Co-ops and distributed leadership

Shared Leadership Notes - Co-Op Session

Questions

What are the realities of politics and dynamics of a group

Does a flat hierarchy create chaos

Things we mentioned wanting to learn more about/discuss today:

How to enable self-management

How to have structure without hierarchy

Kinds of non-traditional leadership that we want to model

What does co-leadership and other models look like

Working with an established long tenure co-op/ collective

Collaborative leadership and interpersonal conflicts

Rethinking of how civil society organizes itself

Dynamic Hierarchies

• Roles change or rotate
• So if someone needs to leave, anyone can take over
• Some specialty roles are static, some rotate such as:
  • Note take, liaison, coordinator
• Having 3 co-directors = some redundancy
  • All partners, all signatories, can make decisions for each other
  • Vacations, sick days become much easier

From a Corporate Point of View:

Empowering People

• Accountability
• Scrum Methodology
  • People with Areas of focus communicate their goals for the year
  • Use Scrum to create point system for your task ( to quantify your work)
  • Helps relieve from competition or people who want to be the ‘star’
• Github is used for everything
  • Make a pull request for anything
  • Adopted Decision Making Matrix from Ampled
    • Who can sign checks, etc

Thoughts:

People want structure and sometimes equate it to hierarchy

Being very clear about Operational & Co-Op structure is very helpful

- Define structure with document about how decisions are made aka MOU (memorandum of understanding)

“If you’ve met one co-op, you’ve met one co-op”

Separate the legal from organization structure.

Be transparent about documentation

Tools do not matter, what matters is the culture

Collective responsibility is not a thing

Figure out boundaries / Agree upon expectations

Unlearn scarcity and trauma of finances

• Deep sense of competition and scarcity are applied to things that are not scarce

The Power of Facilitation to replace the idea of Leadership

• A really good facilitator is good if they are invisible and everyone says ‘I made it happen’
• Collective Success vs Individual Success
• Setting aside egos

Corporate Structure:

• Co-Op C Corp (super worker protective language in the law) or LLC can be a co-op
• Tip on Figuring out how to ‘comply with capitalism’: Create ‘Titles’ for the state but you don’t have to adhere to them
• Some states do not allow EDs to be paid much more than other workers

Resources

SustainableEconomiesLaw Center - for worker directed non-profits, different types of co-ops and what makes sense

Co-oplaw.org

Tools for collective decision making for a more democratic system

• Vote via Chat
• Lumio for consensus-based tracking
• Modified Consensus Matrix
• RACY / DARCY Matrix - resposible, accountable, Informed