Questions Answered Live:
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@nufenix - Has remote working changed the body signals you used for decision making?
We introduced the body signal version of systemic consensing, so it has not really changed, but we incorporated “screen tile visibility” when coming up with the signs themselves. As for Fist to Five: It has changed a little bit in terms of showing your fingers directly in the camera, but that’s really all about that. Counting fingers shown to the camera is strenous in a zoom session, though. That’s why started using zoom surveys or specially designed miro/mural boards in combination with the voting session there.
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@brgibb - How do you choose who is involved in different types of decisions?
This is a matter of the different levels. We bring the topic up at either the team or company level and see if anyone wants to be involved or needs to be involved. In general the guiding questions if it affects the team or the company has proven pretty helpful for us. If the intention of the question is if we do not involve the right people for a decision, then the answer to that is that over time we really developed a common understanding for that and hardly ever miss out on anyone. For company wide decisions there is also the log, where I can see the decisions and if I totally disagree there is a timespan for a week where I can still react.
- Anonymous - Do you time box how much time you use to make a decision of any kind? How many people are involved?
The usual timebox for decisions in our lean coffee meeting is 8 minutes. After that it is up to the group to decide to go for additional 2 minute slots. For some decisions everyone is involved, which means 35 persons.
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@melissafisher - I’m curious about people who are resistant to the final decision made - has it caused any problems? or general acceptance of your decision-making process?
Of course there are sometimes people resisting a decision, these things happen. But our approach is that if you block a decision you are supposed to work with the ones proposing the decisions to work on a solution that works for both parts. The general acceptance is high and if you disagree you are always free to propose a decision to replace the process with an alternative. This actually happens from time to time. We started our with fist to five only and felt that it was not enough and therefore started to experiment with systemic consensing as well.
Questions Not Answered Live:
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@helianthus - How would you implement these techniques (esp body language based ones) in a hybrid setting? (some on-site, some remote)
The body language ones would need a camera of course. If that is not a given, we would have to use other approaches. Luckily the trust level between oose members is at such a level that for decisions everyone turns on their camera (given there are no technical issues). We usually don’t have a lot of hybrid setups and if we do, it is mostly like fully online, just that some people are sharing a camera. The important part would be to have a level playing ground, i.e. no discussions only on-premise, everything concerning the decision would have to take place online in order not to exclude anyone.
2. Anonymous - Do you time box how much time you use to make a decision of any kind? How many people are involved?
see above.
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@finnish - How do you decide which one of these decision-making tools to use?
Good one actually
It is a mixture between the ones proposing a decision to decide and the circumstances (to avoid the “it’s all about context” catchphrase). For yes/no decisions fist to five is more suitable, for deciding between different alternatives systemic consensing is more useful. I think the maturity of the decision itself also factors in. If I have put a lot of thought into the decision fist to five might work fine, if I am not sure if the decision is actually the one I want to make, systemic consensing might help generating different ideas.
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@edthetestingtester - If most people are a 2 or 1 (have concerns), couldn’t that mean a good idea, but concerns need to be addressed?
If most people have a 2 or 1, the idea is usually facing quite some resistance, so that probably is not on the ingredient list for good ideas. The concerns certainly need to be addressed. If this happens, we usually rework the proposed decision, involving those people (or at least their concerns) who have given a 1.
- Anonymous - How long have you used these decision-making methods?
Fist to five has been around for ages, longer than I have been
the Blogpost linked above is from 2014, so at least since then. Systemic consensing is a more recent discovery for us, which we started experimenting with about 1,5 years ago.
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@hutchqa - What are some steps you took to move oose into a co-op?
Get a good lawyer! Seriously! Get a lawyer that knows about this topic and all the audits concerning being a coop. Get involved with a bank in order to setup the buy-out is pretty important as well. Creating transparency about what is happening is important since not everyone might be onboard for this (and that is totally alright). There has been some change of personell in our case. That’s at least what I know from talking with others. Personally I joined after switch and it was actually one of the main reasons to join for me! If you want to go in that directions, feel free to contact me directly and I will try to answer more specific questions or can get you connected with people who might do so, if i can’t.
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@testerfromleic - How do you facilitate this, so folks with strong opinions are heard, without going over the allotted time for the call?
We have a facilitation community of practice. The CoP will facilitate the Lean Coffee sessions for the decisions. For online sessions we usually have two facilitator, one “working” the group and the other one doing technical stuff like timeboxing. And then there is some kind of internal hygiene of the group and the group will let people know that they are not following the rules. Andthanks for being part of the example group in the talk, @testerfromleic 
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@fireavley - Ever discovered you have people with particular expertise (not known about at the time), after a relevant decision has been made (& presumably publicised)?