Organising #BeyondtheRules at Dark Matter Labs — 2/4
Compounding learning and constructing legibility
This piece was authored by a member of the Dark Matter Labs team based in the UK as part of the #BeyondtheRules project and, as such, is written in British English and has particular references to contexts in the UK.
This blog was written in September 2021 and reflects our learning at that time.
Our Context
In a context of climate breakdown and technological disruption, Dark Matter Labs works to accelerate societal transition towards collective care, shared agency, long-termism and interconnectedness. We focus on the dark matter — the invisible structures responsible for producing the majority of the world around us, from policy and regulation to finance and data, governance and democratic participation, organisational culture and identity.
Our context as an organisation, and from which the learning that we share here is anchored, is largely defined by being:
- Mission-led
- Focused on discovery and learning
- International with a planetary view
- Primarily virtual
- Evolving constantly
Blog 1 in this series shared more information on our context and current structure.
In this 4-part blog series, we share how we have been building the organisational infrastructure for this work and what we are learning as we go. This blog focuses on how we are organising to navigate complex, emergent work.
In blog 1 we discussed how we are a learning-based organisation — we enter most of our work not knowing the outcome — and sitting with uncertainty, complexity, and emergence is in every part of our fabric. Indeed, our own ‘dark matter’ and the organisational infrastructures that we build to shape how we show up together is also emergent. We are each constantly taking on and shedding roles; alongside, our projects and who works on them regularly shift and change as does the scope and nature of those projects and how they collaborate towards broader missions. Aside from our shared intention, there is little in how we work that is fixed.
This allows our work to genuinely reflect the complex emergence of our reality and for us each to autonomously follow what we see is needed to fulfil our missions, which is constantly evolving. This way of organising can create significant challenges for people to navigate themselves through the many moving parts of these systems (blog 3 will share more on our system of self-management, which is a needed complement to this).
We are learning (at times through moments of pain) about the need and means to:
- actively and intentionally construct (because it is indeed a social construct and takes work to build) just enough legibility of the system — in a way that updates itself as the system moves
- and actively compound learning across that system
These crafts play a role in liberating each of us to do our work incrementally well, enabling a shared wisdom that is beyond what any of us can reach on our own.
How we do this takes different forms and is constantly under development. Some of these forms we describe below.
Compounding learning
We use the word ‘compounding’ intentionally to nod to the difference between learning — which can involve somebody learning something and/or sharing that with somebody or many others — and the compounding of learning* — which involves different learning coming together to create a new augmented level of shared understanding as a result.
Creating the conditions for this type of learning is a craft and one that we recognise to be among the most important for working in complexity and emergence, especially as an international team. In doing this, building a plural peer community of interest and practice, mutual accountability, collective credibility, and shared capabilities unlocks a bigger potential for impact than any of us would be able to individually. More about the theory of that in this blog.
*Distinct from the definition of compound learning described here as used by Warren Buffet. There may be others who speak of this way of understanding compound learning that we are not yet aware of — if you are we would love to hear about it.
DM Downloads
DM Downloads is a bi-weekly virtual space curated to compound learning across similar or complementary lines of work across the ecosystem.
The topics are identified by the session curator, who considers the cross-cutting frameworks of DM (practices, missions, deep code innovations etc) and makes a schedule according to how advanced or ready each one is to present new material, how strategic it is to have some conversations based on some upcoming opportunities or developments, as well as their potential for cross-pollination. The schedule is shared, open for comment and suggestions.
The structure of the Downloads is:
- Introduction by the curator
- Presentations from people working on this topic (circa 5–7 mins each, held by a time-keeper), sharing what they have been doing and learning in the work
- An open discussion for them to share what comes up in hearing each others’ work, and for the wider group to share questions, thoughts and ideas
We write up the key takeaways shared and discussed for a broader audience through our ‘DM Notes’ series on our provocations page to share them more widely and invite interaction (part of our practice of Working Out Loud — see more on this below).
The leap in shared understanding of our work is noticeable following the launch of these spaces. This is evident in their attendance (normally at least half the team), the high levels of the team watching (and watching back) the recordings as well as the internal appreciation expressed after each one. DM Downloads are also becoming an essential tool in giving new DM members a quick overview of some practices that might relate to their work in their onboarding.
DM Debates
DM Debates is a new bi-weekly open forum for discussing and developing some of the core assumptions we hold in our work and as an organisation — whether this isour stance on universal basic income or the philosophical dilemmas of a tree having self-sovereignty.
The topics are organised by people nominating and voting for topics they’d like to discuss — those with more votes are debated first. The format involves two (self-nominated) people who propose alternative viewpoints to the question, followed by an open (self-facilitated and self-moderated discussion) with 5 points of view per person as a loose guide. The speakers can comment on the discussion at the end and somebody self-nominates to capture the main points and relay them back at the end. One person captures the core points discussed and relays them back in summary at the end of the session.
Both our Debates and Downloads are org-wide optional spaces for anyone interested to join. They are recorded and shared so that people can also watch them in their own time or read the presentations, according to their preference.
Gatherings
Nothing can match the impact that gathering together in a relaxed way has on our sense of learning, connection and understanding. Now that we are 55 or so people across 15+ countries the actual logistics of this is huge; a central group plays a role to help consider logistics and structure of how we gather, involving people across DM in the process.
Within a pandemic and in the context of climate breakdown, we are still working out the degree of face to face / hybrid / virtual that we will need to balance (recognising that these decisions have important implications).
In August 2021 we held a hybrid gathering where we gathered across 7 geographical clusters local to the team over four days. By that time:
- The team had not physically met since December 2019
- In that time the makeup of the team had changed significantly, we had almost tripled in size and the majority of DM people had not met more than one other DMer in person.
- We had run a series of virtual Gatherings which had strived to test the limits of what can be achieved to build cohesion and legibility across the organisation in the virtual space during the first 18 months of the Pandemic.
We knew it was such an important moment for learning how we might do this going forward.
We approached the challenge of working with different time zones by:
- Splitting the time table for everyone between the same synchronous and asynchronous sessions. So for 6 hours every day the team were connected together for all team sessions (Europe Morning, Asia Evening) and the other 18 hours were for each cluster to connect with each other and work together on topics set in the synchronous times from that day.
- A central group orchestrated the schedule and logistics, while clusters led their local schedules and activities.
- We nominated both Facilitators in each cluster to ensure timekeeping during the synchronous times of day and host content related conversations in asynchronous time and ‘Ministers of fun’ who were responsible for ensuring the team were making enough time to decompress, connect with each other, rest and eat well across the programme.
Things that worked well
- Meeting people physically was the highlight for everyone (a feeling of belonging, connection, and a better understanding of DML and the “gorgeous human beings” / brilliant minds that make up the team:)
- Quality of the content delivered was high and the subjects we chose were good for the time (The opportunity to learn more about DML as an organisation -history, finance, etc — and community -shared values, aspirations etc)
- Overall flow of the gathering, the balance of synchronous and asynchronous time, roles different people played, quality of content in sessions (Mix of online and offline. Time spent together in clusters. Mix of lofty but fiercely practical. Range of voices. Time for conversation and exploration. Ways to capture the pulse of the org. Great hosting)
Things that we can learn and develop going forward
- The quantity of content was very high and people felt compressed - in future, presentations move into videos that we watch offline
- Overall, participants requested more together time for sharing experience, exploring more personal topics to open space and breakout conversations on the content. In future, more time for open space or chance for people to follow their own energy
- Clusters experienced the gathering in quite different ways according to factors like group size. In future, more training / better equipped/briefed local facilitators with more sessions delivered by them in the local context to be responsive to the nuances of each cluster.
We intend to move towards:
- As all team physical gatherings become less and less likely we are looking to how do we both drive down the impact of the team convening, running them with minimal to no flights and making them a more regular fixture as a part of our organisation’s rhythm and practice.
- This is all part of a flow and rhythm that includes DM Downloads, DM Debates, All team Critical Sessions and Project team site visits/pop up studios where there is an emphasis on working in person, in groups, on work, that has been set free by everything else around it.
- Physical gatherings can then be focused on spaces to connect deeply with each other, reflect, deliberate, work together and play
Working Out Loud and Declaring Assumptions
According to this Tools Hero article:
“the concept of Working Out Loud was first described by Bryce Willians. In 2010 he published the blog post ‘When will we work out loud? Soon!’ on his blog The BrycesWrite. When he came up with the concept, he proposed the following simple formula for WOL:
Working out loud = observable work + narrating your work
Later the concept would be expanded upon by John Stepper. Today Stepper advocates the effectiveness of the concept worldwide. In a TED Talk, he stated that with WOL, he was stimulating a worldwide movement.”
Similarly, for us working out loud means declaring your work and, in particular, declaring/narrating the assumptions behind the direction that you are taking, so that the wider system can:
- See the direction you are going in (and when we are all doing this, sense how the system is moving and fluxing)
- Learn from your findings and assumptions and how you act on them
- Give you useful comments, feedback or thoughts to help you
We use Slack as our main day-to-day communication channel to assist this process.
- Each team member posts a brief daily update in Slack’s org-hq channel on roughly their work of the day (some focus on what they are looking to learn, or questions they are sat with)
- We declare wider decisions and their reasons into relevant slack channels, depending on their scope
Part of the art of this is learning how to work out loud without creating information or task overload or overwhelm. This is nuanced for each person and there are many factors balanced in doing this, such as:
- Our hq posts per person are 1 per day only, to keep manageable
- Slack channel posts focused on declaring and sharing decisions and assumptions kept to what is needed and posted only where needed (inc using Slack group tags so that messages reach the right people)
- More detailed records stored on Notion, optional for people to access
- Each team member individually managing their notifications, blocking out their schedule as needed for undisturbed time and practically managing their time and space (with training on prioritisation and time management to support that and tech support for information management)
This area warrants a blog in itself so this just nods to some of the considerations in how we make these critical practices manageable.
Constructing Legibility
“…in today’s world we find ourselves far from shore where things are uncertain, complex, and dynamic. As we all learn the practice of strategic design by doing, and collectively establish the field, legibility is the key. Trailblazing, here, is about going out of your way to make your path legible.
That means always leaving a few lanterns floating on the water to share not just where you went, but how you got there.”
Navigating a dynamic, ever-changing environment and making personal choices that have reference to these different levels of consideration is complex. As the degrees of complexity increase, it has become clear how autonomy in this system — without finding the system navigable — can be debilitating. It can be, for example, particularly debilitating for those who typically work with high responsibility-taking (for example, the people who wrap up all the loose ends, think through the details and thrive in clear logic and clarity).
We have been developing scaffolding to help us to see the ecosystem of people within DML, their roles, ambitions, ways of working and how these link to our contract, finances and missions, in ways that enables a broad variety of personality types to confidently embrace their autonomy.
Roles and responsibilities
At DM, a role is not a job title; it is an area of responsibility that serves a purpose. Each of us will regularly change (pick up, hand over, build new) roles so that we can be responsive to situations at hand. Early in 2021, we were starting to feel the impact of not having a legible system for who was holding which roles at any given time and the responsibilities they entailed, which we recognised was bringing a range of risks, including:
- *Stepping on each other’s toes*
Wait, you’ve already been working on this? Me too. - *Spreading that energy marmalade too thin*
Not sure how I got here, but I have way too many responsibilities at the moment - *Things falling between the cracks*
Oh, I thought YOU were doing this? - *Unknown Skills Spectrum*
How do I find someone with a specific skill or expertise? - *Lost and Stuck*
I don’t see clear pathways to grow and develop in the organisation - *Unknown Capacity*
How do I estimate the capacity of people? I need help now.
As we now reach over 50 people, creating just enough shared legibility is one of our most important crafts for the DM team to self-navigate this ever-moving decentralized system.
A group within DML has been working on how we can each codify (in a decentralised way) our roles and responsibilities in a way that reflects its dynamic evolutionary nature. The approach thinks about roles are cards that we hold at any given time (a role played within a mission, a project or a team), some of which we may put down and pick up over time. Each role card has a description of the role and an overview of its responsibilities both to and from other roles (described by the cardholder or a former holder). Alongside this people can declare which cards they hope to put down or wish to pick up in the future, so that those building future projects or building teams for new projects can spot patterns, see who might be interested and can reach out to each other to discuss.
This role cards system is currently being developed and trialled.
Being able to visualise the current and upcoming capacity of team members is an important aid to this in helping us to:
- Spot when people are over-capacity and provide them with care (care is not one person’s role, this is in all of our roles)
- Recognise when people may (or may not) have upcoming capacity so that people can navigate whether to invite them to join a piece of work
- Get a sense of the patterns that play out and if there is anything we need to be collectively aware of or address in those patterns
This area of work intersects with ‘external rules’ (e.g. regulation) that are part of the systems that we work in. Namely:
- Transfer pricing calculations (these are transfers between legal entities that are required to meet international tax law, e.g. where a team member works significantly on a piece of work contracted by a legal entity that they are not paid from)
- Project reporting (where a breakdown of personnel cost or time spent is required as part of our contracts)
We seek to collate and fully comply with this information whilst not being driven by it. The current system being trialled involves each DM team member indicating their capacity across their projects per month on their personal Nation page, information which is then drawn through synced or shared databases to create an overview of shared capacity per project and per mission over time. Whilst we recognise that using an FTE and capacity approach is less than ideal, at this stage it fulfils a need for shared information that assists us to navigate our way through the system whilst we work towards an alternative approach in the future.
DM missions portfolio
Constructing legibility about the missions that we are working towards and the work that we do towards them is another area that we have focused significant energy to this year. This has been covered by a few blogs recently, including blog 1 of this series (section: ‘Led by Planetary Missions’) and this DM Note on Mission Holding at DM.
Centers and horizons
One of the difficult practical things about working in emergent systems is when to draw a line around an enquiry or the scope of our work. Most of the questions that we explore are interconnected, complex questions and as inquisitive people who want to do things well we have a cultural tendency to overwork as a result — e.g. what we might have been envisioned as a short enquiry becomes an expansive systems map and forum. It is hard to be true to the topics we explore whilst trying to artificially bound them (and indeed is problematic in many ways to do so); and yet, not bounding them can result in overwork by the team and overburdening ourselves in partnerships (and partners perhaps wondering why we keep broadening the remit).
Recent conversations have included thinking early on about where the horizons are for our work. Recognising that a horizon is not a boundary or an end, only the limit of what we can perceive (and that this horizon shifts depending on where we are), by considering the horizons to a piece of work we can identify how wide we intend to focus attention. Alongside, if we can identify the centres of our enquiries — the questions that sit at the heart of what we are trying to discover — then that horizon can be informed by distance from the centre and help to ground where energy is focused. This is an idea more than a practice, at present.
Manuals of Me
The iterative dynamic nature of our organising requires us to all have strong skills in self-management, much of which means the ability to build good relationships. Since this is such a critical part of our work we have a part-time team member focused specifically on supporting these team capabilities, running internal training on holding boundaries, building relationships, giving and receiving clean feedback, time management, etc.
This is complemented by team members building a Manual of Me, outlining how they like to work, what roles they like to play, hours they like to work, things that help us to understand them so that we can all get better at navigating each other. This becomes an incredibly valuable resource at the point of groups newly working together and discovering what it means to work together well.
Read more here on how we think ‘Manuals of We’ can help partners to navigate each other during collaborations and example of one that we made for one of our partnerships.
Wielding tech
Tech plays a really important role in this area of our work, helping to build efficiency and simplicity in what might otherwise be hugely cumbersome. Our Tech and Tools group does incredible work finding ways that tech can create shortcuts through what already exists (rather than detours, creating extra work). The main platforms that we use currently are:
- Notion: as a shared database, project and info management space
- Slack: for direct communication, updates and sharing
- Google Workspace: for meetings, shared folders, shared documents (presentations, spreadsheets etc), shared calendars and emails (which is mainly for external communication)
- Miro: for ideation and sense-making
- Alongside Kumu, Adobe, Airtable, Discord, Loom and others
The tech and tools group learn how to wield these tools and to integrate them in a way that maximises our shared efficiency and supports the wider team to upskill. For example, our shared financial dashboard on Notion draws through information from finance meeting notes (using synching blocks) and forecasting spreadsheets (using integrations) to create an internal dashboard for the whole team to view our financial situation and considerations. The userface presents on the information useful but draws it from existing information in our systems, meaning that there is no additional work required for the finance team to maintain it.
In blog 3, we will look at how we are working towards a distributed system of governance through self-management, legal stewardship and other means. It looks at the platform of deep care, security and safety required for this.
If you would like to receive updates (every few weeks/months) about the #BeyondtheRules project you can do so via this short form. Previous blogs in this series include:
- Organising beyond the rules #1 of 4: an international platform for shared missions
- #BeyondtheRules (framing blog)
- Manual of We
- Reimagining the Wage
- Balanced governance and ‘Behaving Well’ everywhere, every day
This blog was authored by Annette Dhami with support from Jonathan Lapalme and refers to work done by many team members across Dark Matter Labs.
