By Jane Watson and originally published in Practical Self Management Intensive on medium.com
Week 1 of Leadwise Academy is coming to a close and it was a rollercoaster! I’m thrilled and grateful to be a part of the first cohort of this initiative, and have had several moments in which I’ve reflected on how incredibly fortunate we are to live in times where we can hop onto a video call with smart people from a dozen other countries!
Something that has made a significant impression on me this first week is the immediate warmth and openness to collaborate I’ve seen from my fellow group members, and the overall cohort. It’s like everyone decided to jump in with two feet and become a team right away. In a breakout session during our first call, Lucia shared an insight she’d had after watching a TED talk that the ‘new work’ required’ inner work’ (thank you Lucia). This really speaks to me. My inclination in groups is not to default to warmth and vulnerability, so this first week has highlighted that in order to embrace and succeed in a non-hierarchical, self-organizing environment, I will need to focus on changing my own mindset (and doing the inner work associated with that), not just learning the methodology and thinking behind these practices.
My group for the week 1 project was great; Monica, Donal, David, and I have different professional backgrounds and experience, but we had good discussion and questions but also got work done at great speed. Thank you!
Group Jacaranda — Monica, Donal, David, Jane
My group’s organization was an NGO dedicated to implementing a Universal Basic Income: Thrivable
Mission and Vision:
(Why) Vision: A world without poverty
(How) Mission: A periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.
What: we inform, educate, help, and inspire national governments to implement UBI.
Strategic Direction: Since we are starting and we are a small group, I suggest that we focus on one or two countries to (hopefully) convince one government to implement a UBI. Once we have a successful use case we can use it as a reference with other countries.
Key Points: There is a different way to structure our organizations based on “roles“. A role-based structure means:
1. Thinking about an organization based on its purpose and all the roles and responsibilities that allow the organization to meet its purpose;
2. Leaving behind job profiles and job titles. Different people can take on different roles at different times — there is a flow and adaptability with roles; and
3. Distributing the authority (decision-making power) throughout the organization via the roles.
Organization Roles:
Spokesperson
Purpose
Represent our vision of UBI to media.
Accountabilities
Defining criteria for acceptable speaking engagements.
Sharing key positions and vision of organization through storytelling and meaning making to build the organisation’s brand in the media.
Representing our organisation’s position to the media in interviews, press events, public debates.
Economic/Social Researcher
Purpose
Data-backed recommendations
Accountabilities
Developing econometric models, surveys of public sentiment/opinion
Supporting policy recommendations with data to establish their effectiveness
Strategist
Purpose
Identify a path to a world with UBI.
Accountabilities
Identifying new countries to advance the adoption of UBI.
Key partnerships
Purpose
Develop UBI network and coalitions to support purpose.
Accountabilities
Influencing government policy to implement UBI, through education of public and policy makers.
Building strategic partnerships with aligned groups to create a coalition to be more influential and achieve desired outcomes.
Outreach
Purpose
UBI is publicly supported
Accountabilities
Attracting donors, building public support and awareness for cause and policy.
Developing and maintaining an overall web presence.
Monitoring and assessing the public discourse on UBI.
Communications
Purpose
Clear understanding of the organisation activities and progress.
Accountabilities
Establishing and keeping UBI on the radar through media channels (TV, radio, print, and social media), ‘town hall’ meetings and civic fora.
Publishing company’s external communications (written and oral) are regular, timely and impactful.
Posting all articles, whitepapers, and media interviews to our website.
Fundraising
Purpose
Stress-free operations for our organisation.
Accountabilities
Generating support for our vision and closing donation deals, funds from a variety of sources (e.g. crowdfunding).
Finance Operations
Purpose
Our own financial governance and reporting.
Accountabilities
Generating support for our vision and closing donation deals, funds from a variety of sources (e.g. crowdfunding).
Evangelist
Purpose
A world of UBI evangelists
Accountabilities
Contacting and engaging key influencers [within Government, the EU (if country targeted is within that union), labour unions, youth organisations, organisations supporting marginalised groups, local citizen groups, etc.] to support UBI initiative.
Participating in debates where there are arguments for and against the concept.
Putting links to other organisations promoting this purpose on our website.
Evangelise UBI message to key influencers across all levels of society.
Administrative Operations
Purpose
Exquisite Processes
Accountabilities
Supporting day by day office work
Training the organisation members on internal tools
Technological Operations
Purpose
Worry about internal tech so no one else has to
Accountabilities
Designing our internal system architecture
Evaluating and selecting software vendors for internal applications
UBI day by day Operations
Purpose
Smooth operations
Accountabilities
Selecting and administering core logistical infrastructure systems, including a calendar, phone voicemail system, an e-mail system, & intranet.
Defining usage standards and providing access to formally-defined infrastructure systems as-appropriate, and helping users troubleshoot access issues as-needed.
Training the organisation members on internal tools.
Legislative/policy specialist
Purpose
Safe legal terms
Accountabilities
Defining who would be entitled to UBI, who would not be entitled, and thereby addressing how any potential fraud could be minimsed or eliminated.
Checking how UBI schemes already underway are performing (e.g., in Finland).
Validating our publications to ensure they conform with current legislation.
Creating, amending, and reviewing work contracts.
Event organiser
Purpose
Delightful events
Accountabilities
Planning Events Programme — appropriate themes.
Inviting speakers.
Booking venues and arranging logistics to conduct successful events.
Human developer
Purpose
Healthy human collisions
Accountabilities
Helping members of our organisation to grow personally and professionally with individual coaching.
Promoting a values based leadership culture, where people’s needs are addressed (through having identified the values they hold), thereby ensuring engagement and commitment.
Teaching colleagues how best to give and receive feedback, as feedback (and establishing peer-to-peer accountability) is critical to developing a high performing organisation.
Identifying skills gaps (whether competence or character based) and organise relevant training or help people identify courses or work situations, the experience of which would help address the issue(s) identified.
Donors reporter
Purpose
Accurate numbers for our donors.
Accountabilities
Generating reports for donors.
Integrating feedback from donors to increase financial transparency.
Donors link
Purpose
Trustful & healthy relationships with donors
Accountabilities
Integrating feedback from donors into the organisation when relevant to purpose.
Sending frequent updates & news about our operations, activities, and impact.
Secretary
Purpose
Steward the record-keeping process
Accountabilities
Scheduling meetings and notifying all attendants of times and locations.
Tracking meeting notes and making them accessible to our organisation’s members.
Team Magnet
Purpose
Attract like minded people to achieve mission.
Accountabilities
Attracting and onboarding team members
Vision Holder
Purpose
Building and keeping the right vision for the organization
Accountabilities
Ensuring the vision remains relevant and viable.
Monitoring the organisation’s overall stewardship and steering the organisation towards deeper expressions of its purpose.
Evaluating of scheme to ensure the policy is working and introduce refinements/amendments as appropriate.
Republished with permission of the author.
Featured Image/graphic link added by Enlivening Edge Magazine
