157 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
157 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Running Anti-Oppressive Meetings
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collection: Resources
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path: Resources/Running Anti-Oppressive Meetings
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parentDocument: null
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outlineId: a5d6182a-3b31-4e20-bee9-4b035b9943bd
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createdBy: Jennie R.F.
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---
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*A guide for making your meetings more inclusive, democratic, and actually useful.*
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Even teams that share values like cooperation, equity, and shared power can run meetings that inadvertently shut people out and impose informal hierarchy. You need practices that actively work against the factors that make meetings exclusionary.
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This guide is something your studio can read together, discuss, and pull from over time. Don't try to implement everything all at once.
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## Why meetings need intentional structure
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Meetings without intentional structure *default to the patterns people already know*. In practice, this means the most comfortable speakers dominate and people who need more processing time or who communicate differently get left behind.
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This happens through group dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that marginalize women, people of colour, queer, trans and gender non-conforming folks, people with disabilities, and those without the cultural cues and financial resources that come with class privilege. *These dynamics don't stop at the door of your studio just because you care about equity.*
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Let's talk about how to create structures that interrupt default (oppressive) meeting practices!
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## Containers: the things that hold your meeting together
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AORTA calls things like community agreements, agendas, decision-making processes, and visible note-taking "containers." They're the structures that keep the group focused, on track, on the same page, and offer direction when things get sticky or tense.
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:::tip
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The more intentional your containers are, the less your meetings depend on any one person's energy or authority to function. It's a little bit of a cheat code.
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:::
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### Community agreements
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Community agreements define how your group wants to be together. They're shared expectations that come from the group itself. For them to be meaningful, everyone needs to be part of creating them.
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**Some agreements to consider** (adapted from AORTA's Spring 2014 Resource Zine):
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* **One diva, one mic.** One person speaks at a time. Leave lots of space between speakers.
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* **No one knows everything, together we know a lot.** Practice humility. We all have something to learn from everyone in the room. We also have a responsibility to share what we know.
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* **Move up, move up.** If you tend to not speak a lot, move up into a role of speaking more. If you tend to speak a lot, move up into a role of listening more. *(Saying "move" instead of "step" recognizes that not everyone can step.)*
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* **We can't be articulate all the time.** People feel hesitant to participate for fear of "messing up" or stumbling over their words. Make it clear that everyone should feel comfortable participating, even if they can't be as articulate as they'd like (brain isn't braining).
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* **Be aware of time.** Respect everyone's time and commitment. Come back on time from breaks. Refrain from long monologues.
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* **Be curious.** We make better decisions when we approach problems and challenges with questions ("What if we...?") and curiosity. Allow space for play and creative thinking.
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"Assume best intentions" and "default to trust" are common community agreements, but they can be impossible to uphold when someone is feeling untrusting or unsafe, especially when people have been harmed by sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or classism. Having an agreement telling people to trust doesn't build trust. Instead, try agreements that capture the *spirit* of what you're after, like: "be generous with each other" or "this is a space for learning."
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Your studio should build its own agreements. The ones above are starting points, not a template to adopt wholesale. And revisit them over time.
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### Agendas and decision-making
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A visible agenda that everyone has input on is one of the simplest tools for making meetings more democratic. When people can see what's being discussed and how decisions will be made, *power is distributed rather than assumed*. Two things matter most from an anti-oppression lens:
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1. Label each agenda item with its expected action (decision, discussion, brainstorm, update)
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2. Name your decision-making framework before each decision point, not after
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*Resource: Your* [Meeting Agenda Template](/doc/031b561a-8922-481c-87a9-4d619b9d1102) *covers agenda setup, meeting flow, and roles in detail.*
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---
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## Facilitation as a practice
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Facilitation is not the same as leading. The facilitator's job is to make sure the collective is empowered as a whole:
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* Make sure *everyone* gets to participate
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* Work to prevent or interrupt attempts (conscious or unconscious) by individuals or subgroups to overpower the group
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* Keep an eye out for social power dynamics. Point out discrepancies in who is talking and whose voices are being heard.
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* Help the group come to decisions that are best for the group, not just one person's preference.
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* Make sure the group follows its own agreed-upon process.
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Facilitation also means keeping an eye on time, keeping the conversation on topic, summarizing discussion to note areas of agreement, and making process suggestions when the group gets stuck.
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Facilitation should rotate along with other meeting roles. When the same person always facilitates, they accumulate informal power over the meeting even if they don't mean to. Rotating builds the skill across the whole team.
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The [Meeting Agenda Template](/doc/031b561a-8922-481c-87a9-4d619b9d1102) includes a full roles table (facilitator, note-taker, timekeeper, vibes checker, tech lead) with descriptions for each.
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## Tools for shifting energy and inviting participation
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These are simple techniques (from AORTA) that can change the feel of a meeting and invite more introverted or silenced participants to contribute.
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1. **Start with check-ins.** Even something as simple as "three adjectives to describe how you're feeling" gives you a read on where people are when they walk in. It also means everyone has spoken before the discussion starts, which lowers the barrier to participating later.
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2. **Build in quiet time.** A couple minutes of journaling or thinking before launching into group discussion gives people who process internally a chance to form their thoughts. You'll get richer contributions.
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3. **Use pairs or small groups.** Starting a topic in pairs or threes before coming back to the whole group often produces deeper, more creative ideas. It also means quieter people have already talked through their thinking.
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4. **Go-arounds.** Have everyone share briefly, in turn. People can always pass.
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5. **Straw polls.** A quick show of hands gives the facilitator a read on where the group is without a long discussion. It also brings out disagreement that might otherwise stay hidden.
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6. **Get physical (where possible).** If you're in person, have people move: stand in different areas of the room to show where they are on an issue, use sticky notes on a board, switch seats after a break. Bodies in motion changes the energy.
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---
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## Red flags and group dynamics
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These are dynamics that, if left unaddressed, will undermine your meetings over time. The facilitator and vibes checker should both be watching for these:
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* Unnamed or unchallenged power dynamics. Who is *actually* influencing decisions?
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* People interrupting each other or the facilitator.
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* People repeating or restating what others have already said when done as a way to claim the idea.
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* Tone and body language: do people look checked out, bored, upset, or angry? If so, check in with the group or with individuals quietly.
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* One or two people monopolizing the conversation.
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* Someone bringing a fully-formed proposal and expecting the group to decide on it immediately, without brainstorming or feedback.
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* Back-and-forth between two people that excludes the rest of the group.
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AORTA identifies common roles people take on in meetings, some that help the group and some that don't. These are patterns anyone can fall into. Naming them as group patterns rather than individual failings makes it easier to address them.
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* Roles that help:
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* task focusing
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* information sharing and clarifying
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* elaborating and summarizing
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* decision focusing
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* encouraging
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* feeling expressing
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* process commenting
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* Roles that can harm:
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* agreeing uncritically to gain favour or avoid discussion
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* fighting aggressively for your position
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* domineering and seeking recognition
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* blocking decisions by nitpicking
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* cynicism and pessimism
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* drifting and checking out
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* personalizing every issue
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*For full descriptions of each role, see the AORTA Resource Zine.*
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---
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## When things go wrong
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Some techniques for when discussion stalls, the group can't move forward, or dynamics are going sideways (from AORTA):
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* Check the agenda. Have you switched into "decide" mode when the expected action was "feedback"? Sometimes the process is the problem, not the content.
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* Take a break. Let small groups work out a proposal based on what they've heard.
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* Ask questions rather than jumping to concerns. Questions invite reasoning; concerns invite defensiveness.
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* When people voice concerns, ask what would need to be true to meet them. Shift from "no" to "what would yes look like?"
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* Listen for agreement and name it, no matter how small.
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* Synthesize rather than summarize. Distill the core of what someone said and the values underneath it, rather than repeating their words back.
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* Break big decisions into smaller pieces.
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* Don't let two people dominate. Ask for input from others.
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* If you need a break, take one. When the facilitator needs a break, everyone does.
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---
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## Further reading
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* AORTA Resource Zine (Spring 2014), "Anti-Oppressive Meeting Facilitation"
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* Seeds for Change: [Facilitating Meetings](https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/facilitationmeeting)
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* Seeds for Change: [Consensus Decision Making](https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus)
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* Sam Kaner, *Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making*
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* Dave Gray, *Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers*
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\
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==This guide draws primarily on the AORTA Collective's Resource Zine and conflict resolution materials, with additional practices from Seeds for Change and Baby Ghosts' own materials, adapted here.==
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