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.

“Structural Conflict” — And Six Ways to Reduce It

Extract from:

Creating a Life Together Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities – Diana Leaves

Here: https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecovillages_and_Low_Impact_Development/Creating_a_Life_Together-Practical_Tools_to_Grow_Ecovillages_and_Intentional_Communities.pdf

1. Identify your community vision and create vision documents

2. Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. And if you choose consensus, get trained in it.

3. Make clear agreements — in writing. (This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land together)

4. Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority.

5. In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity.

6. Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know.

Community founders must cultivate both heart skills and head skills.. This means learning how to make fair, participatory group decisions; how to speak from the heart; how to face conflict when it arises and deal with it constructively; and how to make cooperative decisions and craft fair agreements. It means learning how to create budgets, timelines, and strategic plans; and how to evaluate legal entities for land ownership or business or educational activities. It means learning the real estate market in your desired area,local zoning regulations, and, if needed, how to secure loans with reasonable terms. It means learning how to structure healthy and affordable internal community finances. It means learning about site planning and land development. It means doing all this with a sense of connection and shared adventure. Plunging into the land-search process or trying to raise money without first understanding these interrelated areas is a sure invitation to trouble.

Community founders tend to be specialists, but in fact they must be generalists. I’ve seen founders with spiritual ideals and compelling visions flounder and sink because they have no idea how to conduct a land search or negotiate a bank loan. I’ve seen founders with plenty of technical or business savvy — folks able to build a nifty composting toilet or craft a solid strategic plan — who didn’t know the first thing about how to speak honestly and from the heart to another human being. And I’ve seen sensitive spiritual folks as well as type-A “get-the-job-done” folks crash and burn the first time they encountered any real conflict.

 

 

 

 

Conflicts in our Groups: A guide for grassroots activists

source: https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/conflictbooklet.pdf

You can also download from here: conflictbooklet

Every group and relationship experiences conflict, regardless of whether we are trying to bring about an anarchist revolution or play dominoes on the street. It’s simply part of being human, it’s also a particular feature of living in a world which is more mobile. Humans used to live in largely homogeneous groups, whereas today many different world-views and cultures are present in our communities. However, we haven’t yet developed the skills to successfully hold this diversity. Add to this the fact that you probably grew up in a capitalist society, where you were taught that to do well, or even just survive, you need to behave competitively. Phew! So it’s really no surprise that so many of us struggle to collaborate with each other to find a healthy way through conflict. Conflict is bound to happen while we un-learn old habits, and develop new skills and awareness to work co-operatively and challenge oppression. This guide is aimed at people and groups working for social change who want to develop an understanding of conflict and how to deal with it. There are sections on what conflict is,the benefits of addressing it, and tools to work though conflict and maintain healthy and effective social change groups.Throughout the guide you’ll find short exercises to help you learn skills and tools. The more involved we are with our own learning, the deeper the learning goes. So if you really want to learn this stuff, give yourself the time to try out the exercises.

Introduction and Contents

1. What is conflict and why deal with it?

2. Why conflict happens in social change groups

3. Understanding conflict

4. Responding to Conflict

5. Good communication

6. Taking effective action to deal with conflict in your group

7. Resources