Exquisitecorpse Metagov
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to today's MediGov seminar. This is the beginning of our first in a series of workshops on practical governance. Today we are going to be, looking at sociocracy as a form of governance in the context of surrealist poetry. And just to kind of get everybody started contributing, there is a Google Doc in the chat. I will post it once more where we can follow...
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Transcript
Hi, everybody. Welcome to today's MediGov seminar. This is the beginning of our first in a series of workshops on practical governance. Today we are going to be, looking at sociocracy as a form of governance in the context of surrealist poetry. And just to kind of get everybody started contributing, there is a Google Doc in the chat. I will post it once more where we can follow along with the agenda for today and also take notes. And I also wanna invite everyone to answer to start answering this question, what is alive right now? You can just type that into the chat. I also, briefly introduce Alex Rodriguez, who is going to be very graciously facilitating and leading us through this workshop. When when we first proposed this idea, Alex immediately was like, ah, yes. I have the perfect thing for this. I'd love to do something around sociocracy and circles, and we're just really excited to have Alex leading this. So a brief introduction to Alex. Alex w Rodriguez is a jazz anthropologist and trombonist working at the confluences of music, spirituality, and social transformation. He holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from UCLA where his research focused on jazz clubs and the communities that sustained them in California, Chile, and Siberia, and has trained in deep listening through the Center for Deep Listening. Most recently, he was supported he has supported the creation of two purpose driven startup organizations, implementing sociopathic governance principles in both projects. And he is also deepening his practice in sociocracy for all, where he serves as a leader of the bylaws circle. A couple of links for Alex's work is a personal personal site with a newsletter, which I recommend everyone subscribe to. And then, there is also a website for Sociocracy for All. And I would also add, Alex was a participant or a recipient of funding from Medigob DAO to continue to do some more research in this this context of sociocracy and circles and implementing that and integrating it with some of the work that Medigob is doing. So we're really excited to have Alex here to extend that research and integrate with the community in this activity. And so with that, I'm gonna very happily pass it over to Alex who will kind of set the intentions for today and walk us through what we'll be doing. So with no further ado, Alex.
Alright. Well, thank you. Thank you, Sant, for the invitation and for, well, for the idea for this kind of larger container of of trying to, I feel like, roll up our sleeves and try some things in the you know, in different different ways of, you know, talking about governance, but also doing some things to help us talk about governance. You know what I mean? So that is the spirit in which this is being offered. And I guess I'll just also say that this is a little bit of an experiment. I haven't done, like, this particular exercise with anybody before, so it'll be a fun, like, I'll be learning too. And, I do wanna note that if you haven't already joined the, the the Slack, that in there, we also created a a channel just for, like, conversation about this that can continue after the the meeting. I'm gonna have to run at one, but, but I'd love to, you know, to get feedback from folks here how it went. And that would be the the space to do that. Or you can also email me through my website. Yeah. And so just an invitation for those who are just arriving, kind of wanting to, like, get some energy some shared understanding of what the energy in the spaces right now by just. If just sharing something brief in the chat about what's alive for you right now, and we can let that information as we see it in the chat kind of inform our vibe of what's going on in the space. And, the way that this is gonna unfold is I'm gonna have a little bit of a introduction to the basic principles. And then, in this document, which would you mind posting the link for the folks who are just arriving? I've created a little Google Doc where we'll be kind of doing some work. And also there's a an agenda in there if you wanna get a a sense of, like, the rough outline of how I'm thinking about spending the time. That's also there. And, I guess the caveat being, and I'll, you know, mention this along the way, that we'll we'll make it work with whatever with with whoever's here and at whatever capacity, you know. So if you need to just kind of be observing and off video and just be listening and not not, like, jumping in with both feet, that's totally fine. There'll be, you know, choose your own adventure here is basically my my invitation as we go. There's and if and if at any point any of the instructions or any of the activities are, like, triggering something or bringing something up or you need to take a step back to tempt whatever's arising, like, I wanna make sure that that permission, quote, unquote, is being explicitly offered at the beginning here. There's no, like, right way that all this needs to happen. This is just an experiment that we're trying together, and whatever happens in the space of the next fifteen minutes will be the material that we're working with. So yeah there we go emergence, and this is, you know, this is. This is what I love about ornette colman's music like you, just like he writes melodies that then whatever happens happens right that's the spirit that I'm that I'm bringing into this into this. Experiment. So, yeah, again, welcome everyone. We will have a chance to go into breakout rooms in a little bit where you'll be able to introduce yourselves a little and and, work in smaller groups. But before we do that, I just wanna give, like, the the briefest thumbnail sketch of, what the core, I would say, like, kind of guiding principles of sociocratic governance are. And there's an interesting way that like they kind of. Play together right so it's like when you get them all three like rolling together, it creates a sort of you know, a framework for making decisions that is really. At least in my experience with this clicks into it, a new kind of set space of possibilities when the groups that you're work that are working together are, you know, have enough shared understanding about what a decision is and how it's getting made, that it can help get us out of whatever, you know, shared condition habits or ruts that we might even not even know that we're doing are. And so I I think about this as, like, kind of putting on training wheels for, like, a different way of making decisions together. And so there's some going to be some detailed instructions for when you go into breakout rooms, and they're all based on these three core principles, the first of which is deliberation in rounds. So that means that a team is gathered together around some some shared purpose, some domain that where they have decision rights, and they are for their meeting, the way that the meeting is facilitated allows for for everybody to speak on every round. So the facilitator will, you know, present the topic for the round and then go around one at a time and hear from each person. Now if someone doesn't have something to say, they'll just say I'll pass for this round. Or if and if someone, like, someone says something that, like, oh, that makes me think of this. Right, rather than, like, kind of raising my hand to sort of jump off on top on on the next be the next person to talk and be like, oh, yeah. That reminds me of this. Instead, like, you could jot it down for yourself, and then when it comes back to you in the round, you can you can share that back. But maybe someone else already spoke to it by the time you got there. And then, you know so this is this is a a really basic, kind of protocol, just taking turns going one one at a time all the way around the circle. But it's really key to all of the other ways that this kind of creates alternative possibilities because it makes sure that in any relevant conversation, each person has spoken spoken their truth into the space as a part of the deliberation. And, obviously, you can only have circles that are so big in order to do that. And so this is another one of the the principles is the principle of delegation of domains of decision making to different circles. And we're gonna be doing a version of that in in today's in today's experiment where we'll be writing a poem together. And right off the bat we're going to delegate to one group of people the beginning, the first stanza. It's going to be three stanzas. And then the second group will will write the second stanza, and that will be delegated. That domain of the second stanza will be delegated to that group. And then there will be an end, the third stanza, that will be delegated to another group. So when we all go out into breakout rooms, we'll be delegating parts of the whole to to smaller groups of people to make the decisions and then coming back together to synthesize those into, into a whole, together. And and the way that you'll do that is that I've had it just kind of randomly selected, but in in a place where we all knew each other and we're working together, we would actually choose who's going who's serving as the linking roles between the the the different circles. For today, it's just whoever has the most recent birthdays are going to be the the delegates. But, and happy birthday to any recent birthdays. So that's, this principle of delegation between circles. And then the third one is decision making by consent. And to me, this is, like, what's really revolutionary about sociocracy. It's not unique to sociocracy, by the way. But is that rather than, say, taking a majority vote on something, the way that a decision is implemented or, like, decided upon, you know, kind of effective on behalf of the group, is that if a group convenes and they are making a decision that's within their domain, then they're really making that decision on behalf of the whole organization. There's no, like, I need to go check upstairs to make sure that this is happening. All of the the decision rights are, like, prebaked into being a part of that circle. And so the way that circle would make a decision is if everybody in the circle consents to the proposal. So if everybody says this is workable for me, then that becomes a decision on behalf of the collective body. And there's a key distinction here that is, sometimes helpful to distinguish between con like, consent in the way that it's being being framed here. And and in this case, it's the absence of objections. So that means that when everyone says that they consent, it means that they're not standing in the way. Doesn't necessarily mean that the proposal that is is before the group is everybody's favorite proposal. It might not be everybody's preference, but everybody is saying that they're willing to give it a go. And then, also, in sociocracy, oftentimes, decisions will be made policy will be set with a term that'll expire and needs to be reviewed at a later date. And so that kinda gives us this iterative quality to the policy making process because it means that if in three months, you know, that consent isn't there anymore, there's actually an opportunity to make the objections, to make the revisions, etcetera. But consent means everybody in the circle feels like it's safe enough to try. Good enough for now. Those are sort of the mantras, sociocracy. Is this, you know, not going to cause any harm or any problems. Right? And it may be that there is something that works that's everybody's preference. Right? That will there's a a when you have a a round and you hear from everybody, that will surface in the round. Right? Like, everybody's saying like, oh, yeah. No. This is what I'm really excited about. And then the facilitator will know that's what they need to propose. But a lot of the that kinda gray area in between comes down to, can the facilitator of the circ of the meeting get to present a proposal that everybody in the group is good enough with like this is okay. Jack So we'll have a chance to do that in these circles as well.
So those are the those are
the three key principles. Again, we talked about rounds based deliberation. So going around the circle one at a time and discussing that way. We'll be doing that in a minute. Delegating different pieces of organizational operations to small to small circles and making decisions within the circle by full consent of all members in the circle. So that is the those are the the three pieces that I've have been kinda like the DNA that I've used to to build this exercise that we're gonna do together. So now the fun part, and, this was my, this is the experiment. I'm trying this for the first time, but I was kind of inspired by the, the the the surrealist art practice, drawing practice of the exquisite corpse, which I don't know if you've ever seen one of these, but it's basically, like, there's three parts of the drawing, and three different people draw, like, the head, the torso, and the legs of of something, but without showing each other, like, which, you know, what the other parts are. So you get this thing that is, like, a a manifestation of all three peep all three artists, like, collective art artiness. And so this what we'll be doing is doing something similar, but each circle will be like drawing one will be making one of the stanzas of a three stanza poem. And the way that that will be generated the way that that will be generated will be through all going into the, the breakout room that you'll be in. You'll have a chance to introduce yourselves. They'll all be pretty small, so this will this will be easier with with smaller group of people, actually. And then you will each once you've introduced yourselves and you're ready to start, each say one word or one punctuation mark going around in the order of the round. So it'll be alphabetical by Zoom screen name. And then and if someone can, like, figure that out and type it into the chat for everybody's reference when you get there, that'll be super helpful. So and this is, again, kind of on this theme of what's alive for you right now. And so that will happen in the breakout rooms. Once someone once it gets around to a point where someone feels like, you know what? This feels like the end of the stanza, then they can just say so and they can, like they'll they'll you'll stop it at that point. So that's that'll be the stanza. And if someone who who has the capability of, like, typing along in the Google Doc can can keep notes on the second or, I guess, it's the third page where it says either beginning, middle, or end, you're gonna wanna document that there. And so once you've done your stanza, then you will all make a decision together about, like, sending it to sending it for publication, basically. And you'll do this by consent. And the way that we demonstrate consent is just by showing a thumbs up either, like, with your actual thumb on the screen. If you're on screen, you can also use a reaction emoji if you're off screen or not. That that's down in the bottom of your of your Zoom. And once everybody has consented, then make sure that it's written in that space in the Google Doc, and we'll come back to the main room. Oh, no. One there's one one last step before that, which will be to figure out who in your group has the two most recent birthdays. They will be your delegates to the the main room. And given that these are, like, pretty small cirque the we're it's gonna be a pretty small circle for each of them, but this is to demonstrate the way that circle linking works, gangsters: That generally there's gonna there if there's the circle, like the circle that's going to be deciding on the title and the final draft. Gangsters: That is informed by other circles that have done more specific work there's links that serve in both circles, so that they're kind of the interests of the other circle are represented in the the main circle in this case. So that allows for, again, making decisions by consent. That means that, you know every circle is sort of everybody's at the table, even if only two people are in the meeting. Jake Paul Because we've all consented to whatever the those people are bringing and then we're sort of trusting those folks to be our eyes and ears and and advocates in the the space of the main circle. And so that once you have that sorted out, you'll come back to the main room and I'll facilitate the a round of getting us through the the like, synthesizing this into one thing and choosing a title, and then we'll have a poem at the end, and we'll celebrate. So that's the plan. And I think before we hop into the breakout rooms, I I know some of it, like, I totally trust the group to kind of figure it out together and help each other out. Like, we don't need to, like, all totally understand exactly what's gonna happen. Like, I I think it's fine for this to be a little messy. But if there are any clarifying questions about the process, if anything's, like, particularly unclear, you're really not sure what to do, I wanna hold a little bit of space for that before we open up the breakouts.
It's it's possible that this is really simple, but I I wonder if if we all have, like, an understanding of what a stanza is.
It's it's easy. No. Thank you for that thank you for that sent. Basically, we could think about it as a beginning, a middle, and the end. We'll have one small group working on the beginning, one small group we're working on the middle, one small group working on the end. And each each of those will be a chunk of text that you will all generate in this circular way that I've described, speaking one word or one punctuation mark at a time. And then once that feels complete, someone will end it, and then you'll make a decision a consent decision together. Is this good enough to send back? By the way, if anybody does object, that's totally okay. That actually will help lead and clarify the process. So let for example, let's say that somebody uses profane language in the in the the thing, and then somebody objects to that saying, I'm not comfortable publishing something with profane language. Then that's important information for the group to then do another round and try it again. Right? And and then you would do that round with that objecting information. Understand everybody understanding that the use of profane language is going to be something that isn't gonna work for that circle. Right? And so that like, but I'm not I'm not putting any rules on, like, what goes in the text or not. Right? That is really I'm kind of I'm leaving up to the circles to decide together what meets that threshold of this is good enough for for now of for our contribution to our piece of this poem about what's alive right now yeah Joshua.
So for the first circles you're about to put us in, is our our goal to do enough enough iterations until we reach consensus or a first a first iteration?
What the way it will work is you'll make an iteration. You'll check for consent. If that if that consent is not reached, you'll try again. And then if that one's consented to, then that'll work. But rather than, like, trying to revise or, like, get into editing, like, your previous iteration was, you can just wipe it and do it again. Because the process is it's like a there's a it's a generative process for making words anyway. So whatever information is needed will carry the authors. You will carry it with you into the second iteration together. But but the text itself, you'll wipe and then try again and then check for consent again. Yeah. Thanks for clarifying that. Is thirty
minutes still good, Alex?
Yeah. Let's let's see. I think, yeah, I think fifteen's fifteen's good. And and then if if you are done before that, I mean, let's say, like, yeah, fifteen maximum. And if you and if fifteen minutes isn't enough for y'all to introduce yourselves and come up with a successful iteration, then that's also information and we'll work with that when we get back. But, yeah, let's let's cap it at fifteen minutes. But if if you are finished before fifteen minutes, actually come back to the main room when you're done when you have your finished text because I it this may take less time than that, and then we'll have a little more time for for the other piece.
K. And okay. Shall I go ahead and
Yeah. So if you can make make three groups of three, it looks like. I think that that should do the trick. And then maybe well, it looks like you just
have Three groups of
Three to four. Three groups of four. Three groups of four. Yeah. Great. And if if I can actually hang out here in this room, that would be great.
Okay. You don't wanna be assigned. Okay.
Yeah. Just just in case, like, anyone else needs to anyone else, like, isn't able to go in or or whatever, I'll I'll hang here with whoever it is. But please feel free to to go into one set yourself.
Okay. I'm also just trying to figure out who can speak and who cannot.
Oh, definitely make sure everybody can unmute. That's important.
I think Josh and Divya said that they can't speak, so maybe I'll keep them you know, they can just observe.
I can speak. I just have to run-in, like, tell me.
That's right. Okay. Okay.
Yeah. Divya, if if yeah. You feel free to hop out whenever you need to, like and just you can introduce yourself or play along for as long as you can, and then just hop out when you need to. That's fine.
So I'm gonna open the rooms and have everyone go. Have fun, and we'll see you soon.
Exactly. If you wanna make me cohost, I could that might make it easier to
That'd be good. Yes. I was thinking about doing that midway. Okay. I'm gonna join one of these rooms.
Okeydoke.
Let's see which one should I do.
And you have the dock open?
I do have the dock open. K. Yes.
Great. And
then you can send messages, of course.
Great. You
know what you're doing. Alright. Great. Thank
you. Thanks. Have fun.
Yeah. Thanks.
Alright. Were y'all able to get consent to your stanza?
It's an interesting journey.
I can't wait to hear about it.
Should we did you extend the windows?
I closed them. Closed them. So everyone's, like, on the final countdown timer right now.
I see. Okay.
So there's probably, like, a little bit of scrambling happening in the other two rooms. Okay. Here comes the middle. Here comes the middle.
I love that. Here comes the middle.
Alright. So is what was everyone able to identify who your your delegates are? So I I think we should see, yes, seven screens total. If you're not a delegate for this part, just turn your video off so I can know that like like, who I'm actually talking to, but, of course, please stick around. This is like a little bowl style, so you can watch this part of the process unfold. And if there are more of us in each circle, right, it's even more important, like, to because because we you know, we could probably make an all consent decision with with 11 people in the room like that's it's like stretching it but doable. Joey Soehard But if this had been a group of 20 and we had split you know or group of 21 and we had split up into three groups of seven right like having this smaller group. Joey Soehard To make this decision is like a is a way that we can kind of like filter some of that information back and still be able to make a consent based decision because it's a small enough group for that. So, this is a little arbitrary that I asked for two delegates back and there's three people sitting on the sidelines, but just wanted to say that that's the reason for that. Welcome back, everyone. And so the task before us now is to just have a quick opportunity to hear back from a a delegate from from each group. And I think what I'll what I'll ask first is just a if everyone can have a look at the the draft as it as it stands here. And then we will get a quick reaction from each of the individuals in the group, like thirty seconds, like, what do you think? Does this seem like it's good to go? Any comments that you wanna make? And then we'll have we'll check for consent, like, is this safe is this good enough to go for our collective poll? And if not, then we'll figure that out. And if so, then we'll choose a title. So this, first step, let's see. Let's just go around, in, again, alphabetical order by screen name. So that'll be Aaron, me, Amy, c, sent Jonathan, Joshua, Sophia, and Val. Alright. 1234567. Okay. So that that's our order. Just wanna hear a reaction from each of you. Oh, we are you still there, Erin?
Yeah. Sorry. I have when I go I'm on my iPad, so when I go to the document, then I disappear.
Oh, I see. No worries.
So I'm giving you my reaction as to whether or not I think this is the final version of the poem or not. Are we gonna read it, or are we just gonna look at it?
Well, let's look at it for now, and then we'll read it. We'll read have a reading at the end once we've decided on it.
Yes. I'm fine with this poem as it stands.
Any any comments or additional thoughts?
Hang on. Let me just look at it again. The only the only comment I would make is I wish that in the middle, we could actually, instead of having a line of words, like, hear the siren deafening sound as part of the tone. That'd be my dream experience.
Nice. That that's a that's a nice interpretive flare. I I like that for Yeah. If we're reading that, we'll we'll I'll take that into consideration. Okay. Yeah. My reaction is, this was delightful to, like, just be sitting here kind of, like, watching it all unfold, which is, like, the magic of sociocracy for me is, like, you know, you kinda decentralize, send it out, and then, like, things happen, and then we come back, and here it is. So that was fun. And, yeah, that's that's my piece.
Just to clarify, is this reactions to the process or reactions to the poem?
To the to the poem.
To the poem.
Sure.
Yeah.
I
think there's a nice unspoken cohesion that has emerged through the power of poetry itself. And so it's interesting to see, in some ways, how how evident the governance process is, but also how obscured it is by the poem.
Thanks. Jonathan? Oh, you're you're on mute. We can't hear you.
Oh, I mean, it's fun. Po poem is pretty weird. All in all, it's yeah. Flow is funny, and it doesn't the ending is hilarious. But, yeah, it was fun. I think there was definitely moments, I think, when we were just focusing almost when, you know, we're managing the middle, but we're we still kind of got a little bit focused on, oh, there's kind of a beginning, middle, and end within our own middle section that didn't, doesn't seem to quite flow super well into the, what came before and what came after. But you know, why night, why silence, and then accept poop is pretty it was a pretty funny funny transition. So yeah.
Alright. Joshua?
Yeah. So when I first started this this phase, I wasn't super keen on the call. In part because when I ended our I'm I'm representing, of course, the end, and I wasn't super keen on our stanza. And I'll remark that the only reason I thumbs up it is because we were out of time and I wanna know something. But, you know, it's grown on me. Part of you, you know, hearing Jonathan's reactions helped me to appreciate it. But even before that, I realized, you know what? It's like representing something very real, both metaphorically, you know, and literally in terms of this group as all of the world. And it feels like it has ended. So, yeah, those are my comments.
Sofia?
Yeah. I I don't have any much more to add to the
to the poem. I think
it's an interesting poem if you read it circularly, if
you read it again and again from
the end to the beginning. So yeah.
Mhmm. Val?
Yeah. I'm with Joshua that at first, I was I think because our experience in the middle group was at especially at the end, like, Jonathan and I had a conversation of coming up with the ending that, like you said, like, kind of wrapped up our little section of it to then come in to see how it fit in with the other sections. It was a little jarring at first to say the least. But I will say that I think that if the intention my intention, I guess, around what we were doing here shifted where I was, like, going from, oh, this section is, like, quite serious and metaphorical and and kind of solemn in tone to then wait. Maybe as a whole, though, this poem can be hilarious, and therefore, just, like, have an intention to make a reader laugh rather than make them, like, sit there and contemplate the sound of silence. So
if I
had I went through that, like, mental process a bit and have come around to, yeah, really, like, enjoy the poem for what it is because it literally made me laugh.
Alright. Well, yeah, thank you everyone for your contributions to this. So this is the moment of truth. Is this is this ready for publication? If so, let me see a thumb from the from the delegates here. And if not, then we'll decide what to do next. But I just wanna make sure that we're we've got consent from everyone to collectively publish this one. Waiting for thumbs up from Sofia, Jonathan, and sent your time. Sofia is yes. Jonathan and sent.
So we need a unanimous decision or
We need all consent, right, which is the the threshold of this is good enough for us to call the Medigov practical governance experiment poem. Right? Safe enough to try. Good enough. That's the that's the threshold of consent.
Cool. Well, experimental poem.
Alright.
K. And it's labeled like an experimental poem.
Can I ask a question? Like, if if there's dissensus, do we revise, or what's the process?
Yeah. Good question. Let's figure that out together. If I I I was I was I was just, like, going along. And at this point, because, like, I'm facilitating this space, like, I didn't I figured we would we would figure it out when we got here. And then we are getting to the end of the hour, so the continuation would need to happen in some offline form anyway. So I would invite the anyone who's interested in continuing the the the conversation about what happens next to we would move into Slack for that, I would say, and and take it from there, or we could just call it the end of the day and and be done fine with whatever.
Right. Ting Very interesting I'll give it a thumbs up. Ting
Alright, so let's let's read. Tackling And I'm going to I'm going to take both of the interpretive suggestions that Aaron and Sophia made and read it twice with this the sign sound being like stage instructions So And
the silence and the silence. Cool.
Yep. Oh, and the silence. Okay. I'll leave a beat for the silence too. Sounds good. Okay. Juggling. I eat and wonder what will drop first. Meanwhile, then your memory hops from one to the floor. It's never so.
Woo
hoo. Woo hoo. Kite strings whispering, blowing, summer swinging season. Why? Night. Why? Except poop. Starting with poop, ending with hats. Juggling, I eat and wonder what will drop first. Meanwhile, then, your memory hops from one to the floor. It's never so.
Yay.
Yay. Kite strings whispering, blowing, summer swinging season. Why night? Why? Except poop. Starting with poop, ending with hats. Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. Thank you everyone for being a part of this experiment. I'm looking forward to being a part of the continued conversation and debrief and, like, you know, getting into the, like, meta questions about any of this stuff. Like, come find me on slack or feel free if you're like against slack for some reason and went ahead to hit me up by email I'll put my email. In the chat and I'll put it in the Doc as well, so thank you again so much everyone that was really fun.
Thanks Alex.
Yeah. No problem.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. The the room is gonna be sociopathic surrealism in the Slack if you are on the Slack and you wanna debrief. Great. Thank you so much, Alex.
Thanks, everyone.
Stop recording.