How We Work Together
The marketing circle is a team of teams. We are the largest office in Bankless Consulting, and our mission is critical to the success of the company.
Operating Rhythm
Currently, we have three recurring meeting structures throughout each month. This is to help us develop our approach to things, develop a shared vocabulary around work, and move us from “Storming” to “Norming.” As we evolve as a group, our operating rhythm will become less dependent on synchronous meetings.
Meeting Guidelines
Meetings are a tool. We should only use them if they are the correct tool for the job. To make meetings a bit better, we adhere to these guidelines:
- Every meeting should have a defined structure
- Every meeting should have a facilitator and a scribe
- Agendas can be co-created on the fly or presented ahead of the meeting. This is up to the facilitator.
- Meetings should start and end on time
- Notes should be taken for every meeting and posted on Notion, such that people who cannot attend can get up to speed asynchronously.
Action Meeting
The action meeting is our weekly meeting. As the name suggests, it is geared toward projects and tasks. It is for unblocking, communicating, and processing tensions that are preventing us from doing our best work.
The format of the meeting is very structured, and it is a good idea to understand that structure in advance of attending. For more information read:
Strategy Meeting
The purpose of the strategy meeting is to reflect on what we’re doing, and surface ideas, strategies and experiments that can improve what we’re doing. The objective is not to develop a multi-year plan, but to develop ongoing heuristics that are useful in making individual decisions that align with the team.
Some ongoing tools we’ll use in the strategy meeting are:
- Project retrospectives
- Tension processing - developing strategies to address problems or recurring questions
- Brainwriting - in which we brainstorm ideas in advance of the meeting and discuss them together
The strategy meeting is held on a bi-weekly basis, and we’ll adapt these processes to make it ours as we go.
Governance Meeting
The purpose of the governance meeting is to improve how we work together and show up for one another as a team. The output of the Governance Meeting is limited to “governance outcomes,” which include:
- The development of a new role
- The discussion or development of a new agreement
- Development of a new circle
- Development or discussion of operating procedures
This limits the agenda only to items that require us to think about how we work together. All other tensions can be processed in either the weekly action meeting or the strategy meeting.
For now, the Governance Meetings are held monthly.
Agreements
The Marketing Circle adheres to the principles of self-management to the degree that we can. This does not mean that everyone votes on every decision, but it does mean that members of the circle are trusted with autonomy within their roles.
To ensure that every member of the circle has the necessary tools to make the best decisions, norms, policies and role charters are maintained by agreement within Murmur.
Agreements allow us to consent to how we work together and to make sure that we all know how to show up for one another. The overall company has a number of company-level agreements that we also consent to, but we have the ability to agree on ways of working within our own circle that allow us to do our best work.
Agreements are not meant to be a policy book, nor are they laws we need to follow. We do not need to have an agreement to cover all eventualities - we start with the assumption that everyone in the circle is dedicated to doing the best work they can, and that they will work in the best interests of the team at all times. Consenting to an agreement simply means that you will try to respect that agreement to the best of your ability.
Resources