How It Works: Self-Governance Within Habitats for Happiness

“With Great Freedom Comes Great responsibility” – SUB
Habitats for Happiness are autonomous, Self-managing organizations. They enjoy support from the DomeGaia Communities Network, but are largely independent and responsible for everything they do, including:
  • how they integrate with their local environments, including the larger community and the local government.
  • how they design, plan, and create their realities. 
  • how members distribute tasks amongst themselves
  • how, when, where, & why they meet
​They set their own directions and priorities, analyze problems, make plans, self-evaluate, and make decisions.

The Advice Process


Every Active Full member of each Habitats for Happiness has an equal voice, and the Centers govern themselves using the Advice Process. Within the Advice process:
  • All members of the organization can make any decision, as long as they consult with the people affected & people who have expertise on the matter.
  • There are no bosses,1 just Self-management based on Peer Relationships. Emulation and peer pressure regulate the system better than any hierarchy could.
  • Members are invited to listen in & understand what their community wants to become, the purpose it wishes to serve, and decide for themselves how they would like to help fulfill that purpose
  • Before making Important decisions, members listen into the organization’s purpose and decide whether the decision is harmonious with that purpose. Each decision offers the opportunity to ask the question: "Does this decision resonate with the organization’s 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 it not only facilitates maximal grace between each member and the Community, but adds the power of the Community to the action of the Individual, for greater effect and accomplishment.
[1] Leaders must be willing to surrender their power to the group. Once the process is underway, their voice has the same weight as anybody else’s. They must trust that the collective intelligence of the group can come up with better answers than they could on their own.
​Meetings are minimized in preference of an online decision making process so that when gatherings do occur, they are less about decision making and more about celebrating. Music, dance, sharing food, and other group activities that build relationships and contribute to the sense of fun & enjoyment of each other’s presence are highly valued. Communication tends to flow naturally during such events without feeling pressured, heavy or required.

Support & Online Decision Making Tools


The Habitats for Happiness are supported by DomeGaia in a number of different ways:
  • Training & Coaching[2] in self-management practices
  • Tools for healthy and efficient group-decision making
  • Access to the DomeGaia Communities Intranet, a full-featured set of online tools that:
    1. Enables Online Advice Process based decision-making without the necessity of meetings or being physically present at the same place at the same time. 
    2. Enables Community Members to seek Expert Advice, including precedents and guidance from members of other Habitats for Happiness who may have relevant expertise and/or experience (thereby expanding the knowledge base, expertise, and available talent pool)
    3. Provides a searchable repository for all decisions made by each Center
    4. Provides Search tools for access to decisions made and knowledge accumulated by other DomeGaia (sister) communities
    5. Provides Community-specific financial databases that are transparent and accessible to all members of that community.
    6. Provides tracking of members’ shares of their Community (ref: Buy-in)
[2] It is expected that Regional coaches will eventually exist, who assist multiple communities, ideally many communities (up to 40) - upon request - so they don’t become overly involved in any one community. The ideal coach is highly experienced in self-management practices and has strong interpersonal skills. They assist only with the most important questions by looking for enthusiasm, strengths and existing capabilities within the team, & helping them empower themselves to solve their dilemma.

"Sister" Communities

Habitats for Happiness are individually autonomous, but are also regarded as “Sister Communities”: They enjoy collaborative opportunities with each other on a request/accept basis, share the same Domegaia resource pools (such as Intranet access, workshop opportunities, knowledge repositories, etc.), and can offer each other expertise on specific topics so that the wisdom & knowledge of members from each community is accessible and sharable with all communities. Volunteers from one Center are eligible to join any Center (subject to that community’s agreements & normal membership process) and communities may establish exchange programs, resource pools & /or visitor program / policies for members wishing to travel or move from one Community to Another.