10 revolutionary practices your organisation can implement this week.
A listicle for practices? Groundbreaking.
This week’s image is Kurt Schwitter’s 1919 artwork, “Das Kreisen”, courtesy of WikiArt.
Wax lyrical all you like about organisations being revolutions, but for change to happen, it must be accompanied by practical application. This week, I'm keeping it short and sweet. Underneath the veneer of the listicle style title (it's harder than you think to come up with a title every week), I hope you'll find 10 tangible ways to start making changes.
These are all geared towards creating more reciprocal, ethical and generative organisations. Ones that share power equally, embrace peer-relationships as the norm, and which re-distribute resources rather than hoarding wealth.
As much as possible, I try and write organisation-agnostic, so that it can be used by anyone - from self-employed person, non-profit community, or medium-sized business alike. However, you may find that some of these don't apply to your situation, so as always, your discretion is advised. You are the best judge of what works for you.
Still have questions afterwards, or want to know the fine-print of how these could work? Not idly is the comment function there, or feel free to send me a message.
I. Include an Indigenous land acknowledgement if you live on stolen land
This one should be a given, but it’s worth repeating. It could include the traditional place names of the land you live on, the names of the custodians of that land, and a respectful and appropriate acknowledgement that you're living on unceded land. I encourage you to use your own words as much as possible, to make it feel authentic and heartfelt, rather than just ticking a box.
II. Make your Ethos transparent
Are your Vision, Mission, or Values both inwardly and outwardly visible? Everyone within your organisation should be clear on what they are, and if possible, have some influence on at least the Values.
Looking outward, does your organisation clearly state its Ethos on its website, for instance? This is a simple way to be clear about your purpose and the organisation you’re aspiring to be. In practical terms, this helps people make informed decisions about whether to support the work you’re trying to do.
III. Craft ethical, transparent pricing
This includes being transparent with prices on your website (or elsewhere), offering accessible pricing options, and being considered about the language you're using.
Accessible pricing could be using a sliding scale model, like Green Bottle pricing, offering a pay-what-you-can, scholarships, the buy-one-give-one-model, or different prices for corporate, NFP or private customers.
When it comes to language, consider using the TARES test for ethical persuasion. It covers the truthfulness, authenticity, respect, equity, and social responsibility of your messaging. Consider if your wording is authentic and treating the reader as a real human. I test I use is “Would I talk to my friends like this?”.
IV. Make as much as possible transparent online
For this, I'm going to use Buffer as a prime example. They're a for-profit (you might even use Buffer) and their first and most important value is "default to transparency".
They live that in their transparency page which has links to all their salaries, cultural norms, Product Roadmap , EOY reports, equal pay reports and profit sharing and charitable giving. If they can do it, why not you? 💁♂️
V. Share knowledge resources
If the idea of sharing your resources (time, energy, skills, money, knowledge, etc) seems like a big stretch (“How are we gonna do that?”), then you can try starting with ones that won't diminish when they’re shared. In practical terms, knowledge is a non-rival good; that is, it can be used by multiple people without diminishing.
In a digital world, it’s very low cost (even free) to share digitized knowledge. Unfortunately, many organisations continue to create artificial scarcity to profit off resources. This raises the ethical question of making money off something that could be freely shared.
If you want to creating knowledge resources (e-book, how-to’s, guides, etc), consider sharing as much as possible freely, and only seeking profit on resources that are scarce. More organisations - such as Greaterthan - are putting their entire handbooks and organisational practices online, which can be a great way to learn.
VI. Practice pay transparency
When you think about it (and I encourage you to) there's really no excuse for not having everyone's salaries transparent to the whole organisation. Pay transparency is another step to a more just and equal organisation, if nothing else than for eliminating the gender pay gap.
It doesn't have to be public, although if you're hiring, I encourage you to add pay ranges to the job ad. So long as everyone within the organisation has a shared understanding of who gets paid what, and how those decisions are made. If your organisation has pathways for growth (e.g, role or career progressions), then you should also make it clear how the pay-grades map to that. Here's an article that discusses it in more depth.
VII. Trial consensus-based decision making in one part of your organisations
Consensus-based decision making is one example of how we can dismantle hierarchy, and replace it with shared power. It relies on the belief in peer-to-peer (P2P) relationships, that everyone has a valid and valuable point of view.
Using consensus, no decision is made against the will of an individual or a minority. This means that the whole group has to reach a solution that address everyone's concerns, rather than ignoring or overruling minority opinions. The challenge is making shared goals clearly understood, so that conversations can be had around what will help the group achieve those goals. You might consider using a tool like Loomio to facilitate the process, or make those decisions in a distributed setting.
It doesn’t have to be huge! For a start, consider using it on low-risk decisions, like what to do for the next work party. Then, reflect on the experience and try it again on something that’s more impactful. 📚 Some resources, in order of increasing levels of detail: a short read; a longer guide, and a whole consensus handbook.
VII. Draft an impact "assessment" of your organisation
This one asks you to consider the impact of your organisation, in the broadest sense. Who are those that are directly impacted by what you do? What impact are you having on society? What are the resources you’re distributing - how much, where, and how often?
In an ideal world, what impact would you like to have, and on what parts of society? If, for example, you’re not in a position to redistribute financial resources, is there some way you can redistribute skills or knowledge?
Since this is part of a list of things you can do this week, this doesn’t have to be the highest fidelity or most polished; it can be as simple as sketching it out on paper. The exercise of actually considering it and making it visible is much more important than getting it “perfect” - and this will likely change over time.
IX. Create and make transparent your theory of change
It does what it says on the box: makes explicit your (organisation’s) theory for how to achieve your Vision. A theory of change maps how your organisation’s actions will lead to the desired change you want to have in the world.
It includes, at least at a high level: how you intend to organise resources, what you plan to produce (and why), and how your activities will lead to said outcomes.
X. Share physical infrastructure
Resource sharing is the name of the game here. With more work moving remotely, many office spaces aren't getting the love they used to. I'm sure there's plenty of people and organisations that would relish an opportunity to work out of an actual space.
If you have an office space that's under-used, why not invite others to co-work (for free, ideally)? You could also use the space to host local events or meetups, and rather than charging for it, consider doing a skill-swap in exchange; like a local yoga person gives a class that you can all join.
Short takes 🎬
It has (somehow) been a decade since Cinemax's under-appreciated gem "Banshee" first graced our screens; a show I to this day maintain is one of the best of the last 20 years. It's not the kind of show that will win awards (though it should), and I suspect that may have only been given more attention recently since its protagonist, Antony Starr, has since found acclaim as Homelander on "The Boys".
The show (named after the fictional Pennsylvania town it’s set in) centres on an ex-con who assumes the identity of the new sheriff of Banshee, where his ex-love has now shacked up with the DA and has a couple kidlets. What follows is a web of intrigues, heists, relationships, and brutal combat between our main characters, the local Amish and Native American communities, and manifold gangs.
Dear readers, it has been many a year of me recommending this pulpy drama to people, and many years of those recommendations falling on deaf ears. Its action sequences still rival anything I've seen on the big screen since (if you liked “The Punisher” S2, you'll find more to love here), with Vox even writing a whole article on it. It has been a true mistrial of justice that Starr didn't get a nod or an award for his acting. It's enhanced reality, it's quirky humour, fleshed out characters, heartbreaking relationships, and yes - lots of sex and fist fights.
I humbly offer up this article from a fellow fan, who could do it more justice than I.
"Banshee featured instantly memorable characters and deeply emotional personal relationships, but it came to be characterized by its thrilling action sequences and exploration of complicated small-town power dynamics made all the more difficult by organized crime and corruption. It was a top-notch drama with such great narrative ambition that it pains me to know how many people have yet to witness the story of Lucas Hood, because no show has ever given me more pleasure (and then broken me more completely) than Banshee."
What I’m crushing on ❤️🔥
A postcard I fished out from my trip to Edinburgh, with the following DH Lawrence quote on it: "Better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions.”
Our new Koala mattress. It was a cinch to order, arrived in a couple days, and has been a dream to sleep on. It arrived on Monday, and I've been putting some extra miles on it since I woke up sick on Tuesday. Part of the buying decision was their transparent and fair policies (120 day free returns!), that they're a local organisation, a certified B Corp, and give away 1% of their profits annually. Sure, I'm always iffy about corporate giving, but it's better than corporate hoarding. I can see why they’re rated the best mattress in Australia.
What I’m wrangling 🧶
Being sick this week, that most unexpected and disheartening of things to awake to. I have been sleeping and sweating in equal measure, my days bleeding into one another in one long haze.
Phenomenal to see you back in full swing.