Transformational Governance... a belated introduction
Learning Out Loud #12
Hello friends,
It’s symptomatic of the topsy turvy nature of my life in the last two years that I’ve had draft text ready to go about Transformational Governance since April 2022. It has been the most consistent bit of my work life since then. I’ve made it the focus of this month’s newsletter, with a tour of some of what we’ve been doing, some opportunities to get involved and some of my favourite resources.
Make sure you read (or skip!) to the end for a couple of great opportunities offered by friends of mine with upcoming deadlines. 👀
Transformational Governance
Two and a bit years ago, I joined the Transformational Governance Stewarding Group. It has been a joyful collaboration. It's a wonderful group of humans who I love spending time with.
We're doing three main things: practising collaborative governance ourselves; creating resourced learning spaces for those trying to transform their governance; and working as part of a wider field of practice for evolving governance.
So what do we mean by 'transformational governance'?
“We use the term Transformational Governance to describe governance that is explicitly designed to disrupt the way power operates in our dominant system, support healthy collaboration across difference and bring about just and resilient outcomes.”
Some of the highlights so far have included:
Creating our relational group agreement and circling back to it when we're between phases
Setting up our own governance, so we can be an example of what we’re discussing.
Using Open Collective to manage our money in a transparent way. Zahra has written about the liberatory potential of this.
Creating roles and allocating them as a collective according to interests, availability and equity.
Co-facilitating the 2023 Power Shift Learning Cohort with Siana Bangura and Euella Jackson.
Co-hosting a "Life Affirming Organisational Practices" day alongside Dark Matter Labs and Healing Justice London last September in Bristol. Here’s DML’s write-up and some joint reflections.
Gathering folks into a Slack community.
Learning to use and now facilitate a sociocratic tensions process in our monthly meetings.
I could write blog posts and newsletters about each of these (and maybe will about some of them). But, for now, I want to share a couple of opportunities to get involved and signpost some helpful resources.
Two ways to get involved...
1. Community Value Exchange
This is a 6-month guided process where you’ll pool skills, knowledge, time and resources within a community of peers, all attempting to shift and distribute power in different but complementary ways. We have £50-£60k to distribute as part of this process.
Find out more and sign up here. Note that the sign up deadline is Monday July 1st.
2. Learning Out Loud (LOL) hours
This is a weekly virtual space for you to reflect, connect and refine your transformational governance practice with peers and comrades over a different theme related to Transformational Governance. You’ll leave feeling refuelled and ready to step back into your week with new tools, ideas and contacts.
They happen every Wednesday afternoon, 2-3pm. You'll be hosted by Katy Dawe, our resident Sensemaker. Each session has a theme - today's is on Community Governance. We've got sessions coming up on staying energised and connecting imagination, dreaming and governance. 👀
Sign up for today's session here and find out more about the series here.
For all other links for Transformational Governance, including to join our Slack community - have a look at our brand new LinkTree here.
But we're definitely not the only ones working on this. I'd like to shine a spotlight on some of my favourite resources.
(Some of) my favourite resources
🎧 If you prefer to listen...
A few weeks ago, someone in the Slack community asked about podcasts related to transformational governance. It was maybe the moment I've been waiting for, having listened to a lot of geeky podcasts in recent years. Here's my list...
The How from Greater Than
Leadermorphosis with Lisa Gill
At Work with The Ready (formerly known as Brave New Work)
Some episodes of From What If to What Next with Rob Hopkins, including this one about distributing power differently featuring my TG colleague Sarah McAdam.
Some episodes of Accidental Gods including this one with Paddy le Flufy
Frontiers of Commoning (though I've listened to this less). E.g. this episode with Alanna Irving of Open Collective
And hot off the press: Pete Burden's new Healthy Power Alliance podcast.
📖 If you prefer to read...
A series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) from Louise Armstrong, Anna Birney and Sean Andrew on governance as an overlooked route to transformation. It introduced the above image of the hard and soft elements of governance, which I often come back to.
Beyond the Rules is "an initiative that practices organising and governance for an economy designed for life". They are "particularly interested in the deep, thoughtful and highly creative work required to rewrite, reinvent or reimagine rules, norms and laws that hold us in the current system." They done some deep dives into reimagining employment contracts, pay, funding and partnership agreements and grantmaking practice.
Either/org are "a growing movement of leaders, designers, researchers, and disruptors who are passionate about innovation and integrity in organizational design to inspire liberatory futures of work". I enjoyed their tour of frameworks for org design.
- led on organisational infrastructure for New Constellations. As they went into a 'chrysalis' phase earlier this year, she generously shared some of what they tried together and her sources of inspiration for 'Reimagining Organisations'. There are heaps of practical resources in there to help you work in a way that prioritises care, relationships and reciprocity, thinking in terms of 'living systems' rather than machines.
Euella Jackson with a manifesto for rethinking inclusive governance - learning from nature.
How might your approach to making your leadership / governance more inclusive change when you move from thinking about giving more people a seat at the table and instead recognise the garden that people are already a part of and contributing to?
So many of the other resources I would point towards are already in
's Regenerative Organisational Design Primer. Headings include: Exploring what regenerative organisations could look like; Designing better processes and patterns, Concepts that I wish were org design memes and Unusual organisational design-related thinking that I love. (I appreciate the creativity of the categories).
Emily's definition ties things up nicely:
Regenerative organisational design puts life and liberation at the centre of organisational change efforts:
Creating the conditions for organisational health and enticing life-giving patterns to emerge
Fostering communities that can repair and self-heal
Developing entities that are able to end with grace, improving the health of their ecosystems.
—
You might notice questions emerging from me sharing these links - what counts of ‘transformational governance’? What are the boundaries? Where is ‘regenerative org design’ (or something else) a better name? I don’t have answers but will continue to hold the questions.
🚨 Cool opportunities alert 🚨
I want to share two wonderful things you might want to consider signing up to that have been created by friends of mine - with upcoming deadlines to sign up.
Collaborate Deeply - "Communication Skills for Healthy Team Dynamics". This is a course hosted by Emily Danby for purpose-led organisations and freelancers. It evolved out of the 'Power Trip' Huddle and builds on Emily's non-violent communication practice. Do it to build conflict management skills and model 'power-with' through your communication. It kicks on on July 11th. Apply here by Friday 28th June.
Foregather Hartland - Laura Malan, Fran Cook and Emily Bazalgette are hosting a gathering for women in beautiful Hartland, Devon 20th - 23rd September 2024. In their own words: "We help women dreaming of hopeful futures make their ideas a reality. Through gatherings and practices that deepen our connection to community, earth and creative energy. Combined with practical creative strategy and design support." It sounds super exciting and in a gorgeous part of the world (I walked through it on the South West Coast Path a couple of years ago). Express interest soon and they let you know if going by July 15th.
That should be enough to keep you busy for now!
As a parting gift for your patience with some governance jargon, here's my latest musical obsession, Lawrence, with an "acoustic-ish" version of their song 23. I think it'll make you smile and maybe even dance.
I'll return soon with more personal updates (including a date to move out of London!).
Not one but TWO shoutouts, I am honoured! Great edition, great podcast recs as always, adding them to my list!
Thanks for the content/resource rich post, a lot to delve into x