In contrast to other organizations, we work fully-remote, our team is spread over differnt countries and time zones, we have different working hours and simply no common office space (apart from the VO) where we can quickly chat if something comes up.

Therefore, especially written communication is often the go-to way to exchange information. Connecting back to our communication principles, CLARITY & DIRECTNESS are crucial to prevent misunderstandings and confusion via chat.

Open door policy

No matter how long you have been part of our team, you can always hit up any team member via chat! As we want to foster a safe space where everyone is welcome, this rule is key to have as little barriers as possible. However, you might want to consider individual preferences of team members when it comes to their preferred communication channel (see oikos homebase for more information).

Our main communication channels

To exchange with each other, our community, and external parties, we have two main communication channels that will be introduced in the following subpages:

Internal communication is the way we communicate with each other as a team and between individuals. It includes the values that are the base of our communication and encompasses also very practical elements like communication channels & formats.

Imagine the following situation...

You sit in a meeting, the fourth one today already. There are 10 people in the call, 5 of them (including you) are not actively listening as the topic of the call doesn't concern them enough to pay attention, so they multi-task to work on other responsibilities. You decide to use the time to work on this important project that kind of fell short over the past weeks. "Where did I store the document again?", you start thinking. After ten minutes of desperately clicking yourself through several Shared Drives and G-Chat threads, you give up and simply create a new one in a folder that is kind of fitting the topic. After the meeting, you start working on the document and remember that you need an important information from your co-worker. "Where can I reach her again? Discord, E-Mail, G-Chat? Or should I simply tag her in the document?" Not knowing what is the best way, you decide to use multiple channels to increase the chances to receive the information soon...

The way that the team members communicate with each other determines how well the information can flow. Do people know where to find what information and how each channel is used? Do they receive the information timely and clearly? Do the channels used serve their intended purpose?

TRANSITION & MORE CONTEXT HERE

Our communication principles

How we meet?

How we communicate?

How we work & collaborate?

As we use Google Workspace for our main IT infrastructure, Google mail (Gmail) is our email provider (for oikos International and the whole oikos community).

Intro and background knowledge

Discord is a "instant messaging social platform" that was originally developed for online gaming. However, it can easily be used like Slack or Microsoft Teams as an informal messaging platform for bigger groups of people & organizations. You can use Discord in your web browser, with a desktop app and with the app on your mobile device.

Discord terminology

SERVER: Servers are the spaces on Discord. They are made by specific communities and friend groups, e.g. oikos. The oikos servers we use are invitation-only, meaning you need to have the invitation link to join. Currently, there are three servers run by oikos International:

CHANNELS: Discord servers are organized into text and voice channels, which are usually dedicated to specific topics & purposes. In text channels, users can post messages, upload files, and share images for others to see at any time. For now, we mainly use text channels. In voice channels, users can connect through a voice or video call in real time, and can share their screen with others. Channels can be public or private, meaning they are either visible for anyone on the server or just for a selected group of people. This allows to use the server also as a space to have private sub-circle discussions without bothering the rest of the team.

CATEGORIES: A category clusters several channels under one roof. Similar to channels, they can be either public or private.

Example: The IT team uses a private category called "IT TEAM" that is only visible to them. They have their own channels dedicated to different purposes in order to work & communicate well with each other.

THREADS: A Discord Thread is simply a branched conversation in a channel that doesn't show up in the main chat. The purpose of a thread is to make sure anyone can discuss a topic in detail without cluttering a server's channel. Read more about threads in this Discord FAQ.

Roles

Where & when we meet?

As a full remote team, our main meeting space is online, but it is the warmest on the Zoom platform, like we are sitting around the bonfire, definitely the coolest, like you are having your own music studio room, and/or the most chill, like having a casual walk in the spring forest - our oikos virtual office (VO). Following the link below you will find yourself in our main meeting place online, used by both oI team and the oikos community. https://zoom.us/j/2032030203

Everyone is encouraged to drop-in during their working hours, even if they don't have a meeting at the moment. You can hang out in the main room to chat with fellow team members, or join one of our breakout rooms for some co-working (breakout room 'music in the air' is usually the place ).

In this beautiful space we meet as a whole team on a weekly basis, to reconnect with each other, touch points on important updates & requests, share advice on specific topic, and empower & inspire each other.

Sub-circles within our organizational structure are meeting separately, and the frequency and the actors involved depend on the needs of the initiative/project and the sub-circle itself.

Meeting structure

Stressing the importance of personal relationships for our work - a new set of formats that put that into the focus. Every week on Fridays, the International team will gather for a moment around the bonfire. We prepared a set of alternating formats which should be adaptive to our needs & are there for us to play with. It remains the principle that we alternate the facilitation & team members can step up to take a lead as we move :)

Up & beyond, there are weekly opportunities to connect to the wider community in the oikos AGORA: Every Tuesday, we have accessible formats for everyone - and it would be great if all could show up here at least once a month.

Special meeting formats:

• Focus Calls -

• Monthly Meetings -

• TEAM (strategy) Days -

TO BE CONTINUED AFTER THE WORKSHOP :)

Meeting culture

Setting up meetings and inviting people:

How we use Google Calendar

Why we meet

xxx

General Meeting Processes

Starting at the right place

The beginning of a meeting sets the mood. You may use the following practices:

• Check-in rounds: Participants share how they feel in the moment, as they enter. This helps all to listen within, to their bodies and sensations, and to build awareness. Naming an emotion is often all it takes to deal with it. Thus, this practice helps participants let go of distractions while supporting everyone to be present for the current meeting.

• A minute of silence: to ground people in the moment.

• Reference & Reflection: Meetings may start with at short reading that one person has prepared. After a few moments of silence, participants share the thoughts this has sparked.

• Appraisal round: Everyone shares a brief story of someone they had recently thanked. This highlights possibility, gratitude, celebration, and trust.

Setting an agenda & deciding on important roles for the meeting might be very useful.

The 3 roles of collective intelligence

In order to ensure effective meetings, different roles can be distributed between the participants:

The roles should be fixed before the meeting starts and can be distributed flexibly, to the preference of the group.

Keeping on track

Additional practices to keep intention and attention in the meeting:

• Purpose Reminder: A volunteer holds a pair of bells. If the holder feels ground rules are not being respected, she/he can make them sing. No one may speak until the sound has died out. During the silence, all can reflect on the question: "Am I in the service to the topic we are discussing?”

• 'Talking stick': use an artifact to regulate turn-taking, slow down the speed of conversation, and increase the quality of listening.

• Internal/External facilitator: A facilitator may be used when there are specific requirements to fulfill.

Ending meetings

Check-out rounds at the end of the meeting are a natural complement to the initial check-in round. They leave everyone with a sense of the impact of the meeting. A moment of silence is another way to reflect and conclude.

The starting place to explore our team structure and find the most important links and information for our work is our oikos Homebase which is located on a Miro board. It entails practical information in some beautiful visualizations.

Google Workspace

Our main software package for online collaboration is Google Workspace. Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and GSuite) is a collection of productivity and collaboration tools and software offered by Google. We do not use the full package but mainly the following applications: Gmail, Google Calendar, GDrive, Google Docs, Sheets & Slides. Read more about how we use the different tools to work and collaborate in the subpages below:

oikos has no physical presence, a lot of what we do only exists in the virtual space. Google Drive is where we store all of our files - any document, presentation or spreadsheet is stored here and accessible to the team which makes Google Drive one of the centerpieces of our organizational infrastructure. We use several different which are the places where to find team- or content-specific files.

Google Drive also enables us to share files with each other, work asynchronously on them, and even make them available to externals. If you want to learn more about Google Docs, Sheets & Slides, sharing files and more, you can move to the next sub-page:

Best practices to structure a Shared Drive

To make our remote work as a growing team with a lot of fluctuation easier, here some best practices to ensure a structured file storing system:

• Use a numbering system to name your folders. Like that, they will stay in the order you want them to be rather than being in alphabetical order

• Try to use a limited number of main folders in your shared drive which represent the main areas of your work (rule of thumb: aim for max. 10 folders as the initial structure, then making sub-folders)

• Same holds true for every layer of folders. Try to minimize the number of folders in each folder layer!

• Try to have not too many layers of folders in your shared drive. Otherwise, you or others will need to click through a labyrinth of folders to get to the searched-for file (rule of thumb: max. 4 clicks to get to a file)

• Try to sort ALL files (docs, sheets, slides) in the folder system and not let them float around somewhere.

• We have a SHARED drive for a purpose. Avoid storing files in your personal Google Drive if they are relevant for other team members and the organization.

Overview of Google Drive permission levels

In general, any oI team members has access (contributor/content manager) to all the Shared Drives, no matter their roles. Like that, we can live up to our TRANSPARENCY principle. Only certain Shared Drives (will) have restricted access to ensure data security and privacy.

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides → tagging people, when to tag, when to send DM → not be restrictive

What is Google Workspace?

Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and GSuite) is a collection of productivity and collaboration tools and software offered by Google. We do not use the full package but mainly the following applications:

• Gmail

• Google Calendar

• Google Drive

• Google Docs, Spreadsheets & Slides

How do we use Google Workspace to communicate and collaborate?

For each of the applications, you will find a more detailed explanation of how we use it at oikos International below.