Pattern for Agile Organizations

Artful Participation

Commit to doing your best to act and interact in ways that enable effective collaboration.

"Is my behavior in this moment the greatest contribution I can make to the effectiveness of this collaboration?"

Participating artfully may include interrupting, objecting or breaking agreements.

Artful Participation is an individual commitment to:

• actively consider and follow-up on all agreements made, in the best way possible, given the circumstances
• develop awareness and understanding of individual and collective needs
• grow the necessary skills
• support others to participate artfully
• bring impediments and improvement suggestions to the attention of others if necessary
  

Benefits Of Artful Participation

Artful participation:

• enables co-creation and evolution of agreements
• helps to grow stronger teams
• builds self-accountability, integrity and trust
• generates a culture of mutual support and close collaboration
• is more powerful when embraced by many
  

Artful Participation: Self-Assessment

• How can I support myself and others to participate more artfully?
• Where are my interactions with others unhelpful or ineffective?
• Which agreements do I find hard to keep? What can I do to address this?
• What skills can I develop, that would support me to participate more artfully?
• What would artful participation mean in relation to:
  

• my daily activities?
• collaboration and interaction with others?
• the organization? …our customers or clients?
• the wider environment?

Adopt The Seven Principles

Align collaboration with the Seven Principles.

dopting the Seven Principles reduces the number of explicit agreements required, and guides adaptation of S3 patterns to suit the organization's context.

An organization's values need to embrace the Seven Principles.

Agree On Values

Intentionally evolve the culture in your organization.

Values are valued principles that guide behavior. Values define scope for action and ethical constraints.

• each member brings their own values to an organization based on personal experiences and beliefs
• a team or organization may choose to collectively adopt values to guide their collaboration
  

Values offer guidance to determine appropriate action, even in the absence of explicit agreements.
Collectively adopting a set of values supports the effectiveness of an organization:

• reduces potential for misunderstanding
• helps to align decision making and action
• attracts new members, partners and customers who are aligned with the organization
  

Chosen values are an agreement that benefits from regular review.

Involve Those Affected

Involve people in making decisions that affect them, to maintain equivalence and accountability, and to increase the amount of information available on the subject.

For larger groups:

• facilitate a process in several stages and create smaller groups who select delegates
• use an online tool and conduct an asynchronous, timeboxed and staged process
  

Consider including those affected in reviewing and evolving decisions, too.

Breaking Agreements

Break agreements when you are certain the benefit for the organization outweighs the cost of waiting to amend that agreement first, and take responsibility for any consequences.

Breaking agreements is sometimes necessary but may come at a cost to the community.

Be accountable:

• clean up disturbances
• follow up as soon as possible with those affected
• change the agreement instead of repeatedly breaking it

Transparent Salary

Create a fair salary formula and make it transparent.

Transparent salary (also referred to as "open salary") is the practice of determining each employee's compensation according to a set of rules - the salary formula - instead of making compensation subject to individual negotiation between employer and employee. The salary formula - and often individual compensation as well - is transparent to all members of an organization, and sometimes to the public.

A transparent salary formula needs to suit an organization's context, and to be perceived as fair enough by all stakeholders.

Perception of fairness varies from person to person and according to context, so creating a salary formula requires developing a shared understanding of what is considered fair.

When deciding (or agreeing) on a salary formula for an organization or department, consider:

• what would be a suitable fixed subsistence guarantee
• how to calculate compensation according to need, investment, productivity, or merit
• how to distribute the organization's profit and cover for losses in line with expectations and needs of the various stakeholders
  

Decide how to handle remuneration for changing roles and develop a strategy for how to transition towards new contracts and compensation agreements.

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Contract For Successful Collaboration

Support successful collaboration from the start and build trust between parties by co-creating mutually beneficial and legally robust contracts.

A contract is a body of promises that two or more parties agree to make legally binding, i.e if those promises are violated, the injured party gains access to legal (or alternative) remedies.

Developing shared understanding about needs and expectations is essential for successful collaboration.

While negotiating and agreeing on a contract, model the culture of collaboration you want to achieve, and build a positive relationship with the other parties involved.

This pattern refers to contracts relating related to collaboration around any business transaction between an organization and other parties (e.g. employees, consultants, service providers, shareholders or customers). It is especially relevant for contracts that have a significant influence on the future of an organization or one of its partners, such as:

• employment contracts and contracts with external contractors or consultants in support roles (including any agreement that results in a change of remuneration or working hours)
• contracts governing collaboration with customers, vendors or service providers
• shareholder agreements
  

Note: Many agreements about collaboration within an organization do not require dedicated contracts, as they are already governed by or subject to existing contracts.

Success criteria for contract negotiation

When negotiating a contract, ensure:

• shared understanding of the reason for the collaboration, as well as the intended outcome and important constraints
• all parties understand what is expected of them
• all parties affected by a contract are involved in creating the contract and enter it voluntarily
• expectations are realistic
• the agreement is beneficial to all parties
• everyone intends to keep to the agreement made
  

If for any reason one or more of these criteria cannot be fulfilled, it is probably wise to not proceed.

Co-creating the contract

The way a contract is negotiated can significantly contribute toward building trust between parties. Approach contracting from the point of view of making an agreement between partners, not adversaries: co-create the contract, tailor it to its specific context, and ensure it is legally robust.

• the contract should include all expectations of the parties involved, each explained with adequate detail
• use clear and simple language that all parties can understand, and be unambiguous about legal consequences
• if you need to use specific technical or legal terms a party might be unfamiliar with, explain them in a glossary that is part of the contract
• consult a lawyer who supports the culture you aspire to and is competent in the field if business you are negotiating
  

When Co-Creating a Contract:

• ensure all parties have a delegation that includes representation for all affected domains (e.g. not only sales, but also development / production / support, etc)
• explicitly describe the culture you want to develop, with consideration for common ground and any cultural differences between parties
• state the reasons for the proposed collaboration, and transparent about expectations and needs of all parties
• disclose all relevant information (if necessary under an NDA)
• agree first on terms of the relationship and expectations to all parties, and then consider how you can make them legally robust
• compile a list of specific laws and regulation the contract needs to comply to
• negotiate in several iterations, allowing time to consider implications and propose amendments
• keep minutes of each meeting to reduce the potential for misconceptions
  

Support The Full Lifecycle Of The Collaboration:

Any contract can be changed at any time, provided all signatories agree. However, it greatly reduces the potential for conflict later if you consider the full lifecycle of the collaboration in the contract:

• make provisions for successfully getting started by defining onboarding procedures
• have a probationary period, where all parties can try out the collaboration, and a clear protocol for how each party can terminate the contract during the probationary period
• define and build into the contract regular review meetings where signatories come together to share learning and decide how the contract might be amended to adapt to changing context
• include procedures for breach of contract
• consider making available alternative means for dispute resolution, e.g. mediation, conciliation or arbitration
• consider limiting the contract to a fixed term after which the contract expires and can be renewed if required
  

Culture

Every contract influences the culture of the collaboration it governs, even when it appears to only describe what needs to be delivered:

• intentionally create the culture of collaboration you want to see by including expectations on how things should be done
• align the contract to the organizational culture (of all parties) and to legal requirements
• build contracts that enable and encourage accountability
  

If you find that standard contracts in your industry are misaligned with the culture you want to create, build your own repository of templates for contracts and clauses and consider sharing it with others, so that you can leverage past experience when creating new contracts.

Support Role

Apply the role pattern to external contractors.

• clarify and describe the driver for the role
• create a domain description
• if valuable, implement a selection process
• limit the term of the contract
• build in regular peer reviews
  

External contractors consent to take on their role.

Bylaws

Secure S3 principles and patterns in your bylaws as needed to protect legal integrity and organizational culture

Consider:

• consent and equivalence in decision making
• selection process for leadership roles
• organizational structure, values and principles
• influence of owners or shareholders
• sharing gains and costs