Group decision making has long been one of the big challenges of cooperative organizations. Groups may be able to reach a decision quickly, or, they may spend six hours debating whether to serve beer or kombucha at the next event.
A growing collection of digital tools, however, can help groups make collaborative decision more quickly and efficiently. One of the standouts is Loomio, an online tool designed to “increase transparency and inclusion, decrease meetings and emails, and make better decisions together.” The open source Loomio Co-op Handbook documents how Loomio Cooperative runs as a non-hierarchical organization and serves as a model for other collaborative organizations.
Loomio recently released Loomio School, a collection of case studies and resources about online facilitation, building a collaborative culture, team training, and more. It also provides instruction on using Loomio in your own group. While resources are focused on groups using Loomio, many of them can be used or adapted to any group decision making process. Here are five standout resources from Loomio School:
1. How to Supercharge Your Meeting: Five easy steps to help your team have more productive meetings.
2. Resolving Conflict on Loomio: a collection of informal practices for dealing with conflict on Loomio, written by Enspiral co-founder Joshua Vial.
3. Holding More Efficient In-person Meetings with Loomio: Online collaboration allows everyone to contribute to the decision making process in their own time. But in-person meetings can be a valuable way to share information.
4. Facilitation Guide: This in-depth guide covers numerous concepts and tips for facilitating meetings including preparation, commencing, underway, concluding, and ongoing practice
5. Case Studies: These case studies cover group decision making in the business and cooperative sphere, government, community, collectives and political organizations.
For more resources and inspiration, visit Loomio School
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Illustration: Loomio. Follow @CatJohnson on Twitter
