Prosocial

The eight prosocial design principles provide guidance for dealing with people who regularly ignore relevant advice (or consistently refuse to seek or give advice) and therefore regularly cause downstream problems for others as a result. Such situations are obvious for all involved. A persistent breakdown of collaboration either results in a significant change in behaviour once the downstream problems are recognised, or in the non-cooperative person leaving the organisation.

The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations

At the level of small (human scaleThe scope of trusted relationships is constrained by human cognitive limits (according to Robin Dunbar’s research, a human can maintain a maximum of 150 relationships at any point in time)...) groups, the NeurodiVentureNeurodiVenture : an inclusive non-hierarchical organisation operated by neurodivergent people that provides a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking, creativity, exploration, and collaborative niche construction.NeurodiVentures | Autistic Collaboration NeurodiVentures create safe spaces for groups... model provides a set of first principles for creative collaboration that can be implemented in appropriate ways to accommodate local needs. The prosocial principles (Atkins et al., 2019) that are part of the NeurodiVenture model not only provide guidance for collaboration within the group, but also for collaboration with other groups, and thereby they pave the path for the development of collaborative bioregional networks of NeurodiVenturesNeurodiVenture : an inclusive non-hierarchical organisation operated by neurodivergent people that provides a safe and nurturing environment for divergent thinking, creativity, exploration, and collaborative niche construction.NeurodiVentures | Autistic Collaboration NeurodiVentures create safe spaces for groups... and other human scale groups.

The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations

Individual competency networksAll healthy and resilient institutions have a well-functioning competency network (Laloux 2014; Wilson 2015). A good way to understand competency networks is via the notion of trustworthiness and the nurturing... are one of the three ingredients of the collaborative (not secret) sauce of good company. The other two essential ingredients that define the NeurodiVenture model include eight trust-reinforcing organisational principles and rituals and eight more generic tailored 8 prosocial core design principles.

The NeurodiVenture model is the result of incremental evolutionShe tells of a radical fringe of scientists who are realizing that natural selection isn’t individual, but mutual—that species only survive if they learn to be in community.Emergent Strategy: Shaping.... The eight trust-reinforcing principles and rituals are not unique to our approach and have proven their worth in various contexts to catalyse collective intelligence: ​

1. A clear purposeSelf-determination Theory (SDT) is... — a model, a macro theory, of human motivation. It’s one of several models of human motivation, but it’s one that has been confirmed over and..., a long term perspective, and revenue sharing instead of salaries
   ☞ resilience
2. Twenty-six critical thinkingCredulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; that’s what P. T. Barnum meant when he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But it can be much more dangerous... tools (backbone principles) to support the purpose
   ☞ an inclusive culture of thinking and learning
3. Employee ownership and zero debt
   ☞ no distractions by stakeholders with short term motivations and hidden agendas
4. An intensive 12-month induction and on-boarding process
   ☞ a foundation for mutual understanding
5. ​​Organising around the talents and needs of specific people
   ☞ ability to benefit from an incredible diversity of talents
6. Relying entirely on equitable team-oriented incentives and zero individual incentives
   ☞ elimination of in-group competition
7. ​​Operating an advice processAlmost all Teal organizations use, in one form or another, what an early practitioner (AES) called the “advice process.” It comes in many forms, but the essence is consistent: any... instead of hierarchyThe belief in the existence and relevance of social hierarchies must be suspended.The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations The extent to which a community...
   ☞ maximising learning opportunities ​
8. Open sourceOne model that successfully harnesses the power and commitment of talent and engages that talent in an ongoing way over time is open source. The term “open source” is traditionally... intellectual property
   ☞ no barriers to flows of tacit knowledge

At S23M we started with these eight complementary principles and rituals as an initial minimal viable operating model. Then several painful lessons from attempts of interfacing with the neuronormative social world prompted us to add a missing generic principle, to clamp down on toxic social powerThe 20th Century political scientist Karl Deutsch said, “Power is the ability not to have to learn.”I quote this statement often, because I think it’s one of the most important... dynamics. The tailored core prosocial design principles we use:

1. ​​TrustedAutists conceptualise the world in terms of trusted relationships with unique people.The beauty of collaboration at human scale The Autistic way of developing trust is based on experienced domain-specific competence.... relationships within the group and strong understanding of purpose (to support an open and inclusive neurodiverse and creative team)
2. ​​Fair distribution of costs and benefits
3. ​​Fair and inclusive decision-making ​
4. Fast and empathetic conflict resolution
5. ​​Authority to self-govern ​
6. Appropriate relations with other groups
7. ​​Tracking agreed upon behaviours (a working advice process minimises the need for tracking)
8. Graduated responses to transgressions to prevent a person or a subgroup from gaining power over others (appropriate focus on fair and inclusive distribution of resources minimises the need for coercion)

Our established undocumented practices meant that we already had implementations for 7 of the 8 prosocial principles (Atkins et al. 2019) identified by Elinor Ostrom (2015), Michael Cox and David Sloan Wilson, but we were missing the 8th principle “Graduated responses to transgressions”. We have qualified this principle as shown in the list above, to remind us to stick to an incremental approach when extending trustAutists conceptualise the world in terms of trusted relationships with unique people.The beauty of collaboration at human scale The Autistic way of developing trust is based on experienced domain-specific competence.... to candidates who are still in the on-boarding phase, and still in the process of unlearning W.E.I.R.D.This acronym refers to Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic societies. Most research is conducted on, and conducted by, relatively homogeneous samples from WEIRD societies. This limits the generalizability of... social norms.

The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale: Timeless patterns of human limitations

Applying evolutionaryShe tells of a radical fringe of scientists who are realizing that natural selection isn’t individual, but mutual—that species only survive if they learn to be in community.Emergent Strategy: Shaping... science to coordinate action, avoid disruptive behaviours among group members, and cultivate appropriate relationships with other groups in a multi-group ecosystem (the work of Elinor Ostrom, Michael Cox and David Sloan Wilson).

With the needs of autisticAutistic ways of being are human neurological variants that can not be understood without the social model of disability.If you are wondering whether you are Autistic, spend time amongst Autistic people, online and offline.  If... people in mind, the original pro-social design principles from Elinor Ostrom have been modified (a) to emphasise trusted relationships over strong group identity, and (b) to limit the legitimacy of coercion to a narrow use case.

Operating Model and Backbone

Related readingThere are three types of reading: eye reading, ear reading, and finger reading.The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child's Confidence and Love of Learning Most schools and...,