Intro on the workshop description

The build-up of the syscon workshop, made in an emotionally considerate way.

The first part/hours of the workshop are to give a profound theoretical understanding of what is happening with the systems we are using before explaining how syscon specifically works.
Probably there will be emotional outbreaks of individuals and sometimes the whole group can be dragged into that. This can lead to them starting to blame the workshop leaders.

Keep in mind, that this is completely normal and experience has shown that this happens at least one time during a proper workshop!

Sometimes the group comes back on track; sometimes the group will be guided into reflection by the workshop leaders. This is a critical point where the workshop leaders will prove to which extend they can guide a group with the three principles of syscon: 1 No pressure, 2 focus on needs and 3 strategy diversity.

The workshop leaders can always stabilize the situation by going back to these principles. They can state it, if they have not been guiding perfectly at some point during the workshop, which will probably happen because they are human, every groups is different and every individual in the group can react differently. So the workshop almost never fits perfectly to every single individual in the group.

The more coherent information the participants will get, the more the clouds in their minds will dissolve. Caged emotions will break out. Even while expressing complete denial, the received information will start to work. Some people take seconds, others take days to digest the information.

The people that are in a place to digest fast (seconds or minutes) are able to moderate groups.

The numbers next to the the headlines indicate a very rough estimation on how long this topic will take to get finished. Interestingly enough, the estimation can be way of on individual topics but than one topic takes a long time and the time fits again.

Preparation

Implement a parking space for questions with cards and pencils available

Have a board ready to write and draw on.

8 to maximum of 15 people

Having snacks ready is useful...be a host.

Speaker list (if needed)

co moderation is very helpful

co moderators can step in when the authoritarian conflict kicks off and have a look at general energy of the group

Have games ready to loosen up when group gets stuck too much in head and after a pause to bring people together (e.g. pass clap)

Mental preparation 10

Check quick syscon method and items * depends on moderator , helps me a lot

Having the items identified when people start giving their opinion is very helpful to deal with negative opinions.

Example: Workshop leader:"Syscon is a highly formalized tool/method to have transparency and by that trust"

Participant 1 (interrupts): " We dont need a formalized tool. We are in the teal state" (statement)

Workshopleader: (to participant 1) "So you think that you dont need a formalized method because you already are in teal state correct?." (participant nods) (go on with workshop)

This is often sufficient because participant feels heard and accepted.

It can happen that participant(s) explode emotionally

(participant doesnt nod but instead goes on) p1:"You are saying we are unable to organize ourselves. This is violent from you !"

WL: "Be aware that this is a workshop for systemic consensus.  You are free to leave the room if you do not feel well and you are free to stay in the room and live with your feelings. My intention is to empower you as individuals and as a group, that does not include attacking you and i am not responsible for your feelings."

hint:Start on time even if not all people are there, this builds trust because people will see you subconsciously as reliable. This can already trigger the first group reaction.

First part

Welcoming: 10

Setting the frame/space *** essential

“Please ask by raising hand or writing on the question parking space”

“If you want to leave feel free to do so , toilet, getting air, drinking or eating something”

“Some words may vary from definitions that you know. For this workshop the definitions given here count”

Introduction about how systemisches konsensieren came to be  10

* nice story but not essential if you dont know it.

Erich Visotchnik and Siegfried Schotta

Volker Visotchnik, Dominik Berger

Moderator for systemic consensus

Warm up: 20

**important

Contaktgame

lead with contact (around 2 min each), lead with 10 cm distance (around 2 min each), no clear lead with 10 cm distance (around 4 min)

This is a very helpful exercice for people to experience on short term the difference between clear lead and no clear lead and how harmonic they really are.

aftermath: what did you experience?

Decision making intro 5

***essential

Systemic consensus as conscious training towards consent oriented behavior.

40.000 thoughts every day , 20.000 Decisions every day

Subconscious decision making has major influence on our behavior

The paradigm of the current economic system:

The best result comes from everyone in the group doing whats best for himself (gender)

-Adam Smith

The best result comes from everyone in the group doing whats best for themselves and the group.

-John Nash

Requirement for groups to work together: 5

***essential

-common goal to streamline intelligence

-clarity about the way that decisions are made together

focuses energy > makes group coherent, efficient and effective

with that every individual can represent the own interest and the interest of the group

otherwise unnecessary much energy gets lost in a too long dissent phase , the packet is not closed and ready to ship

Decision Process 15

***essential

decision making process               decision making         doing

creative process = dissent phase > decision < execution phase (risk)

create possible input                  pack the packet           bring it on the way

In the dissent phase is where good/resilient solutions,in form of proposals, are created. A dissent phase that is nourished can create more creatively.

Groups that don't allow dissent/do not look on the resistance do not create as powerful and resilient proposals.

In the execution phase on the other hand it is important that the group in near the consent to minimize friction. In consent the effort towards a common goal is optimal.

!!Resistance while doing is expensive!! (time, energy, resources, money) > The pack can not go on the way properly

The decision is the connection between phases

The decision making mechanism feeds back to the decision process

“There are no decisions that are generally wrong or right but only decisions that are done with a lot of energy and little energy

normally the decisions with a lot of energy later prove as being 'right'”

-source?

Hint: If people are familiar with dragon dreaming its nice for them to have the connection to the phases of planning and doing in here.

Effort for the decision process: 5

***essential

Keep in relation to the impact/weight of the decision

Proportionality

Too big effort for little decisions leads to Frustration and resistance (also other feelings like distrust, impatience or whatever the participants come up with) .

Too little effort on big decisions leads to distrust and resistance (among others).

!!Resistance while doing is expensive!!

Formalized methods 5

***essential

Can also come later or be repeated in the syscon description

Formalized methods are accountable and clear in self efficacy > transparency > trust

A very coherent group can make decisions in an informal ways --- if there are insecuritys better choose formal method Befremdlichkeiten

Different forms of decision making  10

***essential

Individualistic + good for lone wolfs

- often leads in groups to disorganization and informal hierarchy build up

Authoritarian + fast , very clear and coherent if accepted by the group

- higher intelligence of the group gets not activated

- depends on an individual , failure of this individual means failure of group

Example: car driving

majority voting + widely known and accepted

- implications are not understood

Consent oriented + consent oriented and by that high acceptance

+ if done right activates higher group intelligence

- some forms (most actually) are not clear or insufficiently structured and lead to frustration, syscon doesnt have this disadvantage

dive deeper

How organisations mostly decide today: 10

**important

simple majority

twothird majority

try consent...if it doesnt work majority

try consent...if it doesnt work the leader decides

authoritarian > command and control

authoritarian > veto of few (those who have veto are the focus of the decision process)

all these decision processes do not use the energy of dissent consciously

The managements behaviour acts also as cultural example!

Different known decision making systems: 40

***This exercise is important because it shows how people who understand decision making mechanisms can manipulate groups by choosing the process.

Exercise “Which day of the week”

Aftermath: Let people share experience. Give reason for this exercise if group doesnt find it on its own.

Classical majority vote 20

***essential , we all grew up with this

(legacy of the generations before us)

General characteristics:

against each other 1

A vote for one alternative counts as a vote against all other alternatives (binary voting on several solutions )

> “if you are not for me you are against me”

If vital interest of a person is effected

> “if you are not my friend you are my enemy”

the majority principle divides the group in strictly separated camps

against each other 2

goal of the majority principle is to convince the other

...and the other one tries to convince me

Against each other 3 - (Conflict) questions

Who is for this solutions?

Who is against it?

Against each other 4

War of the critics (criticising a proposal before it comes to the voting)

are unavoidable

poison the atmosphere

lead to aggression

Outcome

Majority vote

fails even on banal problems

only allows voting with two values (for and against everything else)

gives unsatisfying alternatives for most participants

gives a wrong picture of reality (separated camps)

produces winners and losers

by that encourages competition and conflict

forces war of critics

runoff votes lead to dubious results

Fear in informal decision making and disorganisation 15

** gets normally clear by the essential topics, it helps some people to have it explicit including a medical explanation

authoritarian decisions can be intransparent, informal decisions normally are (except they come from a long trained understanding of a formal and trusted system)

Intransparency normally leads to underlying insecurity and fear in the individuals of the effected group that decisions are made that he/she has high resistance against or are even harmful.

The participating individuals stay in the area where they feel they have to defend their proposals before something is decided that they dont want. In this context “I disagree!” has very aggressive connotation

The creative process is strongly disturbed.

Medical explanation Stress shutting down frontal lobe by activating glandula suprarenalis > sends out stress hormones and directs blood from brain and digestive system to muscles = clear thinking with higher brain functions gets hard, extreme physical reactions are supported by the organism (fight , flight or freeze)

Hierarchy and leadership and authoritarian decisions 10

**is an important point for "anti authoritarian" groups

There is not a general problem with concentrated power. There is a problem with misuse and non distribution of concentrated power, not letting go

Yunity: A society based on self-determination, trust and cooperation which allows people to live to their full potential and to preserve ecosystems for all living beings.

Power corrupts, total power corrupts totally

How the leaders come into place (and leave) is important.

Mistakes will happen    5

**is important for groups with non practical people

One of the very few certainties. So no worries. Every mistake can be corrected. The earlier it is recognized the easier it is to correct.

Second part

introducing and learning syscon

Systemic consensus overview 10

***essential

systemic consensus encourages cooperation and togetherness.

Not the proposal that the people of the biggest party in a group are for gets selected but the proposal that hurts the group the least.

The philosophical foundation is : No pressure

Focus on needs

Strategy diversity

Independent from the decision making process and the decision making system the competence of a group has influence on the quality of the result.

While syscon as the decision making process can not stand in for lack of competence in certain areas it helps a lot to raise the competence of a group in the longer run.

Tools we have 5

-Quick systemic consensus

-Basic systemic consensus

-Deep Systemic consensus

-Management by consent

In management by consent all, teamleaders and workers or coworkers alike, know about the described backgrounds and effects.

online tool

Online Systemic consensus via konsensieren.eu

Voting via resistance  5

Resistance is at first the much more important information to look at in order to find a coherent group decision.

Resistance is checked first. If there are several options with no resistance or the same resistance a pro voting is viable.

Pro voting and resistance voting at the same time can lead to having a proposal accepted that has high enthusiasm voting in a small part of the group while not having the lowest resistance in the whole group > can lead to against each other from majority voting.

Choosing the educational tool

Before (or sometimes during) the workshop the workshop leaders need to decide which tool they will choose as a first tool for the group.

If there is enough time several can be learned, but normally not more then one per day is suggested because otherwise mixing up stuff can get very possible.

Tools and educational properties:

Quick syscon: Very structured, allows fast training and lot of mistakes in short amount of time, needs good moderation in the beginning with fast processing on mental and emotional level.

basic systemic consensus: medium speed training, first results take some time to produce.

deep systemic consensus: creates deep and detailed understanding of the different steps in decision making. Takes very long time to create first results.

online syscon: Has the big advantage of personal distance and technological guidance. Questions during the process about what is happening are not answered in not life guided situation.