How do you build an “architecture of participation” in your organisation? We Are Open provides a very clear ten-point checklist
Some weeks on the Daily Alternative, we are spoiled for methods of cooperation and participation… A good one here from the consultancy for coops, We Are Open. Matched to the graphic above, this blog lays out some well-seasoned guidelines (or even ‘quick wins”) to guaranteeing cooperative participation in an organisation:
Clear mission
A clear mission is important to channel the energy of the community and align people around your goals.
Does everyone know why the community exists? Is the mission statement short and pithy enough to remember? Put it everywhere to remind people what you’re there to do! The mission / big idea can be pinned to channels on workplace chat apps like Slack, added to the top of meeting document templates, as well as being front-and-centre on websites, docs sites, and code repositories.
For example, LocalGov Drupal have a fantastic mission statement and strapline: The publishing platform created by councils, for councils. This is expanded to explain that “LocalGov Drupal is a publicly owned asset that delivers a better digital experience for citizens, improves service outcomes, and saves money.”
Invitation to participate
There’s a difference between a passive and an active invitation to contribute to something. For example, think of the difference between a neighbour sending out a mass email saying that “everyone’s welcome for drinks to celebrate Bob’s 50th birthday” versus that neighbour knocking on your door and inviting you personally.
Although it can feel like a lot of work, personal invitations are immensely important for community participation and growth. Direct messaging people who haven’t introducing themselves to the community can give them the confidence to do so. This is especially important for diversity and inclusivity — providing people with a personal connection into a community can help create safety and trust.
The same goes for working groups and community gatherings. “We’d love to see you at the next product meeting to tell us more about the idea you shared in the channel last week” is an invitation. People need inviting.
Easy onboarding
People are busy. Life is short. We’re all interested in lots of things and, while some people are more interested in some things than others, we should make it as easy as possible for people to get involved.
Most of this is about removing barriers, which can be broken down into:
Signposting — is there an easy-to-understand overview of where everything is, and how to get involved?
Checklist — is there a way that new community members can know when they’ve completed all of the recommended onboarding activities?
Proof of membership — is there a way that new community members can share their new-found status with others? (e.g. a profile, or a badge?)
Community belonging is about identity, which is aligned with the mission. Making it easy to show how to belong is important and it’s important to provide several ways to understand the community’s landscape. After all, everyone thinks a little differently!
A good place to start with conversations about belonging can be working a Code of Conduct. It’s worth checking out the Contributor Covenant if you haven’t done this kind of work before.
A good example of a mature badge system for contributors is the Fedora Project, which has been issuing badges since 2013
Modular approach
Diversity is the lifeblood of communities, both in terms of people of all backgrounds, orientations, and beliefs feeling welcome, but also in terms of interests and job role. For example, there will be some people are particularly interested in codebases and repositories, whereas others may be more interested in design.
As a project grows, it’s important that new contributors don’t feel like they have to be part of every conversation and initiative. So it’s worth separating out work, and discussions about that work, where possible. Practically speaking, this can be as simple as separate chat channels, but may also include potentially new working groups, and decision-making workflows.
You may want to ask a particularly-engaged community member to take the lead in a particular area. This can avoid burnout for the overall project lead, who often feels like they need to be across everything going on in a community.
Strong leadership
Communities, and especially open source communities that have a technical project attached to them, are often started by a single person with a big idea. The Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) approach, however, tends to foreground and elevate white western males, and does not necessarily lead to community cohesion. In addition, it can be onerous for those put into that position.
The approach…which we have seen work extremely well within the cooperative movement, is Sociocracy.
Sociocracy is a system of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared goal or work process.
The idea is that governance is always a work in progress, and that people can join circles based on interest. Decision-making is devolved to the relevant circle, with ‘double links’ back to other circles. More details on this at the SoFA website. Outlandish, a sister co-op to WAO, also run introductory Sociocracy workshops.
Ways of working open
As we explained in a previous post about our work with LocalGov Drupal, working openly on ambitious targets is how people get excited about projects and want to join your community.
It can be tempting to just focus on getting the work done, but if you don’t have increasing numbers of contributors, you’re creating a bottleneck. That’s why working openly, and documenting your work is so important!
After all, if a project isn’t ambitious but is open, then people who do find out about might not care enough to be interested. Conversely, if a project is ambitious but not open, then people tend to get suspicious. The sweet spot is being both open and ambitious, with bonus points for finding ways to help people get involved easily!
Backchannels & watercoolers
A particular project may be a ‘work’ thing. For example, LocalGov Drupal is squarely focused on helping councils deliver a better digital experience for citizens, improve service outcomes, and save money.
But that doesn’t mean that people can’t have fun while doing it, make new friends, and learn new, adjacent things! Creating a place for people to share photos of their dogs, request sponsorship for a trek they’re doing, or talk about things that may be a little off-topic, is all part of community cohesion.
You can create channels such as #watercooler or #backchannel in chat apps. You can ensure that people can bring their full selves to the project by ‘checking-in’ to meetings or gatherings. You can model this behaviour by being human, and not a machine.
Some people are naturally more open and extroverted than others, whereas others are more reserved and introverted. Laura has written about this elsewhere. The idea is to create a space where everyone feels welcome and can contribute in ways with which they feel comfortable.
Celebration of milestones
There are at least three different types of milestones you can celebrate in your community:
Project milestones — e.g. new releases of software
Community milestones — e.g. the existence of the project for X number of years
Personal milestones — e.g. someone celebrated a big birthday
There are many different ways of celebrating these milestones, but all are to do with recognition. This may be recognition of the hard work that people have put in, of their value to the community, or to the impact the project has had on the wider world.
However you do it — through badges, a message full of emoji, or a press release, the aim is to bring a smile to the faces of community members and make them feel proud to be associated with your project.