can’t see your teammates? What’s more, unlike bats, people like windows.

2) Get rid of the framed pictures of all of your former CEO’s. Same suit, same pose. Why look backward? It doesn’t bode well for corporate America to remind women or minorities what they were never allowed to achieve. Try forward thinking. Put up great pictures of your employees, find out their favorite quotes; find out who they are.

3) Get thee immediately to those ghastly dungeons known as “lunch rooms” with their ripped, broken chairs and wobbly tables. What should be thrown away or condemned is never perfectly fine for employees to use. Create a wide open space that’s bright and clean and pops with color. Provide a sense of home and family – employees will respond in kind.

4) Have your CEO sit in an open area, on the same type of furniture and in the same room. Employees are not going to forget who has what title, but they will respect status all the more when it comes from a place of humility.

Perhaps most impressive about Sermo are the brilliant pieces that go into creating its mosaic. Physicians, teachers, artists and more combine their creativity with logic to form what has become a life saving service. Sermo is a forum for physicians to anonymously consult, educate and support each other 24 hours a day. Who benefits most? We all do.

A mountain is about to grow beneath its feet.

www.sermo.com