Taking decisions with Loomio

Meet our decision making tool

Loomio is a remote, agile decision making tool that helps us to take wiser decisions without spending all our meeting times in discussions. It helps to increase transparency and inclusion, decrease meetings and emails, and make better decisions together. We use the tool mainly for All of us decisions (step 3), and the team is free to adapt the tool for their own individual purposes. Let’s explore & play! For more information, check out their 3min video.

Key advantages of Loomio for oikos International

1. Consistency & central space: We want to establish a clear, standardized decision-making process to move things forward faster. Loomio offers a space for this.

2. Documentation (& Transparency): Loomio is a tool for documenting decisions and topics for discussion. It will give us more structure and everyone can always come back to it to double-check certain aspects. If a group member can’t attend a meeting, s/he will still be able to look at all the necessary information for a decision.

3. Speed: No need to wait for the next meeting to introduce a proposal!

4. Accountability: Everyone has the possibility to look into relevant decisions for them. S/he is accountable to make use of this space provided to voice opinions/objections.

Terms you should know using Loomio

Thread: (Discussion) threads are where you go to discuss topics and make decisions. The thread context has special status within a thread. It’s always at the top, and it’s always visible on the page. It’s typically used to frame the discussion or decision and provide necessary context. To get some inspiration, check out Loomio’s “5 powerful ways to use threads”.

Sense Check (function of Loomio): a function we use in threads for getting advice and first opinions in the decision making process.

Proposal (function of Loomio): a function we use in threads for taking decisions in consent & checking for critical objections. You might create several proposals to reach the final proposal you will agree upon

Process in Loomio

Step 1: Put your decision up in a thread!

Create a new thread & describe the context. Make sure to add tags to specify what kind of decision this is and at what stage the decision is. You have the option to attach links or documents to further clarify the topic & describe the context. Make sure to create threads within the 'oikos International team'. Click start thread to publish! This is not yet your proposal!

Step 2: Create your sense check or proposal

Find the ‘start poll’ function & add an initial sense check or a proposal here. It is important to make clear whether you ask for advice & questions (early stage, we recommend using the sense check) or consent (later stage, actual decision making, proposal function), as this determines the answers you can expect. Check the definition of a proposal here. Learn more here: help center.

Important settings for our use of the poll function in Loomio

• Choose between sense check or proposal

• Options: create the options “Consent, Abstain, Objection”

• Closing Date: Choose wisely so your group has enough time to react (keep in mind: most of us work voluntarily with flexible times)

• Who can vote? : Choose the people who are supposed to vote. (all of us decisions = oI team)

Step 3: Take your teammates along, gather advice & revise the proposal

Once the thread is started and you have explained the subject matter, it is time for advice and hearing their perspective! Everyone who is supposed to contribute will be notified by Loomio via email. However, it is suggested to inform them separately in your next meeting and on discord.

Your group members will be able to leave comments & objections, ask questions, show agreement and more, in order to move the proposal forward.

It is your responsibility to rework the proposal on the basis of the advice you receive and also inform your group (via Loomio in the threat) what changes have been done. That means there ight be multiple proposals in one thread to find a final decision.

It might be possible that the advice process on Loomio is enough for you to gather the information you need to rework the proposal. However, you can also have focus meetings with certain advisors or group members to dive deeper into the topic. Sometimes, it can be helpful to have an additional meeting about an upcoming decision, to sharpen a proposal or to take a decision together. (see focus calls). → Make sure to summarise the proposal-related discussions in the respective thread in Loomio afterwards.

The proposal function of Loomio doesn’t necessarily have to be used to finish the Advice Process. It’s enough to refine the proposal and come up with the final one based on the advice without a voting process in the end.

Step 4: Share the outcome of the proposal

After the deadline is over, Loomio will ask you to share the outcome of the proposal with the team. Please do this as soon as possible after the proposal is closed & you came to consent.

Step 4: Close the Thread (not always applicable)

If your proposal is part of a thread which is not going to be relevant in the future anymore, you can close it after the final decision is taken. This should be done once the due date for your proposal is over, all objections have been resolved, and you have communicated the final decision. Closing a thread is not the same as deleting a thread! If you close a thread, it means archiving it. If you delete it, it will be lost. Please only close threads, never delete.