Board Pre-Orientation Meeting Activities
As mentioned in the covering email we recognize our collective challenge with these activities: we need to get to know each other and learn more about the Co-lab quickly… we’re just starting and we all want to flourish.
Our challenge to you is that we need you to do some pre-work in order to get us all ready to work together
Your challenge is finding the time to do these activities to start us off in a flourishing way.
We have tried to optimize these activities as far as we can – attempting to balance the time it will take you vs. the collective benefits.
When Antony and Lori call you, please feel free to give feedback on your personal ability to complete these activities by the dates mentioned below
Please review:
– Three Activities
– Reading/Watching
– Optional Extras
Table of Contents
Please Undertake the Following Three Activities
A. Please Join the Flourishing Business Community – by Friday April 26th
In order to enable you to understand, fully participate in, and contribute to the community, we encourage you to become a full paid member (if you haven’t already done so – thank-you!). We believe all board members should experience what their community experiences.
The Flourishing Business Community is hosted on MightyNetworks. The cost of membership is US$100 or C$100 or €100 / year (you can also pay monthly, although this costs slightly more in total).
We appreciate that economic realities differ around the world and we don’t want there to be barriers for you to join our community. Please contact us and we will work with you to enable you to become a full member.
To join and become a full member complete the following two steps. We strongly recommend you do these two steps from a computer / browser.
- Visit Community.FlourishingBusiness.org and join the free “lobby” of the community.
- Then click / tap on the “Full Membership” space on the left side of the screen. Choose the “Full Membership Flourishing Business” plan and follow the prompts to enter your payment information
Now you are a full member you can download the MightyNetworks app from your favourite app store to access the community from all your mobile devices.
Thank-you in advance. The Community Animator will welcome you in a private chat message. We encourage you to complete the Welcome Checklist.
B. Record a Video of Your Story of Self – by Friday April 26th
We’re going to be working with each other intensely. This is easier if we know each other as full human beings.
In the survey (see below) please give us your standard professional bio that we can share amongst the board members and use on the Co-lab’s website. But we all know our professional personas are only one part of what makes us complete human beings.
To get a more rounded picture of each of us, we’d love for each of you record a short (2 min) video telling your “Story of Self”. This technique was originally developed to enable entrepreneurs to share who they are and their values driven motivations with their stakeholders, to invite them into a productive collaboration. And, we think it applies to anybody wishing to work closely with others – like the new members of a board. Further, we believe developing your story of self could be of value to you well beyond your role on the board.
To learn more about what a story of self is all about, and for instructions, hints and tips please visit this link
Here are two examples:
Once you have completed your 2-minute story of self please record yourself telling your story… as per the examples. One way of making this recording is to open a zoom meeting, with only yourself participating, and then “record to computer”. Once you’ve recorded yourself, end the meeting and the video will be processed into an mp4 file you can upload via the last question of the survey.
C. Complete the Pre-Orientation Meeting Survey – by Friday April 26th
In order to gather some necessary data from each new board member, and get your perspective / input that will be shared with other board members please complete this survey.
You need to be logged into an account known to google to edit/save/change your responses to this survey.
This is where you will upload your story of self video.
Complete the Pre-Reading / Watching – by Sunday May 5th
See the list of items below that will deepen your understanding of the context for the work of the Co-lab’s inaugural working board – including introductions to Sociocracy.
Highly Recommended
A. Stories of Self, Bios and Other Information About Board Members
After April 26th everyone will have completed their stories of self and completed the survey mentioned above.
At that time, we will share all this with everyone so you can watch the stories of self videos and read more about everyone’s background before the orientation meeting, currently scheduled for May 7th.
We think this will be an important way for all of us to start to deeply get to know each other to enable the relationships we will need to work together successfully.
B. Review Co-lab Vision, Mission, Strategy on Website
Please review this short webpage.
You may be familiar with alternative terms for these three core elements of our vision, mission and strategy. For example, sometimes: a vision is known as the purpose, or “why”, or “just cause” for the organization; a mission is known as the “how” of the enterprise; and the strategy is known as the “what” of the enterprise.
C. Revisit a Few Key Sections of the BoD Information Package
- Page 2 – Working Board Recruitment Criteria – to better understand the dimension of diversity we believe we need to engage with to be successful
- Page 4 – Goals for Working Board of Directors within 24 Months
- Page 9 – Flourishing Enterprise Co-lab Background
- Page 11 – Journey / Timeline
D. Watch
- Sociocracy 101: As mentioned in the covering email, and explained in more detail on this page, we are planning for the board, at least for the initial meetings, to use dynamic governance via an approach known as Sociocracy. We believe applying Sociocratic principles, structures and processes significantly increases the potential for a flourishing board, organization, community and future. The board will have a chance to ratify or change this decision if it so wishes.
- Why do we need dynamic governance aka Sociocracy? What is the problem Sociocracy is trying to solve? Watch the first 2 mins of this video (2 mins) – the rest of this video covers material better explained in less time in the next video.
- What are the basics of Sociocracy, how does it work: principles, structures and processes? Watch this video (20 mins)
- Leadership & Followership: A favourite video about how community and movements get built and the styles of leadership required to make it happen here (6 mins)
E. List of Board Members Who Have Been Invited to Join
To help you start to get to know everyone we have invited to join, the following table contains some basic information.
We suggest that you connect with your colleagues on LinkedIn
When Lori or Antony call you we’ll be asking for your permission to also share email addresses and phone numbers to enable all of you to easily connect with each other.
(More optional extras below the table)
Name | Country(s) | UTC Offset (without daylight savings) | |
Christoph Auch | Germany | +1 | |
Grace Clapham | Singapore | +8 | |
Larry Clay | U.S.A. | -5 | |
Lori Farley | Canada | -7 | |
Clare Sara Goodridge | UK / Australia / U.S.A. | 0 / +8 / -8 | |
Bernd Herbert | Portugal | 0 | |
Petra Kassun Mutch | Canada | -5 | |
Ghani Kolli | Canada | -5 | |
Erwin A. Lizarondo | Philippines | +8 | |
Tom Matulis | Canada | -5 | |
Nathan Redpath | Canada | -5 | |
(Bonnie) Lorraine Smith | Canada | -5 | |
Tiago Prata Cerqueira Sopas | Portugal | 0 | |
Mary Simpson (Sociocracy Advisor) | Canada | -5 | |
Antony Upward (Co-lab’s Acting Executive Director) | Canada | -5 |
If You Have Time, Explore These Optional Extras
Optional Extras
A. More on Sociocracy
To learn more about Sociocracy you can watch this video and review: Why Do Non-Profits Adopt Sociocracy, and the short book Who Decides Who Decides – The First Meetings of Your New Group – Explained Step by Step. This is the book we used to design the first meetings of the Co-lab’s Board with the help of a Sociocratic Expert – Mary Simpson (who you will meet).
B. Attend
- Monthly Speaker Series. This is where members of the Flourishing Business Community share their experiences using the Flourishing Business Canvas. Meetings are on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 15h00UTC. The next meeting is advertised in the most recent posts on our blog flourishingbusiness.org/blog
- Briefing on the Flourishing Startups Method. This is the method for the effective use of the Flourishing Business Canvas with entrepreneurs and startups. This briefing is delivered monthly by Flourishing Startups Co-founder Ondine Hogeboom – Next sessions: April 23rd and May 21st at 14h00 UTC. See page 2 of bit.ly/FSM-Overview-Session for registration links
- Briefing on the Flourishing Business Canvas and the Flourishing Enterprise Strategy Design Method. This is a briefing on the canvas and the method for the effective use of the Canvas to create integrated business and sustainability strategies for established organizations. This briefing is delivered one-time by Antony Upward on Wednesday May 15th at 16h30 UTC. See www.eventbrite.ca/e/fei-c4fe-event-systematically-designing-businesses-fit-for-the-future-tickets-759741716927 for registration.
C. Watch
Flourishing YouTube Channel. As a reminder the Co-lab has a youTube channel with a lot of content that introduces the big idea of flourishing, and the Flourishing Business Canvas (FBC). It also includes a case study of the FBC. Visit here.
D. Read
- The Flourishing Business Canvas: Download from the website here.
- The Interactive Guide for the Canvas: Download from the website here.
- Flourishing Blog Posts. To get a grounding in various aspects of flourishing at various scales – individuals, organizational, regional/national/international. Please read “Why Flourishing”, “Six (Eight) Reasons for Enterprises to Aim to Flourish”, “Sustainable Earth” – Part I and Part II, “Evolving from Sustainable Development to Sustainable Flourishing”.
- Introduction and Detailed Presentations on the Flourishing Business Canvas and the Flourishing Enterprise Innovation Toolkit. See “Library of Resources” space in the Community for Flourishing Business Community
- Introduction and Deep Dive Training on the Flourishing Business Canvas. See “Courses” collection in the Flourishing Business Community
- Introduction to the Methods for the Effective Use of the Canvas. See the website here.