The final (and perhaps most important) step is establishing the ground rules (norms) for operation of the Collateral organization. How are people in this organization expected to treat one another? What is the nature of leadership and facilitation for this organization? It is also critical to establish the boundaries between this collateral system and the standard, daily operating system of the organization. There are also important boundaries to be established regarding what can be shared outside the collateral organization (norms addressing confidentiality) and how insights and recommendations coming out of the collateral organization will be shared (if at all) with specific stakeholders (norms addressing the relative transparency of the collateral organization).
Variety: collateral organizations can last for quite differing lengths of time and be held in diverse settings. They might be one to two hour “huddles” that are held at the worksite. They begin or end each workday or bring a week of work to an end on Friday afternoon. The huddle can provide an opportunity for a candid review of services provided to patients in a dental office or plans for the next week of menus in a restaurant. Facilitation of the huddle can rotate among all employees (serving as an informal leadership development initiative). The collateral organization is more likely to last a day or two and be held away from the worksite (often in a retreat setting). On occasion, the collateral organization lasts for a week or longer. However, this rarely is done and is not recommended—for it is hard to sustain a distinctive way of operating for a lengthy period of time. The long-lasting collateral organization begins to either resemble the standard way of operating or take on its own rigidity of structure, process or culture.
Facilitation: Standard group management tools can be deployed in facilitating the operations of a collateral organization. These tools include those that encourage “out-of=the-box” thinking (so-called “divergent” methods)—such as brainstorming. They also include “convergent” tools that move a group toward consensus—such as the Delphi technique that provides progressive focusing of group members (through successively collated judgements by group members regarding a specific issue). Other traditional facilitation tools include the setting of ground rules, delegating roles, providing breaks, and taking notes (usually on a flipchart or through use of power point). Most importantly, group facilitation should include periodic review of ongoing group processes and meta-planning (finding ways to collect ideas for upcoming meetings that enable thoughtful consideration of each member’s ideas).
Even more powerfully structured modes of facilitation might be engaged to ensure that the collateral organization can operate in a truly unique manner. The talking stick (which was an aboriginal tool of democracy) might be used to ensure that everyone in the organization has an opportunity to be heard. Each person who has just spoken is “free” to hand the talking stick to anyone whom they invite to share their own perspective and contribute their own ideas. Variants on the talking stick include simply going “around the circle” with each group member providing their idea regarding a specific issue. This circle technique can be made more interesting if each member has to contribute a new idea that has not been previously mentioned. Several rounds will often produce very interesting results. This “divergent” technique is often preferable to brainstorming in that it ensures that creative thinking is not dominated by one or two group members.
