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Metodo dell’assenso

The consent method is a decision-making methodology often practiced within the sociocracy.

can be confused with the consensus method, especially in English! since one is “consensus” and the other is “consent,” let’s see what it is.

From a conversation with an italoablative group that uses it, they point out to us that:

– one of the main things is HOW you get to the proposals on which to decide

Document, proposals creation:

https://www.sociocracyforall.org/meeting-posters/

https://www.sociocracyforall.org/it/risorse/#schede

The two key steps, are: gathering ideas and creating the proposal with implementation details, otherwise it is difficult to know if you have objections or not.

At the time of decision, one wonders if there is CONSENT.

OBJECTIONS should be carefully divided between:

– emotional/personal objections, which should be taken up by the group and bridged, but are NOT blocking

– Objections that see a danger in putting the decision into practice.

The latter are BLOCKING objections, which need to be taken up and integrated into the proposal, to resubmit it and then make a new decision-making “round” and verify assent.

The assent method is meant to mitigate the difficulty of always having to reach unanimity, which is a difficult practice and for homogeneous groups; and it takes care not to have a disgruntled minority, as in democracy.

In this it is very similar to the consensus method.

In implementing any decision, however, it is very important to remember to VALUE people’s work, and not reduce oneself to mere slaves to the group’s decision.

Example of a meeting:

  1. first you check all ASPECTS (practical, ideological, fiscal, administrative, technical, …)by free speech, and after the DETAILS and reflections, again by free speech to gather all OPINIONS
  2. in 3 or 4 people, gathered all the material, come up with the PROPOSAL
  3. DECISION on the proposal is proposed to reach as unanimous a result as possible, with this sequence:
    1. QUESTIONS about the details
    2. EMOTIONAL hot reactions
    3. CONSENT, if no one adds anything the proposal passes, if there are blocking objections, we start again to reformulate the proposal

Critical to arriving at the decision is that ALL DATA have been collected, because decisions cannot be made without the necessary information.

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Creating conflict infrastructure • Luna N.H. – The implementation

I find this book really interesting, most in the:

PART 4: implementation phase

https://www.lunanh.com/post/creating-conflict-infrastructure-a-group-workbook

p 75-80

I report here the content of these 5 pages:

Part 4: the implementation phase

At this point the plans have been laid out. Collectively, you understand the processes and systems you’ll use to address conflict, who can access those systems, and what types of conflicts/issues these systems can and cannot address. If you decided to have written policies/protocols, those have been
drafted and approved based on your internal decision-making processes. If you decided to offer conflict interventions or processes (such as crisis  response, healing circles, or mediation), you’ve skilled up to be able to provide those and you know who will respond and how they will do so. If you’re  dedicating specific resources to addressing conflict, those resources have been secured and are ready to be used.
You’re about to set the wheels in motion, so all that’s left to figure
out (and do) is…

4.1 How are we sharing with relevant people and communities that policies/protocols are now active?

Why the means of sharing information is important: Too often, organizations
will develop policies that members are expected to follow (e.g. agreements to
communicate directly about interpersonal conflict or file a report to leadership), but those policies are never made clear to the people they impact. Consider communicating in a format other than a long e-mail thread with a pdf attachment or through a slack channel—it may be valuable to hold a dedicated potluck or celebration of finally reaching this milestone of addressing conflict head-on, where the policies are explained, the hope for positive impacts on the organization are made clear, and involvement with the policies are encouraged and welcomed.

4.1.1 How can people access those policies/protocols in writing, to refer back to as need arises?

Why access is important: Policies can easily be forgotten and then brought forward only after a crisis arises and someone is being chastised for not following protocol. Consider including easily readable, easily understood written documents in multiple places where members are likely to look when they need information about what they can or should do when conflict arises (such as the org’s website, slack channel, handbook, etc.). If you are a multi-lingual organization or know there are people in the organization who cannot read or see digital documents, make sure these materials are accessible to everyone. If there are procedures to follow, consider making visual illustrations of workflows and processes that are easy to understand.

4.1.2 How and when will we reflect on these policies and protocols, to make adjustments where needed?

Why reflection is important: Inevitably there will be holes in the policies
you created while things were calm. New dynamics and situations will
arise, that don’t quite fit into what you’ve created. Or, you’ll find that the
policies are producing a different outcome than what you originally
intended. Making sure you dedicate specific time (3-months, 6-months, 1
year, etc.) to reviewing how things are going, will save you from the
headache of trying to force people to fit into the policy, rather than the
policy fitting the needs and experiences of the people.

4.2 What means are we using to communicate with relevant
people and communities that resources and conflict processes
are available? And what information are we sharing?

Why communicating is important: People who have no experience with third-party conflict intervention (mediators, crisis support, facilitators) are likely a little suspicious, cautious, or anxious about accessing those supports. Further, people who do have experience may have only oppressive experience (e.g. court-mandated mediation or police-led crisis response). Know that people
may be starting from a place of mistrust. Not only is it important to make sure that the people who can access your supports know that they exist, it’s important to share any information which may make them feel safe and confident using those supports. For example, consider: sharing images and bios of who will actually be showing up, with their training and experience; the values/principles being used to guide support; the rights/protections extended to people who access support (such as confidentiality, self-determination); and being very explicit/forthright about limitations (such as who cannot access the services or issues you’re not able to address and why).

4.2.1 How are people reaching out to us to access those resources and processes?


You may have discussed some of these options in 3.2.5. Here, consider how
those choices are working as you implement them. For example, if you’re
offering mediations—How do people request a mediator? By e-mail? By
phone? By online form? Is there paperwork to fill out? Can they communicate
anonymously or confidentially if they just want information?—reducing
barriers to access should be the goal to this process and making sure that as
you implement, things are working the way you wanted/expected (and making
adjustments if not).


4.2.2 How and when will we reflect on how the means of accessing the resources and processes is working for the people who need them most?


Why reflection is important: Similar to above, you’ll likely run into issues
where people aren’t reaching out or the way things are set up cause obvious
issues (difficulty keeping confidentiality, overburden to the intake person,
people are saying they don’t know how to initiate things, etc.). For example,
when I started practicing I only had an e-mail option with a standard form.
After a while, it became very clear that people were hesitant to send a blind
e-mail with their personal information. So, now I offer a virtual intake (no
paperwork required), e-mail, or an online form, so that folks can pick the
option that works for them. Setting a specific time to track data on the
requests you’ve received vs. your perception of what people want/need, will
help to adjust to what folks actually feel comfortable with.

4.3 What is our initial capacity to take on cases?

Why initial capacity matters: There’s a learning curve at the beginning of any new project/program, and the emotional/intellectual burden of doing conflict work is always more significant right in the beginning. It will take a while to get your bearings. Consider scaling up very slowly, with plenty of time to reflect and shift things as you learn more about yourselves as practitioners, the community receiving the support, and the kinds of issues coming up. Burn-out can lead to loss of trust, if facilitators/intervenors are found to be checked out, unreliable, or not equipped to be responsive to the people they’re working with. It’s very hard to come back from loss of trust—so protect your relationships by easing into things, even when it feels urgent to address immediate crises.

4.3.1 How will we know we’re ready to take on more?

Why readiness is important: Often people think of a “scale- up” in terms of a timeline, such as “In year 1 we’ll take 10 cases and in year 2 we’ll take 20 cases”—this is a capitalistic mindset, where “success” is defined by quantifiable growth.
Instead, think about scaling up in terms of relational health. For example, “I’ll know I’m ready for more cases when: I’m feeling confident with my current case load, I feel energized rather than drained by my sessions/interventions, and the people I’m working with feel confident in me and my responsiveness.” And maybe also consider some boundaries, for example, “I will not take on more cases if it means I have to work/facilitate/intervene after 7pm or on weekends.” Understanding this ahead of time and communicating with each other what these guideposts are, will help to subvert resentments, burdens, and burn-out.

4.3.2 How will we know and communicate that we’ve reached our limit?

Revisit the conversation from 3.2.9.1. How does this feel in
terms of scaling up or down in the beginning of the work?
Any additional nuances?

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Paths designed by MAG for groups

I try to put together the materials: notes, words, definitions, schemes and drawnings by the worshop that i did in the last 3 years with MAG6 – Mutua AutoGestione da Reggio Emilia.

Which I followed, the pathes to help an organization to became stable and horizontal, are:

  1. Business plan – piano di impresa DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOC
  2. Communication training for group in trouble – comunicazione per gruppi in difficoltà DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOC
  3. formal consensus method – metodo del consenso formale DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOC
  4. a simple budget – il bilancino DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOC
  5. advance economic budget – il bilancio preventivo DOWNLOAD ALL THE DOC

1. Business plan – piano di impresa

Summary

Partiamo dai principi:

Who we are?

Strategie

Download the survey: business plan 2020 -ita

SWOT ANALISYS

2. Communication training for group in trouble – comunicazione per gruppi in difficoltà

4 incontri – 4 meetings

Focus on maximum common multiple than minimum comum divisor

to start

an explanation of the 6 hats for thinking:

– turn around expressing how you feel today about the 6 hats for thinking
– basic agreements to contribute:
– time, who measures slots by topic, 20 min blocks
– group well-being, hypothesis 3 breaks
– who takes interventions

About Consensus Method

You are asking us for help with a system that you are not using, we present one of several methods of applying the Consensus Method. One, in a spectrum of possibilities, is the one we have chosen as MAG. Let’s enter this world of the consensus decision method together. We enter a mysterious world, because everyone thinks differently.

A training together: futurospection, The concrete dream

You are not a new group, you are a struggling group, Let’s pick up the initial wish part and nurture it.

Initial dream assignment:

The group in 10 years, but very concretely, where are you, with whom, what are you doing. Write a letter to a loved one telling them about it. BEFORE THE NEXT MEETING

Importance of Imagination, to give birth to action. Without “”seeing”” it, you can’t do it.

Imagining is not easy, take your time, in optimal psycho-physical condition, not tired, nor hungry or cold, influence yourself positively and take care of yourself to do this action of imagination.”

4 positions

Dissent: important to understand when you’re there, because it’s useless to work on content, you have to work on trust. rather propose to move into the…

Technical agreement: agreement written as a law between people who don’t know each other, protect themselves, repeated technical agreements conducted successfully allow to raise trust and possibility to get to…

Unanimity: everyone agrees, it is the party of agreeing, difficult to raise doubts, risky position.

Consensus: different views on content, multiplicative mode, challenges both content and relationships, Understanding other points of view and valuing diversity. Learning how to best express oneself. It is not easy and involves effort. All a balance between “”asking for account””/””giving account””. Not hiding problems. It goes from “”I try to make my opinion win”” to “”we are here to find a shared solution””.

Tips

Example: no, don’t try to apply it in the condominium meeting.

 

Modularity: you can introduce in other group management methods, little by little some practices of the consensus method.

Non-monopoly: it is possible to have agreements to stop it in certain situations and resume it.

Preliminaries

1) Real willingness to share power (and its attributes: decisions, responsibility, damages, money, fame…). And this is where 9 out of 10 groups fall down.

2) Awareness of method, no just listen and be positive and/or inclusive, that’s only half the battle.

3) Have a common planning/goal, that’s why make a business plan.

4) Plan for the day, plan together on a daily basis.

5) The group collectively take charge of the method, and then to have facilitation (not on content) but of relationships/methods.

Common Agreements

Roles

Facilitations

Bibliografia

Secondo incontro – second round

Working together on the common points of the futurospective: dream together

Write the Common agreement of the group

Accept the feedbacks

Observation or evaluation?

Assertive communication

terzo incontro – third meeting

 

How is running with the assembly?  specific discussion in the group

quarto incontro – fourth meeting

Evaluation of the path, feedback and future prospectives

4. A simple economic plan

Download it

5. Advance economic plan

The following topics are explored and explained:
– differences between cash basis and accrual basis
– differences between cost and output and between revenue and income
– what is an investment, what is an amortization
– What are company assets, assets and liabilities?
– What is a balance sheet: income statement and balance sheet, budget and balance sheet, balance sheet in opposing sections, and scalar budgeting (explored in Section 3).

Section 3:
– What the scalar balance sheet is and why it is useful. The scalar budget will be the type of budget used in the TSP pathway , let’s delve into this work tool that we will use in future meetings. The file “WORK 1-1.pdf” presents an example of this type of budget.
– VAT.
– The economic balance.
– The financial balance.
– The balance sheet.
– The tools of economic analysis: income statement, break-even point, cost accounting.

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A consensus method – Seed for change

The cooperative Seed for Change settled in England started to use and promote the decisional consens method and mediation in the far 2000. This is them history.

Really well done their manual and guide about apply the consensu method as decisional tool for group with diversity:

https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus

Thi image is really usefull because because is explaining the 3 positions of the consensus method during the Orientiring (moment in which the participans expose their agreement, disagreement, consensus and dissensus on a decision):

In their resources:

https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consflow

A workflow to explain better the procedure before to try to arrive to consensus that means agreement in disagreement: