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Goal Derivation Process

-- 4D Network Founding Documents [2 of 5] --

Document lead: Robbie

Aim of Document:

Develop a process for developing a goal strategy from the high level goals (meta goals) of the network.

Issue at hand: Despite agreement on the general power of the network concept and on its high level goals, there were divergent opinions on how to derive a strategy for the network from our shared goals e.g. should the network derive a global strategy in as academically rigorous a way as possible, which all members then adopt, or should it be based on some form of democratic opinion/collation? Should the network strive to only do collective projects that maximise the utility of a network and our impact, or just assist one another with our existing projects in an ad hoc way? 

Please edit the text below!

 

How to Derive Goal Strategy from the meta-goals of the Network?

Minimum Criteria:

No one working on goals that produce a negative impact on the shared macro goals of the network

Explanation: in many cases people undertake a project with the best intentions in the world, and locally they seem to be doing great things, but if you look at their effect at a larger scale, their net impact on the macroscopic goals they have is negative. A lot of NGOs fall into this trap. E.g. think tanks get more and more bought into the system if they work closer with governemnt, to the point where sometimes they end up supporting the status quo when their ingoing objective was to change it.

Solution: Internal checking system (committee?) to monitor goals, making sure that they are not potentially negative overall. No destructive interference or -ve impact globally.

Maximum Criteria:

  1. Derive Strategy that best enables our goals to be met -- by maximising the accuracy/truth/global coherence of the strategy to reach our meta goals through refereed, academically rigorous work
  2. Have all network members adopt and use that strategy -- i.e. maximise buy in of community to those strategies

Strategic Alternatives Options:

  1. Come up with global strategy with a set of small expert teams and state it as a foundation of the network that people adopt to join
  2. (a) Devise teams in key areas and have them draft this on a wiki (b) open for comment/input from all; (c) consistency committee (checks global consistency and direction)
  3. (a) Free for all on strategies (wikipedia stype); but (b) a global positive check committee -- to ensure it is overall doing good

Ideas:

  1. Jessy: write a series of white papers on how we deal systemic organisational problems -- how to build an organisation such that it is fundamentally resistent to being warped from its stated values.
  2. In the context of the above, a set of indicators and/or committee strategy is developed to monitor projects - but this process is time-efficient and does not become the main occupation of the 4dnetwork.

 

Proposal

“ad hoc (because that is all we can agree on) + optional global strategy group/meeting”.

What this means. Groups will form ad hoc around member’s interest areas. They might write a joint strategy paper for that area. They don’t have to abide by any global strategy and they are not directed to do any particular project area. However, if some people are interested and motivated to form a global strategy group then that would be great. Such a group could draft a global strategy document for the network, assess how each of the other groups strategies fit into that, and then offer constructive advice to those groups on how they could become more globally complimentary. In addition, every year the network could convene a global strategy meeting to try to: (1) adjust the global strategy; and (2) to figure out some high priority areas as a proposal for the network to focus on.

Three potential priorities for the network:

  1. Provide awareness: what are we each doing in our own activities? How can our own activities be tuned to help others and create synergy. How can we help directly?
  2. Provide course corrections: a safe mechanism to provide unsolicited feedback to individuals, to improve their activities, to stop them wasting time, or prevent potentially causing damage
  3. Identify gaps: find opportunities that no one else has covered, which members of 4D could undertake.