These are some examples of practices we use within Integration Station, and often recommend to others. Of course, every situation is different and we adjust practices to fit every group’s needs. We are sharing them for inspiration and transparency.
Core practices
- Meet often. We meet at least weekly for planning, connection, and feedback integration. We also use meetings as opportunities to test and evolve our practices and systems.
- Get stuff done. Everyone chooses which tasks and activities to participate in and asks for support if needed. Anyone who is not contributing to work is welcome to observe.
- Speak up. We share our truth with love. We bring in everyone’s perspective and gifts. We offer supportive feedback and make specific requests when we have concerns.
- Lead decisions. Anyone can start and make integrative decisions: ask for input, choose what to integrate, decide, and inform others. Our core team cares for overall coherence and direction.
- Adopt decisions. We commit to following the decisions of others, even when we disagree (within willingness). We offer feedback as we continue to adopt and implement.
- Play and celebrate. We bring fun and gratitude to our work. We express appreciation often. We add kittens to documents. We connect, share art, take dance breaks, and invite creativity.
- Act with care. Instead of writing a lot of agreements, we ask each person to hold responsibility for getting things done in ways that work for everyone. We choose to trust that everyone will do their best to care for each other and learn from feedback.
Decision making agreements
We love getting things done! We want everyone to start, make, and lead decisions. We also want what we do to fit well together and work for everyone, so we have agreements about when to get input or agreement from others. Distributed leadership can get quite messy. To help us keep coherence and momentum, our core team is responsible for decisions that have long-term impact on the whole organization.
How do I make decisions? What process do I use?
- If you’re new or prefer to keep it simple, just use Advice process. This means you get input from relevant people and then decide. You are not required to get agreement, and it’s helpful if you’re willing to integrate at least some input.
- If you need more structure or support, use the decision practices below, read the Decision methods overview, or just ask someone for help.
- If you’re a member of the core team, use the Integration Station core agreements.
Regardless of how you make decisions, aim to integrate as many needs as possible, including your own. Use our practices to compensate for access barriers like language, internalized disempowerment, social inequalities, and less experience.
These reflection questions might help:
“How can I compensate for my blind spots or bias to support participation from people who are very different from me or experience more barriers?”
“How can I contribute to our shared goals in ways that work for everyone and build trust?”
“What would efficiently move our project forward while supporting everyone’s sense of mattering and belonging?”
| If I want to… | Examples | I use this process | And I inform people by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do work on my own | Work on a task no one else is doing, draft new content | Act with care | Keeping the tracking list up to date, sharing in meetings |
| Make easy to undo changes with low impacts | Schedule a play meeting, create a coworking space | Act with care or Advice Process | Connecting with relevant people as needed |
| Make harder to undo changes with more impact | Delete shared content, post on social media | Advice Process | Sharing in weekly meetings or in group chat |
| Finalize new materials or update existing ones | Finish a design or principles list, update shared notes | ISC collaborative editing | Following our collaborative editing agreements |
| Facilitate decisions during a meeting | Lead an agenda item to agree on a proposal | ISC Integrative | Updating agenda, sharing proposals in advance |
| Update org design (agreements or structures) | Propose a new agreement, add a new team | ISC Modified sociocracy | Everyone participates, so they already know 🙂 |
| Escalate a disagreement | Revise a decision that I’m not willing to follow | Convergent Facilitation | Updating the team in every weekly meeting |
Decision methods overview: Deciders, Input Givers, and Integration
| Process name | Deciders | Input givers | How much integration? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Act with care | The person wanting to take action or make a decision | None by default, specific people if needed for support or more clarity about needs | Mostly intuitive and internal, using known and imagined needs |
| Advice process | Anyone willing to take responsibility and put energy into leading | Anyone affected, needed for adoption, or with relevant experience; more if wanted | Chosen by the decider, based on input, potential impacts, and capacity |
| ISC modified consent | Person(s) or team responsible for an area | All team members, other stakeholders | All core input, at least one attempt for other input |
| Collaborative editing | The initial author or person who agreed to do integration | Anyone, see our content review and editing agreements for details | All input marked as “not safe to try*”, more if the decider is willing |
| Convergent Facilitation | All stakeholders or representation for them | All stakeholders or representation for them | All input is integrated (everyone needs to agree) |
* We define “Not safe to try” as “it would make it very difficult to continue our work or to be in integrity with our mission and values”
Photo credits: Four kittens on brown basket by Jari Hytönen on Unsplash | White and black cat by diego caro on Unsplash