Using a Google group for co-ordination (system2)
Hi Alex,
You were asking about my experience of using a google group as a co-ordination mechanism (system 2). I have no experience of using other brands of groups in this way, but I should think the learning would be transferable. I have been using the google group for Transition Leek (our local Transition Towns Initiative). We are currently a very new group of 7 or 8 people working on the initiation phase, but I wanted to contribute a VSM based organisational structure that would scale for mass community engagement. The organisational design is based around VSM oriented roles at three levels of recursion (Transition Leek, Initiation Project, Awareness events). The driving principle for organisational design was maximising autonomy without losing coherence. Roles are played by one or more individuals or sub-groups. This has resolved like magic the overlap / underlap organisational issues occuring and transformed our effectiveness. The roles highlighted the need for effective co-ordination mechanisms, as we were now each wearing many hats and supporting each other in our various activities. The private google group is working brilliantly in this role. e.g. we take it in turns to organise events. The organiser creates an outline plan and identifies their contribution. This is cut and pasted onto the group as a web page. Everyone else decides how they can best help and updates the plan with their own contributions (e.g. put me down to be on the stand) and adds lower level detail (e.g. list of resources needed for a stand at an event). The owner monitors the emerging plan and the associated discussion to check everything is covered, and asks questions on the discussion thread to resolve any underlap or overlap and the event goes ahead. This is working so well, we do not need to distract either our normal face-to-face meetings (System 3 of Initiation Group) nor our periodic planning days (System 4 of Initiation group), with inner recursion event co-ordination.
Hope this helps Alex. Happy to answer further questions about how it works if it would help you.
regards Jane
You were asking about my experience of using a google group as a co-ordination mechanism (system 2). I have no experience of using other brands of groups in this way, but I should think the learning would be transferable. I have been using the google group for Transition Leek (our local Transition Towns Initiative). We are currently a very new group of 7 or 8 people working on the initiation phase, but I wanted to contribute a VSM based organisational structure that would scale for mass community engagement. The organisational design is based around VSM oriented roles at three levels of recursion (Transition Leek, Initiation Project, Awareness events). The driving principle for organisational design was maximising autonomy without losing coherence. Roles are played by one or more individuals or sub-groups. This has resolved like magic the overlap / underlap organisational issues occuring and transformed our effectiveness. The roles highlighted the need for effective co-ordination mechanisms, as we were now each wearing many hats and supporting each other in our various activities. The private google group is working brilliantly in this role. e.g. we take it in turns to organise events. The organiser creates an outline plan and identifies their contribution. This is cut and pasted onto the group as a web page. Everyone else decides how they can best help and updates the plan with their own contributions (e.g. put me down to be on the stand) and adds lower level detail (e.g. list of resources needed for a stand at an event). The owner monitors the emerging plan and the associated discussion to check everything is covered, and asks questions on the discussion thread to resolve any underlap or overlap and the event goes ahead. This is working so well, we do not need to distract either our normal face-to-face meetings (System 3 of Initiation Group) nor our periodic planning days (System 4 of Initiation group), with inner recursion event co-ordination.
Hope this helps Alex. Happy to answer further questions about how it works if it would help you.
regards Jane
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alex Hough on -
Thanks Jane. I'm going to have a read of this, cut and pasting into my own little sense making environment - a tiddlywiki. I am wondering if this concept would benefit from being part of some more complex technology like a wiki or social networking site (like NING) or it is easier with a less complex technology like a Google group.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Searles on -
Hi Alex, There was a major advantage with the Google group - it was undaunting. Once people had been convinced to try it they were happy to carry on without need for assistance. It may well be that other types of site have extra features that are useful, so maybe next time we want a SCiO co-ordination group we should experiment? However I am firmly of the opinion that it should have only a few simple features so that it remains undaunting.
Jane
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