Loomio
Sun 30 Jul 2017 1:48PM

UPDATING OUR VALUES : PROPOSAL AND NEXT STEPS

M Maud Public Seen by 188

Hello everyone,

Sorry this has taken us a (really) long time, but better late than never! You can check here the original post about this project

The values workshop in Lisbon at last summit was really great, with a lot of convergence with data from the survey. If you missed it or want to go deeper in the content, you can read

We now want to share three key things with you

  • Our key takeways from survey & workshop
  • Our proposal for a new list of values
  • Our vision of the next steps

Key takeaways

  • There is still a tension between two functions of values: (1) describing how we actually do things (representational), and (2) setting an aspiration for how we would like to do things (aspirational). This tension doesn’t necessary need to be resolved, but has been important to acknowledge.
  • Permanent Beta is super important. It is almost a supra-value (it’s now become the new ‘tagline’)
  • There are currently too many values, -- with overlaps or confusion between various values -- with some values provoking more contestation and debates than others, or more linked to the notion of vision / mission of OuiShare, such as “Impact”
  • Some important values are missing

New list of OuiShare values

Combining our analysis of the survey and workshop, we have a proposal for a new list of values. If you want to refresh your memory on what the current list and descriptions are, see here

Permanent Beta

  • Our learnings from our work : a strong consent around this value and a lot of comments on how experimentation, feedback, continuous learning are important in Ouishare culture / for ouishare people.
  • Draft for a description : OuiShare is an ongoing experiment. With curiosity and an open mindset, we strive to continuously try new things and challenge our assumptions. We believe in learning by doing and improving through reflexivity and iteration.

Proactivity *

* In lack of a better word, anyone else has a better suggestion?

  • Our learnings from our work : this notion of getting things done and not asking permission to start something is really strong in our culture (we often put forward "do-ocraty"). So in our view it also includes the notion of independence when we take it at the individual levels. The notion of OuiShare being an independant organization regarding businesses doesn't really fall in the value part in our opinion. It may reflect in the openness part.
  • Draft for a description : Change starts from people. We believe that actions speak louder than words; so at OuiShare actions and initiative are respected and rewarded. We encourage people to get involved, start projects and take responsibility. While we love working together, we all value our own autonomy. [ we may want to add something about “walk the talk”

Openness

  • Our learnings from our work : We found a big overlap in people's mind between these 3 values : Openness, transparency, and inclusion (which was rather seen as diversity). In our opinion Openness reflects the best how we do or try to do.
  • Draft for a description : We believe in the power of openness; towards people, among ourselves and with our content and learnings. We welcome those who want to join us, valuing diversity in approaches, perspectives and backgrounds. We believe in open decision making. We strive for open communication so that everyone can learn who we are, and why, how and what we do. We produce in open source and share our learnings widely.

Collaboration

  • Our learnings from our work : This is one of the "new" value, in the meaning that it wasn't expressed formally even if it was precedently enclosed in our mission (collaborative society...). It's quite present in the comments in the survey (learning together / community / etc..).
  • Draft for a description : Together we go further. It’s that simple.

Care

  • Our learnings from our work : This is the value that was most proposed at a new one. We have the feeling that MPRL is one way of doing it (taking care of our relationships), and that play is also part of it (we take care of ourselves by working on things we enjoy, in a way we like / have fun)
  • Draft for a description : We have learnt the importance of care, mutual support and solidarity. We always strive to remember to take care of ourselves, of each other, of the commons we are building, and of the planet. We believe these dimensions are intrinsically linked and dependent on each other.

_ Why we took out “Impact” ? _
_Impact raised a lot of debates in the survey. It’s more related to why we do things than to how, because it’s not something we measure. It raised the question on what is Ouishare vision and mission today. Anyone willing to take on this project? :-) _

Next steps

Step 1 : Validation

This is only a starting point, so we open up discussion here this summer for:

  • Do these 5 values reflect what OuiShare is and aims to be?
  • Are the descriptions clear and complete in your mind ?

We’re waiting for your meaningful comments in this loomio post if general, and in this document when you have suggestions on the wording itself : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dV5l0Jbm4jrDNVbrCWptYzm3r0DpKTtgk8JG82w6nSY/edit?usp=sharing

Tell us if you feel something important for OuiShare is missing (if you think you or OuiShare “cannot live without it”), or something is detrimental to OuiShare. The right wording may be then found by “communication” people ?

Before next summit it would be great to validate this adjusted list, after having taken into account your reactions and objections.

Step 2 : Communication

Once there is a consent on the values list, we will need to update our different communication documents / channels. Are there volunteers to work on that ? The descriptions are just small ideas for what these could be - we are not comms experts to we’d really like it if others could finalise those :)

Step 3 : Implementation

In our plans, the work didn’t stop with setting a new list of values, but should be followed by regional workshops where communities could have in depth discussions on how these values are or can be embodied in concrete practices. We could then make a book of best practices based on these discussions and suggestions.
How do you feel about it ? If any coordination is needed about it, for the moment neither Elena or Maud can commit to this work. Maud may be back in November to work with you on it, if needed :-)

The "value project team" (Elena, Maud + Joachim)

J

Julie Tue 15 Aug 2017 8:37PM

Awesome work guys ! Thank you @maud1 @eledenaro @joachimlohkamp1
I am pretty in phase with the chosen values but I was a bit taken aback by the loss of "MPRL". Don't misunderstood, I like "care" even more with @jonschull declinaison ! But I feel like I will miss something. Often when I have to describe OuiShare I used our values and after "permanent beta", "MPRL" is the one I am using the most. A way, OuiShare is not just a digital community and meeting people (from OuiShare or not) is what this community is so rich and to be fair our first activity is actually organizing events so people (from different worlds) can meet.

AC

Albert Cañigueral Thu 24 Aug 2017 4:50PM

Suggestion maybe to work also on a catchy half "tweet" long description that people can rembeber and/or can be used as meme? For example "Sorry, we are open!" (http://gerryhumphrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SorryWeAreOpen.png) is a classic or "Open By Design" or "Open By Default".. and maybe use the Care with "Made with care" or "made with care by X or from Y". For Collaboration it is already there in the description :)

ET

Esra Tat Thu 24 Aug 2017 6:22PM

Massive work! Thanks to the 3 of you for leading it! I am really confortable with this new set of values. And particularly thankful for the greater clarity between transparency and openness :)
I've commented the document, but sorry not so inspired with the wording. (I couldn't come up with something better than "proactivity", but I agree this doesn't reflect the "ability to do".).

For the next steps: it would be fantastic if this work could be "implemented" and help communities question/improve the ways of doing. What about empowering a few people in different hubs to carry out this work? Or did you have something else in mind?

AC

Albert Cañigueral Thu 24 Aug 2017 6:50PM

@esratat the tool you mention could be with 4-5 axis à la Pentagrowth (http://pentagrowth.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/pentagrowth_graph_en-600x435.jpg) for self-assessment on the projects / activities that could be used in retrospectives? :)

HV

Hélène Vuaroqueaux Fri 25 Aug 2017 10:36AM

Wow, wow, wow, a big thank you to the three of you! As well, I am comfortable with this new set of value. Yet, I am uncertain about "collaboration" which to my mind, is a bit weak and not distinguishing in comparisons to the others.
As for the external communications, I'd say we should limit the descriptions to two sentences maximum. People won't read more. So I'd follow @jonschull with his suggestions.
I agree we should change "pro activity" for "self-empowerment" or "agency" and would be happy to have the feedbacks of native English speakers on the differences between those two. :) ccs @eledenaro @berniejmitchell @francesca

A

Ana Wed 30 Aug 2017 5:33AM

Im missing MPRL and Independence. Both are values that I keep repeating while I have to explain how we work at OS and what is important for us. Specially in Spain, Independence is one of the values that come up the most as we are in these permanent debate of what type of collaborative economy we are supporting.

M

Maud Mon 4 Sep 2017 2:43PM

Thanks all for your feedbacks and votes;

Concerning the value "pro-activity", various propositions have been made for a better word : Empowerment (or self-empowerment); freedom ; agency (and I wanted to suggest as well something like commitment). which one sounds better to you all ? @jonschull @francesca @albertcanigueral @esratat @joachimlohkamp1 @juhomakkonen @eledenaro

Then we had reactions on 3 values being missed : MPRL (2 people report this miss), Independence and Play.

In the survey though these values were not that supported and for some people it wasn’t values at all. That’s why we tried to convey these notions in other values :
—> MPRL is a way we take care of our relationships and culture, it could be a description of how we make the value « care » and « collaboration » alive ? Do you think it could be enough ? cc @anamanli @juliebr
—> Independence « to express the kind of collaborative economy we support » —> wouldn’t that fit more into a vision / mission statement ? As the values are so far quite independent from any mission we may have in OuiShare. What do you think @anamanli ? do you have an objection of not keeping it as one of the 5 values? maybe also what we have in « open » and « care » can help you explaining as well the kid of projects we support ?
—> Play : well for a lot of people in the survey it wasn’t that obvious and not an important value to say aloud. it was more about doing things we like in a way we all enjoy it. And we thought this notion was again in taking care (of ourselves !). Would you have an objection of letting it this way @amandajansen ?

Concerning the descriptions, I agree with short and catchy sentences like @jon proposed. I would let it to a communication team to draft the perfect words, as there were no strong objections in the documents but just suggestions to take into account.

For the next steps, yes @esratat the better would be for each community to think on how to embody these values better. It could be through a workshop or else. I would be happy to help organize workshops on the question and see how we can capitalize on the local reflexions. I don’t personally really believe in using a tool to « assess » quantitatively how we’re doing « à la pentagrowth » @albertcanigueral , but it could be tried !

Please all don't hesitate to share your feedbacks on this last week :-)

AJ

Amanda Jansen Thu 7 Sep 2017 8:21AM

Hi there! I feel 'taking care of ourselves' sounds and feels a bit more serious than 'play'. Playfulness is a quality that is something of another quality. It gives flexibility to deal with any issue. Whether that be ourselves, each other, a topic or our set up as a movement. In this way I feel 'taking care of ourselves' turns OuiShare more inward. Now I might be a bit sensitive to these kind of changes since I got deeply involved in similar trajectories and community building. So I am a bit weary for it.. Of course when all of us think 'play' should go.. then no problem. But.. I just wanted to point out that the quality of the value set now is a totally different one than before. A more serious one. Maybe more mature even.. but also more internally directed. Therefore I still miss 'play'. As a fresh quality of a 'beginners mind' (which is also represented in 'permanent beta', but this sounds more organizational and less of a inner quality that makes us curious and flexible. So rather I'd like to replace 'permanent beta' by 'play' or combine.. Just a suggestion.

MB

Myriam Bouré Thu 7 Sep 2017 7:06AM

Awesome work, I feel very comfortable with this new set of value. I guess everyone will have a different way of describing what those values mean to them, and I think we can still continue to say that MPRL is core in OS even if it's not stated as such as a value but included in a care one. Same for independance. I don't have a strong opinion on proactivity/doocracy/empowerment... agency doesn't speak to me, I don't really undertand what it means, I think it's less common term for non native English people.

JM

Juho Makkonen Sun 10 Sep 2017 7:26PM

@maud1 I do think the Wikipedia definition of "agency" captures really well what I think this value means: "Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices." However, I also do think that @myriamboure has a point in that most folks who will see this value will actually have no idea what "agency" means (I had to look up this definition myself), which might reduce the effectiveness of it as a value.

So my vote still goes for empowerment (I would use it without the "self" part, as I think it's also about OuiShare as a network empowering its members). Agency would be my second choice.

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