The Self-Organising System of XR UK - Explained

XR UK SOS working group - August 2019

This explanation of the Self-Organising System is based on the XR UK Constitution.

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If you want to understand the SOS in more nuance, then you should probably have a read through it.

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In this slideshow, we’ll go through ...

Introduction

Foundations

Mandates

Roles

Working Groups

Coordinators

Decision-making

Policies

So what does it mean to self-organise?

So in essence, we want a system that enables us to harness the whole group’s wisdom when needed

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And that at other times allows us to be flexible and respond quickly to a situation.

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How do we do this in XR UK?

The SOS in XR UK is based on ...

Distributed authority - The goal is that no one group or individual holds an excessive amount of power. Rules apply to everyone in the same way and no person has authority over another person or the whole system.

Decentralised decision-making - That means that groups are empowered to make certain decisions themselves. They don’t need to get the sign-off from a central group on those decisions.

Roles - �People in an SOS fill defined roles, for instance “regenerative culture advocate”. One person can fill several roles, and some roles can be filled by several people.

Mandates - �Roles and groups have mandates. For instance, the mandate for a regenerative culture advocate could be “Encouraging a regenerative cycle of work within the working group”.

Transparency - �The clearer you can be with the group members about what work you’re doing, the easier it will be to organise at scale without duplicating work.

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Mandates

The idea behind mandates is in many ways pretty radical. A mandate entails:

• Autonomy - You’re allowed to do whatever you want within the boundaries of your mandate (whilst following the Constitution and Principles & Values). So you don’t need to spend long meetings deciding as a whole group about the things within a role’s mandate.
• No rivalry or competition - As long as you have this mandate, people can offer to help you with your work or to join your role. But no one outside the role is allowed to do the work that you’re mandated to do.
• Responsibility - If you have a mandate, there is an expectation within your group that you will actually do the work connected to the mandate, and that you have the skill set needed to fulfill your mandate well.

The mandate of your role gets decided by the group you’re working in. We’ll come to groups and how they work in the SOS in a second.

So taking on a mandate in a group requires radical trust from the group but also radical accountability from you.

Not sure where to start?

Here are some tips for writing good mandates:�

1. Keep them as short as possible so they’re easy for people to read and understand
2. Start each mandate with a verb, so the mandate is an ongoing activity: e.g. writing/publishing/creating etc
3. Write each mandate as if you were answering the question: If you were sitting next to the person with this mandate, what would you see them doing?

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You can find examples of roles and their mandates on this doc ...

But the idea is that ALL the work that is done within a group is defined by roles and mandates!!! ��That way, we avoid confusion and conflict around who’s doing what.

So how does this work for a group?

There are many different names for a group - circle, working group, team. They all basically mean the same.

Just like with a role, working groups have mandates that define what this group is supposed to get on with within the wider XR organism.

Like roles, working groups are autonomous within their mandates.

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However, working groups have another layer to themselves - many working groups exist as working groups within working groups.

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For instance, Arrestee Support could be a subgroup of the Regenerative Culture working group. ��So what we end up with is not a hierarchy of power but a �hierarchy of purpose

Let’s have a look at this structure in XR UK …

After you clicked on the link in the slide title, click on the different circles and see new subcircles appearing, and then subcircles in those subcircle … huiii!

Click on the name of a circle, like Action Circle, and you can see the circle’s mandates (under Accountabilities) and some of the roles and role holders within that circle.

(The Glassfrog is work in progress so there may be some really embarrassing mistakes on there …)

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When a working group wants to change their mandates, they would propose the mandate change at the next wider level.

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So if Working Group X wants to change its mandate, Working Group Y would have to approve of that change.

But wait - how does a proposal get from Working Group X to Working Group Y?

Good point!

So let’s talk about information flow.

Every circle can request a meeting with another circle when it’s necessary. That allows for flexibility and avoids a rigid meeting culture.

For instance, Regenerative Culture (within the Movement Circle) and Legal Support (within the Actions Circle) could arrange a meeting with each other to discuss Arrestee Support.

Hence the “self-organising” in the title - you deal with needs as they arise.

But there’s more ...

Working groups have an internal and an external coordinator.

The internal coordinator is responsible for integration of new members into the group, keeping a list of group members, scheduling meetings etc. For a full list of mandates, have a look at the role spreadsheet on Slide 10.

The external coordinator represents their working group at meetings of the next wider circle. After the meeting, they feed news back to their working group.

Any group member can ask for a re-election of a coordinator at any time.

CEO

External Coordinator�

(you don’t need to wear a hat to be an external coordinator)

Internal Coordinator�

(you don’t need to jump around to be an internal coordinator)

So say the Movement Circle meets. That means the external coordinators of Talks & Trainings, Regenerative Culture, Media & Messaging etc etc come together to discuss movement related issues.

They don’t discuss, say, talks and trainings (because that happens in the Talks & Trainings subcircle).

The external coordinators don’t just talk about their personal opinions on the movement - they contribute their group’s perspective to the topic.

Remember that, as we mentioned earlier, there are loads more roles than just external coordinator on every level, including the Movement Circle. For instance, you could have a secretary for documentation or communication lead to check the group’s email inbox. ��

But why does the Internal Coordinator keep a member list?

Because in a Self-Organising System, authority is earned.

Only if you’re an active member of a working group are you allowed to attend its meetings and be part of its decision-making.

You’re an active member of a working group if you:

• Are working on at least one working group project at any time
• Attend working group meetings on a regular basis
• Comply with XR’s Principles & Values, Constitution and Ways of Working

That way, you can prevent your meetings from being clogged up by people who have lots of opinions to share but don’t get anything done.��If you don’t comply with one of the points above, you can be asked to leave the working group by its internal coordinator.

Not sure how to join a UK working group?

Just email the relevant email address(es) on the contact page of our website.

How do we make decisions in XR UK?

Let’s say some rebels in the Talks & Trainings working group think it would be handy to have a snazzy little third-hand car (run 100% on renewable energy, of course) to transport all their materials from one Summer Uprising to the next.

So someone wrote a proposal and circulated it among the group members in advance of their meeting so everyone had a chance to read through it. Now the question is:��

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Should they do it �or not?

Option #1: The decision is within a role’s mandate!

If making this decision is within a role’s mandate - that’s it! It’s down to the mandate-holder to make this decision. No need for the whole group to have a lengthy decision-making process.

So in our example, it might be within the mandate of the budget holder of the Talks & Trainings working group to make this decision. They should take feedback from those who will be most affected by their decision (they can use this advice process to do so) but the final say is with them.��(You’re starting to see now why the mandate system requires radical trust ;)

This mandate is not covered by anyone’s role? �Why not make a new one?

The ideal is to have every working group activity covered by a role and its mandates. You can use the following integrative decision-making process to create a new role or change an existing role’s mandate:

1. The proposer makes their proposal.�(“We need a budget holder role with the mandate to make this decision.”)
2. Everyone else has a chance to ask clarifying questions.�(“Would this role be filled by more than one person?”)
3. Everyone gets a chance to react to the proposal (once).�(“We really need a role like this.” “I’m concerned that it holds too much power.”)
4. The proposer can respond to any of the reactions and amend their proposal if they want to.
5. Finally, everyone gets a chance to object to the proposal if needed; an objection is only valid if it provides evidence that the proposal is going to cause harm and meets a few other criteria defined in the constitution.
6. (If there was a valid objection) suggestions for changes are integrated into the proposal until there are no grounds for objection left

(The integrative process can also be used for other kinds of decision-making but it’s not a fit for all.)

Option #2: If the decision is not covered by a mandate, the facilitator decides on an appropriate process!

Different facilitators use different decision-making processes. Some of them are:

• Temperature check (let people show jazz hands)
• Consent-based decision-making from Sociocracy
• Simple majority vote

You can find more options in the full Constitution.

If you want to avoid a vote or group decision-making process, a group can also delegate the decision to be made by a few individuals - sometimes, that will be easier than trying to make it in a big group.

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Congratulations, you’ve made a decision!

Make sure to document it in your minutes to avoid any confusions.

In the SOS, group decision-making is only used when absolutely necessary and not by default!

It takes more time than the other options and can drain people’s motivation and energy levels. That’s why it’s a good idea to set a time limit on how long you’re going to spend trying to make a decision before you start the process.

It’s not always easy for facilitators to decide on an appropriate decision-making process.

Which is why you should all organise more facilitation trainings (so get in touch with eventsxr@gmail.com ;). ��

And finally ...

Mandates are a good starting point. But at some point, you will notice that they only get you so far and you might want to introduce policies.

For instance, only cool rebels with sunglasses are allowed in our new car.

Or, slightly more reasonable, the car should only be used for this and that purpose.

Policies get decided using the integrative decision-making process (remember Slide 27?). We don’t want to write up a legal code, though. Only write policies to deal with a tension you’re actually facing - don’t try to predict every problem that might arise at some point and write a policy for it. We’re a rebellion, not a bureaucracy.

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And this is it!

Some of what we’ve outlined here will apply more to UK working groups than local groups or other national groups.

And we definitely don’t get it all right all the time!

But we’re getting better. ;)

Never hesitate to contact the Self-Organising System working group on xr.mandates@gmail.com if you have any questions.

And if you haven’t had enough yet, there are still loooads of materials you can have a look at.

The apple.