Self-Governance: The Advice Process & Decision Making

The Advice Process

Every Active Full member of each community has an equal voice, and the Habitats for Happiness govern themselves using the Advice Process, wherein every member of the organization can make any decision, so long as they consult with the people affected & people who have expertise on the matter. ​​When people are empowered to make all the decisions they want, they naturally find their areas of responsibility.
The Advice process stipulates that any person (or Project Team) can make any decision. But before doing so, they must1 Seek Advice from all affected parties & people with expertise on the matter. They are under no obligation to integrate every piece of advice, but it must be sought & taken into serious consideration.

​​This creates community, humility, learning, better decisions, and fun because:
  • Seeking advice from those who care about the outcome (affected parties) or have an understanding of the situation (experts) is an education that increases knowledge and leads to better decision making
  • Taking other people’s needs and opinions into account is a wholistic practice & and a good idea, especially if you live with them!  
  • The sharing of information reinforces the sense of community
  • Asking for advice is an act of humility
  • Teamwork is fun: asking for advice is an act of teamwork, which stimulates initiative and creativity, which are enhanced by wisdom from knowledgeable people elsewhere within the Center (&/or Sister Centers) 
[1] It is also recommended that before making Important decisions, members listen into the organization’s purpose and decide whether the decision is harmonious with that purpose.

​Organizations have a calling and an evolutionary energy to move towards that calling, so listening, partnering with that energy, joining its dance, and discovering whether our intention is in alignment with its greater direction facilitates maximal grace between each member and the Community
 Within the Advice Process, Ownership of the decision stays clearly with the Decision Maker who, having made what they are convinced is the best possible decision, typically sees things through with great enthusiasm, in order to prove to the Advice givers that their trust was well placed or their objections immaterial.​ When we are pursuing a purpose that we find deeply meaningful, we want to be effective!

Online Tools to Assist with the Advice Process:

In the interest of Minimizing Meetings so Gatherings can be more enjoyable and less stressful, there is an Online Implementation of the Advice Process, which is based on the concept of meeting-less decision making. It leverages the Intranet so everybody can be well-informed and anybody can invite themselves into any decision-making process that they care about. An online meeting is automatically / intrinsically comprised of anyone who cares enough about a particular topic to weigh in on it. Those who don’t weigh in are presumed not care enough to get involved. Also, the need for everyone to be physically present simultaneously is completely eliminated.

​The Online Decision Making Process is based on the concept of upvoting/downvoting, accumulating reputation in areas of expertise, and archiving all Decisions and Discussions related to those decisions, not only to preserve a record, but so Sister Communities facing similar decisions can benefit from each other's experience, allowing knowledge and expertise to rapidly accumulate across the entire Communities Network.
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Here is a sketch of how the Online Decision Making process works:
  1. ​Habitats for Happiness Members considering a particular course of action can ask for Advice by posting their Inquiry to their Center's Online Bulletin Board. If they do not need Advice from every single member, then they can limit the scope of their Inquiry to specific Members affected by it (or having expertise relative to it). They can also expand the scope of their inquiry to members of Sister Centers whom they believe have expertise in the matter.
  2. An email is automatically sent to the chosen members, notifying them of the new Inquiry.
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Members have opportunity to weigh in on the Inquiry, including asking clarifying questions:
  • Every Comment on an Inquiry creates its own sub-thread, which can be up/down-voted, replied to, etc. Inquiry Initiators are strongly encouraged to respond to all clarifying questions: Not Having your Question Answered qualifies for a Principled Objection to the Inquiry.
People who are particularly interested or invested in an Inquiry can "Follow" it. Anyone who “Follows” an Inquiry gets configurable notifications whenever it is commented on, upvoted, downvoted, modified, etc.

Inquiries and all Comments and responses associated with them become a part of that Community's searchable permanent record. If a clear course of action is obvious to the Decision Maker after receiving Feedback, she is welcome to proceed (and may want to thank everyone for their input). She is also always welcome to create a modification of her original inquiry if she sees an improved course of action based on the feedback she has received, and see how the group responds to it. If a clear course of action is not obvious to her, then she can request a Vote or call for Principled Objections, and make her decision based upon that stronger level of feedback.

Note that the Freedom & Individual Empowerment intrinsic to Self-Managing Systems allow for there to be occasions when a decision-maker goes against the Advice they have received, and that it is their prerogative to do so. However, there is generally a social consequence (peer pressure) when that sort of thing is done, so not only must the person Inquiring feel particularly strongly to do so, but they will be extremely motivated to succeed to prove themselves correct in the situation.

DomeGaia Communities Intranet & Social Network:

​The DomeGaia Communities Intranet is a central repository where everybody can publish and retrieve information in real time. Everybody has access to all data: It’s a “truthful transparency” approach that extends to all data, so everyone can have access to all available information in order to make the best decisions possible.
The Communities Intranet includes its own Social Network.1
  • All Members have Profiles, which are largely self-defined.
  • Members are typically associated with a specific Community, within which they have decision-making power via the Advice Process (outlined above)
  • Members can list their skills and resources on their profiles.
  • Members can publicly post Appreciations about other members, which become part of their profile.
  • Members accumulate "Reputation"2 in general, as well as in specific skillsets, based on cumulative metrics related to their community engagement & project success…3
  • Members’ activity within the Social Network is archived and searchable
  • Members can seek the expertise of other members (including across communities) by searching for specific skills. Results are filtered by Reputation
  • Members can post questions in open-forum style and search / answer other members’ questions.
  • Opportunity Log:4 Whenever a Community Member sees an Opportunity, they are encouraged log it online. Opportunities can be upvoted, downvoted and discussed, just like Inquiries. Anyone who wants to participate in an opportunity, can Join it.5 From Opportunities, Project Teams are likely to emerge…
  • It is worth considering what aspects of the Community Intranet will be open to the entire world in order to spread the word & engage worldwide feedback how to meet our Community purpose even better!
  • Each Community’s Intranet includes a module for entering, tracking, & searching all of the community’s financial data, including labor inputs.​
[1] “Leadership by blog post” is an extremely efficient way to learn how the organization reacts to ideas under consideration.

[2] Data is public, creating Emulation: a healthy form of peer pressure.

[3] This constitutes an “Actualization” hierarchy: a hierarchy of development, skill, talent, expertise, and recognition, where Gaining Authority is about Competency and Reputation: One accumulates Authority by demonstrating expertise, helping peers, and adding value. This was pioneered on the Internet, where people’s influence is based on Contribution and Reputation, not Position.

[4] Aka “Distributed Initiative Taking” in Corporate speak

[5] If nobody picks it up, it probably wasn’t all that important… Otherwise, it will come up again and eventually someone will wind up tackling it…

Reputation / Feedback Levers (performance indicators)

​Intrinsically: the more you contribute, the more your reputation grows, and the more people turn to you for advice and help, and the more you are trusted to take on new projects and launch new initiatives.  While much of this occurs organically within individual communities, there will also be an online, peer-driven process for Feedback, which causes Community Members to accumulate Authority within the greater Communities Network over time

​Decision Making:

When planning and budgeting: look ahead, but stay present… the future can change, so workable solutions that can be implemented quickly are more valuable than Perfect solutions that account for manifold unrealized possibilities and take a long time to implement.
Decisions can be revised and improved at any point when new information arises, so don’t get too attached to them…
If there is a Workable Solution on the Table (Workable meaning a solution that nobody believes will make things worse), it should be adopted. The decision can be reviewed at any time if new data arises or someone stumbles upon a better idea.
Habitats for Happiness Online Social Network includes tools to enhance & facilitate communications via the Intranet
  • The Advice Process can be used in emergency situations, and may entail voting or straw polls at the sole discretion of the decision maker, especially when the Decision Maker wants to invoke the power of the group to help find, choose, or identify the best solution to a pressing problem.
  • Forgetting to uphold the Advice Process is a serious Breach of Community Values.
  • Under truly exceptional circumstances, in a crisis situation where the Advice Process is rendered ineffective, the Community may vote to suspend it for the scope of a single decision to be made by an external, unbiased, paid consultant whose authority does not exceed the scope of the decision and can reap no gain from it.
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