Revision as of 16:57, 18 December 2020

Overview

Looking after people, being attuned to others moods, needs and larger realities beyond the collective, caring for our wellbeing are all essential factors for creating a healthy work environment. The collective uses a system of mutual stewarding based on Loomio's practices. Every member, whether in the Dating or Fully Committed phase, has a specific person supporting them and every member supports another. Supported members have a safe space to express themselves and to be cared for and heard within the collective (while being reminded of the things they have committed to, etc.). Conflict resolution is also handled through the mutual support system, ensuring the distribution of personal care work.

While DisCO Buddies take care of mentoring, it is Mutual Support Pals who take care of another person's emotional well being. Every person in the collective has a Mutual Support Pal checking in on them regularly. They are always available when their care-receiving pal needs someone to talk to.

Mutual Support Pals

The following section is mainly extracted from the Loomio Handbook's Stewarding Section with some modifications ^[1] to fit in with DisCO's characteristics.

Here are some of the things you Mutual Support pal can do for you:

be the ones you talk to if your coworker is being a jerk
support you to meet your personal development goals
help make sure you do the things you said you were going to do
put a human face on talking to 'the organization'

This, of course, has a degree of overlap with what your DisCO Buddy can do for you. The distinguishing feature is that your DisCO Buddy takes care of more objective procedural, "worky" stuff, while the Mutual Support Pal is there mainly for subjective emotional support. These roles will normally be filled by two different persons but they are not exclusively, you may also give and receive help from other members, but your assigned Buddies and Pals are ultimately responsible for checking in on you with regularity. DisCO Buddies only last for the duration of the dating phase, but you will always have a Mutual Support Pal. As we've spoken plenty about what your DisCO Buddy will do for you during the dating phase, let's now turn to what your pal does and when.

Mutual Support in Action

When you have an issue, you can approach the group through Mattermost. But if you need more intimacy or quiet, you always have a specific person you know you can turn to. Your pal can't solve every problem, but they are your point of contact to make sure the problem gets solved. If you don't know who to go to, you can always go to them.

Your pal is not there to manage your daily work. They are there to support you as an individual, and your relationship to the collective. They can be your mentor, or your guide, or your sounding board. If you ever get into a conflict situation, they’ll be by your side making sure you are well supported to a resolution.

Everyone working in DisCO has a Mutual Support Pal. These relationships facilitate connections across the collective, opportunities for exchanging insights, and deeper understanding of individuals and areas of work. They also help us ensure that we're looking after people. Their work is not passive though, your mutual support pal isn't waiting for you to call them, they will check in with you regularly.

Principles/Policies of our Mutual Support System

All active members (Dating and Committed) have Mutual Support Pals and do Mutual Support work for someone else
Two people can't both be each other's MSPs
On occasion members can support more than one person at a time, but we generally stick to a one to one ratio
The Community Circle facilitates the Mutual Support system overall

Mutual Support relationships are shuffled by a random pair generator every two weeks. This way members get a chance to connect with as many other members as possible despite geographic difference or involvement in different areas of expertise, etc.

Informally, your Mutual Support Pal should check on with you at least once a week, but should check in with you straight away if you signal any discomfort through your daily check in. Formally, you should set a call with your Pal once per rotation (and the same goes for when you are being someone else's pal).

Every mutual support relationship is different, and there are many different approaches. Some are more conversational and friendly, with mutual sharing from both parties. Sometimes pals offer advice or challenges. Other times they simply listen. Sometimes they follow a more structured pattern, checking in on action points or measuring progress over time.

The important thing is that the approach works for the person being supported. Mutual support is their time to get the support they need to bring their best self to the collective.

Mutual Support Regular Calls

During the regular call, your pal might ask you questions like:

How was last month? What did you like or dislike?
What do you want to do differently this month?
What longer term goals are you working on? How are you progressing on them since last time?
How can I best support you?
What do you need and how can those needs be met?
...and sometimes the collective might suggest a prompt or theme for pals to bring up

↑ These boil down to changing some of the names and the timing of mutual support, as well as distinguishing between DisCO Buddies and Mutual Support Pals. In DisCO all members, whether Dating or Committed support each other.

[1] These boil down to changing some of the names and the timing of mutual support, as well as distinguishing between DisCO Buddies and Mutual Support Pals. In DisCO all members, whether Dating or Committed support each other.

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Our approach to mentoring has very much been influenced by our colleagues at [http://www.zemos98.org/english-bio/ Zemos98]. Their approach to learning is based on the four following tenets:
+= Overview =
-* trusting peer to peer knowledge,
-* accepting diversity as an intellectual basis for our work together,
-* connecting practices and experiences for the common good, and
-* using not just oral but also visual languages.
-In DisCO we follow suit. Wikis such as this are only a first step in what we consider to be a non-directive mutual space for learning. Texts can become meaningless without real human support to bring the ideas described here to live and in situated contexts. Videos, infographics and other media will help us learn and refine the message, but the most important work acquires meaning through our relationships.
+Looking after people, being attuned to others moods, needs and larger realities beyond the collective, caring for our wellbeing are all essential factors for creating a healthy work environment. The collective uses a system of mutual stewarding based on [https://loomio.coop/stewarding.html Loomio's practices]. Every member, whether in the Dating or Fully Committed phase, has a specific person supporting them and every member supports another. Supported members have a safe space to express themselves and to be cared for and heard within the collective (while being reminded of the things they have committed to, etc.). Conflict resolution is also handled through the mutual support system, ensuring the distribution of personal care work.
-If knowledge is power, then we want to share that power we've accumulated with new members so they feel a similar sense of ownership and familiarity as soon as it's feasible. We consider the learning to be mutual, bidirectional and based on personal relations and needs. When we speak about creating a knowledge commons in DisCO, we're not just talking about the articles and materials we publish on our website, but also the culture, practices and structures of the collective itself. As part of the community we first want you:
+While DisCO Buddies take care of mentoring, it is '''Mutual Support Pals''' who take care of another person's emotional well being. Every person in the collective has a Mutual Support Pal checking in on them regularly. They are always available when their care-receiving pal needs someone to talk to.
-'''a)''' understand where we're coming from and why we've made these choices
+= Mutual Support Pals=
-'''b)''' add your voice to the choir and enrich our commons
+The following section is mainly extracted from the Loomio Handbook's [https://loomio.coop/stewarding.html Stewarding Section] with some modifications <ref>These boil down to changing some of the names and the timing of mutual support, as well as distinguishing between DisCO Buddies and Mutual Support Pals.  In DisCO all members, whether Dating or Committed support each other.</ref> to fit in with DisCO's characteristics.
-Practically speaking, those with more experience in DisCO, such as members from the Guerrilla Translation pilot project, mentor new members in the productive activities of the collective. Beyond this, all members mentor each other in cooperative culture, specifically the tools and practices of the Open Coop in question. '''Mentoring is always bi-directional (both ways), peer to peer, and available to any committed member'''. The outputs of the mentoring process are recorded as part of our knowledge commons and openly shared through resources such as this handbook or our wiki. While mentoring is an ongoing process, special attention is paid to those members going through the Dating Phase.
+Here are some of the things you Mutual Support pal can do for you:
-During the Dating Phase, mentoring is handled by your '''DisCO Buddy'''. DisCO Buddies take dating members through all aspects of working on the collective, the tools, our governance model, etc. They ensure that new members get all they need to meet a series of criteria on the way to becoming full, committed DisCONAUTS. After the Dating Phase is over you will no longer have an exclusively DisCO Buddy assigned, instead you will become a new Dating Member's Buddy.
+* be the ones you talk to if your coworker is being a jerk
+* support you to meet your personal development goals
+* help make sure you do the things you said you were going to do
+* put a human face on talking to 'the organization'
-Full members will still receive assistance, of course, but it's now seen as a collective responsibility, rather than an individual one. Anyone needing mentoring support after the Dating Phase is encouraged to use Mattermost and Loomio to reach out for guidance.
+This, of course, has a degree of overlap with what your DisCO Buddy can do for you. The distinguishing feature is that your DisCO Buddy takes care of more objective procedural, "worky" stuff, while the Mutual Support Pal is there mainly for subjective emotional support. These roles will normally be filled by two different persons but they are not exclusively, you may also give and receive help from other members, but your assigned Buddies and Pals are ultimately responsible for checking in on you with regularity. DisCO Buddies only last for the duration of the dating phase, but you will always have a Mutual Support Pal. As we've spoken plenty about what your DisCO Buddy will do for you during the dating phase, let's now turn to what your pal does and when.
+= Mutual Support in Action=
+When you have an issue, you can approach the group through Mattermost. But if you need more intimacy or quiet, you always have a specific person you know you can turn to. Your pal can't solve every problem, but they are your point of contact to make sure the problem gets solved. If you don't know who to go to, you can always go to them.
+Your pal is not there to manage your daily work. They are there to support you as an individual, and your relationship to the collective. They can be your mentor, or your guide, or your sounding board. If you ever get into a [[Conflict Resolution | conflict situation]], they’ll be by your side making sure you are well supported to a resolution.
+Everyone working in DisCO has a Mutual Support Pal. These relationships facilitate connections across the collective, opportunities for exchanging insights, and deeper understanding of individuals and areas of work. They also help us ensure that we're looking after people. Their work is not passive though, your mutual support pal isn't waiting for you to call them, they will check in with you regularly.
+= Principles/Policies of our Mutual Support System=
+* All active members (Dating and Committed) have Mutual Support Pals '''and''' do Mutual Support work for someone else
+* Two people can't both be each other's MSPs
+* On occasion members can support more than one person at a time, but we generally stick to a one to one ratio
+* The Community Circle facilitates the Mutual Support system overall
+'''Mutual Support relationships are shuffled by a random pair generator every two weeks'''. This way members get a chance to connect with as many other members as possible despite geographic difference or involvement in different areas of expertise, etc.
+Informally, your Mutual Support Pal should check on with you ''at least'' once a week, but should check in with you straight away if you signal any discomfort through your daily check in. Formally, you should set a call with your Pal once per rotation (and the same goes for when you are being someone else's pal).
+Every mutual support relationship is different, and there are many different approaches. Some are more conversational and friendly, with mutual sharing from both parties. Sometimes pals offer advice or challenges. Other times they simply listen. Sometimes they follow a more structured pattern, checking in on action points or measuring progress over time.
+The important thing is that the approach works ''for the person being supported''. Mutual support is their time to get the support they need to bring their best self to the collective.
+= Mutual Support Regular Calls =
+During the regular call, your pal might ask you questions like:
+* How was last month? What did you like or dislike?
+* What do you want to do differently this month?
+* What longer term goals are you working on? How are you progressing on them since last time?
+* How can I best support you?
+* What do you need and how can those needs be met?
+* ...and sometimes the collective might suggest a prompt or theme for pals to bring up
-We don't expect everyone to know everything all the time, but DisCONAUTS are expected to be able to mentor new members and each other in several areas and new members are expected to be open and available for this process.
 [[category: Community]]
 [[category: GMC-DisCO REVISE]]

Navigation menu

Difference between revisions of "Mutual Support"