Decision making

Decision making > advice process & consent

At euforia we use 2 different decision processes depending on the type of decision:

• Consent based decision making with the entire team for big decisions. « Big » decisions include : wellbeing mixes + the high end of strategic decisions (= from annual objectives/intentions to our values and purpose)

• The advice process for everything else.

PLUS: we have a general policy that no one can make a decision that goes against our values or purpose.

Using these processes is compulsory and non-negotiable. In case someone does not, you can use our conflict resolution process to deal with it.

The advice process

Here's how Laloux describes the advice process (pp 100-103):

“In principle, any person in the organization can make any decision. But before doing so,that person must seek advice from all affected parties and people with expertise on the matter.The person is under no obligation to integrate every piece of advice; the point is not to achieve a watered down compromise to accommodate everyone’s wishes. But advice must be sought and taken into serious consideration. The bigger the decision, the wider the net must be cast(...). Usually, the decision maker is the person who notice the issue or opportunity or the person most affected by it.”

At euforia, the advice process is applied within the scopes of people's roles. What does that mean? That you can decide how best to enact your roles' purpose and what should be done, taking into account the advice of people who will be affected. It also means that you cannot start projects that answer the purpose of somebody else's role.

The advice process is a key process to making self management function: it is actually so critical that in some self managing organizations, colleagues know that forgetting to uphold the advice process is one of the few things that can get them fired. Not the case at euforia yet ;)

There are many benefits of the advice process > it creates:

• Community, as people whose advice is sought feel honored and needed

• Humility, throught the act of asking for advice and recognizing the need for others

• Learning, on the job with real cases and people who are experts and care

• Better decisions, since decision maker is close to the issue and will have to live with the consequences of the decision (unlike top managers in traditional hierarchies)

• Fun and creativity

"With the advice process, the ownership of the decision stays clearly with one person: the decision maker. Convinced she has made the best possible decision, she sees things through with great enthusiasm, trying to prove to advice givers that their trust was well placed or their objections immaterial. While consensus drains energy out of an organization, the advice process boosts motivation and initiative.”

You can ask for advice on loomio, via slack, over coffee, during the weeklies, by asking for a meeting with a specific person or during the quarterlies.

Consent decision making

We've been using consent decision making as described in Starhawk manual since 2013.

Here are the steps:

1. Presentation of the topic and proposal by the initiator (good preparation is key!)

2. Discussion: Some sort of facilitated discussion (brainstorming, love it/change it/leave it feedback, simple round of reactions, etc.), during which modifications to improve the proposal are made. The notetaker ensures accurate recordings are made.

3. Additions to proposal: The facilitator reads the modified proposal and asks if this corresponds to the group's ideas or if there are still additions to be made.

4. Decision on proposal: The facilitator states the (updated) proposal and asking "Can you live with it?"

   1. Thumbs up from everyone means yes I can live with it!

   2. Thumb down is a blocking, means the person has a grave concern that either there was a breach in process or the proposal goes against our values/purpose and the proposal is rejected or should be discussed.

   3. Thumb to the side _means I have a concern that is not a blocking_, so it does not block approval.

   4. No thumb means I abstain, which can happen for various reasons (for eg: I dont feel concerned by this decision and dont want to vote on it, I arrive too late in the process to make an informed decision but trust the group to make the right decision...)

Lately we have also been experimenting with consent from sociocracy3.0 (see poster below also available open source from their website); very similar to the above but with different gestures.

1. Thumbs up from everyone means they don't object to the proposal

2. Hand facing the sky as if we were offering a present when we want to "give" an objection to improve the proposal

3. Hand facing down and shaking when we have a "concern" that we want to express but we have no objection

Roles to insure the process goes smoothly:

• Facilitator

• Notetaker

• Timekeeper

• (Vibewatcher)