Taking the Time to Take Time

Well folks, I have suddenly come up with a Paramount Objection to most of my extracurricular activities, and the reason is that I am simply in need of a break. A real one!

So, this will be my last posting for the next few weeks. It will allow me to collect my thoughts, process much of what has happened over the past year, and hopefully obtain better clarity over Dynamic Governance and its implementation at the College.

For this last posting, I want to follow up on my last entry, where I discussed how I felt I had let my Implementation Group down by allowing the group to ignore an issue that had spontaneously arisen (around whether to hold the meeting outside or not). As it happens, at our next meeting (which happened a week later) as facilitator I decided to amend the agenda and resolve the issue from the previous meeting.

I decided to do this for a few reasons. First, as people were coming in, I heard the comment being made that perhaps "today, if we are lucky, we could go outside". Second, I felt that for the group to become solid and effective, we had to be able to resolve what appeared to be a simple issue. So I set to steer the group in that direction.

The way we tackled the issue was simple. I explained why I wanted to go back to it, and then I proceeded to ask the group to come up with an idea, a solution, or a proposal. Someone then proposed that we go outside for that meeting. So we treated that proposal as any other, and within about 15 minutes, it was decided that the next meeting would be outside, weather permitting, so that everyone would know in advance and be able to prepare for it.

When I asked for a comment round at the end of that decision, a few interesting comments were brought up. First, many thought that it was great to actually take the time to learn how to work together; second, a few were not too keen on that, rather, they would have preferred to go straight to the business items, but were ok with going along; third (and this one was during the closing round), two people mentioned that they felt I had taken a lot of space in the discussions, especially during the debate over our Vision Statement. The question was whether I took so much space because I was facilitator or because I had drafted the Vision statement.

At that moment it became clear to me that the time had come to have an election for a new facilitator. This will build the capacity of the group and allow the members to get engaged at a different level.

The main thought I will be leaving on holidays with is that Sociocracy is much, much more than an organizational structure and a decision-making process. I will write more on these thoughts once I have had time to rest and wander...

Until then, feel free to post comments or email me. I will never be too far from an internet connection...