Foundational Decisions

When diverse individuals and entities begin to explore how they might collaborate to achieve a shared purpose, they need to make foundational decisions that will help them to learn, decide and act together.

In a classic “chicken or egg” scenario, groups need to simultaneously sort through three foundational decisions:

·       How do we decide?

·       What values and principles guide our interactions?

·       What is our purpose?

Of course, the answer to one of those questions shapes the answer to the others. The only way to manage the chickens and eggs is to sort through them together.

And as those decisions are addressed, three more foundational questions quickly emerge:

·       How do we organize ourselves to learn, decide and act together?

·       What do we expect of each other and the entities we represent?

·       What capacity and support do we need to learn, decide and act together?

Often the urgency of the issue that unites people to start a collective effort makes it difficult for the members to dedicate time to these foundational questions. Some may see answering such questions as secondary to acting.  However, the quality of the process (how we work together) greatly shapes the quality of the actions (what we do together). Addressing these foundational questions is well worth the time.

Invariably, the answers to most of these foundational questions will evolve over time as the members of the group learn and do more together. This means that the foundations of collective efforts should be viewed more as replaceable blocks than solid concrete.

For example, it’s not uncommon for collective efforts to start making decisions through unanimous agreement or majority rule – two relatively straightforward ways to make decisions. Over time, the members may find the limitations of either approach (it’s difficult to gain unanimity when addressing complex, civic issues and most collaboratives cannot survive a lot  of important decisions made by a narrow majority vote) to be problematic and turn to a more nuanced consent-based approach.

And collective efforts often add new members and lose old ones as the work evolves – altering who is making decisions and perhaps how they are made.

Hopefully, the values and principles agreed upon don’t evolve too much. Values are deeply held beliefs about what the members consider to be important. Principles guide their actions to reflect those values. A group that values mutual respect may adopt the principle of the golden rule -- treat others as you want to be treated – to guide their interactions. Transparency is a principle that promotes the value of trustworthiness.

Having and following clear, stable values and principles help collective efforts stay together, add new members, navigate disruptions and keep making decisions together, regardless of what changes.