The Rhythms and Rituals (our Being and Doing)
WORK IN PROGRESS
Irina: The daily call with Rieki as a DHO Catalyst with a lot fo experience from Hypha has provided a boost of energy and a lot of great advice. Also a lot of exploration for potential DHO foundations were discussed. Worth mentioning, there was a lot of work there. Good foundations for Organisation in a box.
Some other specific things for Samara: We didn't know each other before starting this adventure, a big challenge to start such a journey with strangers from around the world, We didn't have a "box" or a "book" for how to build a DHO, nor experience in another DHO most of us, we had to do the unboxing together, exploring alternatives for arranging different pieces of the box, creating foundations and in the same time start working on the branches, not quite a recipe you would recommend to a startup :) and yet here we are - Irina
Patterns: learning process how to work async with the right tools took a while, desire to have a lot of connection through meetings (work happened mostly in meetings at first) - Irina
Proposal to Add a section of What Worked and one What we would do different - Irina
Rhythms
Over the first few months of its existence, Samara created rhythm of:
Wednesdays: Roots call (governance, funding, remuneration, etc)
Thursdays: Trunk call (overlap and alignment of Roots and Branches
Fridays: Branches call (regional pilots, outreach, engagement, etc)
Plus various pod calls and ad hoc calls, often but not always between noon and 5pm UTC.
Each call starts with a minute of silence to settle into the space, with the beginning and end of the minute marked with a sound from a singing bowl, sacred rattle, or similar. This is followed by check-ins so we acknowledge and own any tensions or joys that we are bringing into the collective field (and if these are not named, there is a good chance that our resident shaman, Justin, will pick them up and name them anyway - we appreciate you, Justin!). There is a round of check-outs at the end of the call.
The coterie faces the challenges of reconciling many interconnected variables:
- Time zones (from New Zealand to California)
- Tolerance for keeping unusual hours
- Commitments to family, self-care, other projects, etc.
- The necessity of paid work outside of Samara pending remuneration within Samara
- Varying needs for forward planning ("let's have a meeting now!" / "I can fit you in a week on Tuesday")
- Varying needs for yang-time and yin-time ("I'm available for action whenever needed" / "I can be active for a while, but then need time to consolidate and/or do deep work")
Like Seeds, Samara recognizes the waxing moon for expansion/activity/yang, waning moon for reflection/consolidating/yin and hopes to start to align with this Rhythm in some ways, but to plan projects on a longer cycle. This is part of our efforts to discover the rhythm that will emerge to best facilitate our higher calling.
There is also a recognition of having a dynamic pulse check using some sensing and metrics which allow Samara to check when the threat response is starting to increase in the group. This is not simply a case of reducing the threat felt by changing the factors external to the individual, but having clear pathways to respond in the right way at the right time. We are taking inspiration from the SCARF model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) to create processes which mimic how to prevent a threat response in an individual in a group setting.
Pulse checking people in a similar way to how Hypha does an org scan will be a powerful way to channel rhythms to create safety regardless of external factors and in the presence of high cognitive load or project sprints/deadlines. This dynamic way of adjusting rhythm still provides structure and direction while allowing a sense-and-respond process.
Joachim has pointed out that Samara does most of its work within calls, while Hypha uses calls more to verify work done asynchronously in between calls. In the future, Samara may wish to shift more towards this pattern to explore whether it seems more effective and productive, and/or enables Samarans further to the east and to the west to catch up on some sleep (!).