( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteSynergy)
1.00.00 What is Exquisite Synergy?
Exquisite:
1. of special beauty or charm, or rare and appealing excellence, as a face, a flower, coloring, music, or poetry.
2. extraordinarily fine or admirable; consummate: exquisite weather.
3. intense; acute, or keen, as pleasure or pain.
4. of rare excellence of production or execution, as works of art or workmanship: the exquisite statues of the Renaissance.
5. keenly or delicately sensitive or responsive: an exquisite ear for music; an exquisite sensibility.
6. of particular refinement or elegance, as taste, manners, etc., or persons.
7. carefully sought out, chosen, ascertained, devised, etc.
Synergy:
1. combined action or functioning; synergism.
2. the cooperative action of two or more muscles, nerves, or the like.
3. the cooperative action of two or more stimuli.
1.01.00 ExquisiteSynergy is an organizational framework based upon a geodesic structure.
1.01.01 It is not a hierarchy.
(There are no leaders and followers, no coercion or social pressure. It is
simply a way that people can meet, self-educate, and together make decisions.)
1.01.02 It is a geodesic structure,
that is, a structure which is equal in all it's parts, forming a synergy
that is stronger than the sum of it's parts.
1.02.00 How is that different than any other organizational structure?
1.02.01 ExquisiteSynergy holds people in a state of equality, making it so that those who can persuasively speak and those who are easily intimidated are all held equal, not just by a common individual belief in equality, but by an actual structure where no delegation of responsibility is possible and therefore there is no opportunity for someone to abuse that responsiblity.
1.03.00 What does being a member of ExquisiteSynergy require?
1.03.01 It requires two hours every day, five days a week, in either self-educating and communicating about the Subjects chosen by a group or making decisions together about those Subjects.
1.03.02 It also requires paying an affordable donation to each I-Team, to be used by the donating member for the production or maintenance of whatever that I-Team decides to do or to merge with other I-Teams donations to form larger amounts for larger efforts. More on that later.
(Does that seem like too much time out of your busy weekday? Well, what has going and voting for 15 minutes every 4 years done for you? Has the world, using the existing organizations, gotten better? Is the world, your children's future, the ecology of the planet worth spending enough time to fix it? Think about it!)
1.04.00 What is the Structure?
1.04.01 The first four days of the week are called 'Ongoing Meetings', lasting one hour per I-Team at no specific time.
((Members need not be online at the same time, like an elist.)
1.04.02 Friday evening each week during two different real time Virtual Meetings of one hour each, everyone will meet on the Internet, face to face, using software that will allow each to see and speak to the others.
1.04.03 At that meeting decisions will be made on the subjects, by voting on them.
1.05.01 Each person will be part of two different groups, called I-Teams. ('I' for Icosahedral.)
1.05.02 Each I-Team is made up of 12 people, with two members of each I-team connecting the same two teams.
1.05.03 Everyone will connect two I-Teams, but only one other person in each I-team will connect the same two I-Teams.
1.05.04 This is for redundancy, so if someone is sick, or something needs to be explained clearly, at least one of the two members can explain to the other group what was meant.
1.05.05 This makes each member a conduit between two groups, producing a feedback loop that will help each group keep perspective on Subjects being self-educated about.
(Someday I-Team meetings will occur in 3D worlds, where we will see real time images of each other as avatars, and sit down in virtual rooms or on virtual beaches, and do the business of running the neighborhood, town, region, continent, planet together.)
1.06.00 Each Two weeks in an ExquisiteSynergy form one Cycle.
1.06.01 The first week of a Cycle is called the 'Self-education Week'.
1.06.02 Members will suggest Subjects, or consider Subjects coming in from other groups or undecided Subjects from the last week.
1.06.03 Each member will search and study that subject, posting their findings to others online, and learn as much as they can about the Subject.
1.06.04 The members ask each other questions, find sources, present ideas to the other members.
1.06.05 No decisions are made by the group until Friday night's Virtual Meeting which will occur every Friday night at the same time.
1.06.06 Then the group votes on what Subjects they will make decisions on the next week, the Decision Week.
1.06.07 The number of Subjects is set by the system, while what Subjects are chosen comes only from the vote.
1.06.08 The voting choices are not just 'yes/no' but also have other choices, like 'pospone', or 'pass' to a higher organizational level.
1.06.09 The second week of a Cycle is called the the Decision Week.
1.06.10 The I-team continues to study, but discusses the Subject together online, through list messaging, weighing in with their opinions, backing them up with sources if necessary.
1.06.11 This 'debate' goes on until Friday night's Virtual Meeting, when the Subjects are voted upon.
1.06.12 The results of a 'no' vote drops the Subject although it can be proposed the next Cycle, literally the next week.
1.06.13 The results of a 'pospone' vote passes the Subject on to the next Cycle.
1.06.14 The results of a 'Pass' puts the Subject out to all the I-Teams in the next level of organization.
1.06.15 A 'Yes' vote will make the practical consequences of that Subject the Subject of the next Cycle.
(Exquisite Synergy is about making decisions, not about producing results. So Exquisite Synergy uses another system for actually doing the work, Exquisite Projects, which is explained later.)
1.06.16 A Decision of an I-Team can have varied results.
1.06.17 While there are specific ways in the organization to accomplish things in certain ways on certain scales, the members of the I-Team can do pretty much whatever they want to do about any decision.
(Except ignore it, of course.)
1.06.18 The results of a Decision automatically becomes a Subject for future Cycles, so the I-Team can monitor the progress of the actions taken.
1.06.19 Also, the Decision is put into a library of Decisions for all other I-Teams, so any of them can also monitor the results of the Decision.(This transparency is one of many checks and balances in the organization.)
(Meetings without structure can become shouting matches, arguments, or bog down in indecision. To prevent this, an I-Team meeting has a structure.)
1.07.00 There are four positions in an I-Team. Peacemaker, Recorder, Interface, and Timer.
1.07.01 The four positions rotate every two cycles, so each member will have one month of partipation in any specific position before passing it on to the next member.
1.07.02 The positions are active throughout the cycles, online in list messages or in Virtual Meetings on Friday nights.
1.07.03 Each member in a position has the responsibility of reminding the next member and training them when they take over that position.
1.07.04 The Peacemaker has the task of literially keeping the peace.
1.07.05 If a Subject causes argument or controversy among the members of the I-Team, the Peacemaker can call for ten seconds of silence to promote more reasonable emotions and discussion.
1.07.06 If a Subject cannot be decided upon or about without acromony, the Peacemaker can postpone the Subject until the next week.
1.07.07 The Peacemaker cannot postpone a Subject unless there is acromony in the discussion, even if the Subject has a history of causing acromony.
1.07.08 The Recorder has the task of writing a short summary of a Virtual Meeting for inclusion in the Geodemocratic Journal, which will hold all the summaries of all the I-Team meetings for transparency and historical reasons.
1.07.09 The Summary will not record names or specific words except for overt threats or attempts at intimidation in the I-Team.
1.07.10 Every virtual meeting will be recorded in it's entirity in an unalterable digital video medium and available to all I-Teams for the same reason the summary is recorded.
1.07.11 The Interface has the responsibility to act as facilitator, to promote everyone to participate, to bring out the shy people and keep the conversation going.
1.07.12 The Timer keeps the meetings on schedule by specifically marking the time each subject is to be talked about and ending a subject by calling for a vote at the appropriate time.
1.07.13 The Timer, during the week, creates the schedule for each Subject, because some Subjects will take more time than others.
1.07.14 Because each Virtual meeting is only one hour long, the Timer sets how many subjects can fit into the hour.
1.07.15 Although the Self-Education Virtual meeting decides which Subjects to consider, the Timer sets how many of those can be decided on at that meeting and how many can be voted on during the Decision week Virtual meeting, while the remaining, if there is no time, are postponed to the next Cycle.
1.07.16 The four positions cannot be swapped or postponed except for emergencies, and the Peacekeeper with have the responsibility to find a replacement for that position during the Cycle.
1.07.17 If a position is postponed, then the member who had the emergency will take their normal slot in the sequence when the positions come around again.
1.08.00 The Voting during the Real Time Meetings includes more than a 'Yes' and 'No'. They include several other choices: 'Drop', 'Pass', and 'Continue'.
1.08.01 A Yes decision passes the Subject to the next Cycle, but it will be a designated Subject throughout that Cycle. The Subject is changed from 'Do we try to make a difference in this way?' to 'How do we implement this Decision.' The next Cycle will work on figureing out how to start a Exquisite Project, what will be required to accomplish that goal, and how much money and resources will have to go into it.
1.08.02 For a Yes decision to be carried on, seven out of the twelve members have to vote Yes on the Subject, and no more than two vote Continue.
1.08.03 A No decision ends the consideration as a Subject, either during the Self-Education Real Time Meeting, or During the Decision Real Time Meeting. It cannot be re-considered for at least two Cycles when it can be re-admitted into the Self-Education Meeting as a consideration without further new information.
1.08.04 If seven or more members vote no on a Subject, and less than 3 vote Continue, then the Subject cannot be reconsidered for at least two cycles.
1.08.05 A Drop decision means the Subject cannot be reconsidered unless some important information is introduced, as judged by the members in the four positions during that cycle.
(This is to prevent the fanatical presentation of a Subject which is obviously not going to be accepted by the rest of the members in that I-Team.)
1.08.06 A Pass decision moves the Subject to the next higher organizational level of the Synergy, which is the O-Team, made up of 12 I-Teams. It will be explained in the next section on Larger Scale Decisions.
1.08.07 A Continue decision makes the exact Subject go onto the next Cycle as one of the Subjects of that Cycle. Some Subjects will take more self-education than others, and this will take the pressure off to make a decision based upon not enough education or consideration.
1.08.08 If three members of an I-Team vote continue, the Subject continues to the next Cycle regardless of any other voting result.
(The Exquisite Synergy is not designed to be quick in making decisions. It is designed to be through, to be comprehensive, and that requires time. If the Subject is dealing with a natural disaster or something life and death, either the I-Team can vote yes and create a Exquisite Project to deal with it in the next cycle, Pass it to larger scales of decision making, or if possible, create a Project in advance to meet such challanges in a timely manner. More on that later.)
1.09.00 Larger Scale Decisions (LSDs) occur when a Subject includes a problem which is of a larger scale, which needs more I-Teams working on it and contributing knowledge, opinion, and money to the effort.
1.09.01 LSDs are passed on to a larger scale when an I-Team designates it in their final Decision Meeting with 'Pass' and none or less than three members vote Continue.
1.09.02 When seven members of an I-Team votes 'Pass', the Subject becomes an O-Team Subject, which means it automatically becomes a fixed Subject for the next Cycle for all the member I-Teams.
1.09.03 If seven of the twelve I-Teams in the O-Team vote Pass on an O-Team subject, it then becomes an I-Group Subject, which would include all the I-Teams in the I-Group, and so on to higher and higher organizational structures.
1.09.04 An O-Team, or any larger structure, can also choose to set up a Research Project to find out more information about the Subject and what can be done to fix it.
(While each member retains their equal personal power in the organization, this is the method which would allow them to be part of much larger considerations. It does take time, the larger the organizational structure the more time required, but it will allow enough research, education, and consideration to find comprehensive solutions to problems, rather than expedient solutions which do not actually solve the problem.)
1.09.05 Subjects which are passed to an I-Team are expected to be considered as priorities, above and beyond the Subjects that I-Team might usually consider.
1.09.06 Higher Structure Subjects will have higher priorities, so some Cycles, all the Subjects of an I-Team might come from higher Structures and have higher priority.
1.09.07 Decisions made by I-Teams on LSD Subjects will be transmitted to all the I-Teams involved, with the same basic voting priorities, that is, on the O-Team scale, which has six I-Teams, a majority of the I-Teams have to vote to pass to higher structures, or vote NO or Drop.
1.09.08If two I-Teams vote Continue, then the Subject is continued in all the I-Teams in the O-Team regardless of any other voting results or consideration.
(Site Under construction. More to come.)
Created on ... May 20, 2008
