1.What is hcOrG ?

The human-centered Organizational Governance (hcOrG) initiative

• contributes to developing and promoting human, meaningful and life-giving work, workspaces and communities all over the world;
• unearthens and challenges long-standing management orthodoxies and presents practical activities to both
  1. improve, reform or even transform organizations, and
  2. revive humanity at work.
• ultimately is dedicated to redesigning workspaces to redesign the world.

hcOrG offers source lists incl. instant analyses, materials, services and additional resources such as e.g. books, articles, clips, TED talks, and movies and links to pioneering organizations.

Additionally it is present on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

hcOrG is open source and offered under the Creative Commons license Attribution- ShareAlike 4.0 International (find more information here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ).

2.Where did the idea come from?

Imagine you had the intention to change or even transform the organization you are working in, managing or owning so it would be fit for humans and fit for the future. What would be the concrete steps to create and maintain this organization? This question has been my starting point.

When I realized that many institutions and organizations are interested in improving, reforming or transforming their organizations AND don't know how to do this in detail, my instant idea had been to collect an array of concrete activities that carry the potential to promote healthy, inclusive and inspiring workspaces all over the world. The activities are presented in form of two source lists and they (activities and source lists) have the potential to support individuals, teams members, entrepreneurs, HR responsible, owner of an organizations, consultants and other interested persons in their quest to bring humanity, joy and life back to work.

3.What is the difference between hcOrG–blue and hcOrG–teal?

At the beginning I intended to develop a checklist of 50-100 items. My original idea had been that if people would just pick some activities and would implement them, their organizations and consequently this world would be a better place. The list grew to over 500 and became the 1st source list, currently called hcOrG-blue.

Then I continued reading and studying and found so much material contradicting or at least not fitting what I just had developed. I have been wondering how to integrate all of this into "my list". And then I decided to keep two distinct lists so the 2nd source list was born, currently called hcOrG-teal.

Both lists contain a vast spectrum of practical activities, partly tackling the same concerns with different measure. They are both dedicated to two entirely different models:

• hcOrG-blue is for you if you are dedicated to further improve a traditional organization to be a more human-friendly workplace and actively contribute to the economic integration of women. This source list addresses responsible persons in organisations and speaks about employees.
• hcOrG-teal is for you if are eager to start or continue co-creating your decentralized and co-governed organization to bring humanity back to the workspace. This source list speaks to you as an active colleague in a team and organization that is ready to change its culture of work.

To be honest, there are zillion more differences and instead of writing about them here in length, I intend to write an article about these two different concepts.

4.What's the reason for two different checklist formats?

The original idea had been to have a row of checkboxes right before the text to choose from. While developing the two source lists and seeing them growing, I realized the need for a checklist that supports you in (1) knowing the current state of the activities' implementation and (2) choosing which activities you wish to implement in the future.

So I developed two different checklist formats:

1. The current state of activities' implementation assessed (on the left side) with regard to the ratings not applicable, not started yet, in progress and implemented successfully. The results provide you with an overview of the activities which would need your focus in the future if you want to implement them and your implementation's progress and success.
2. The feasibility, importance and urgency of the activities' future implementation in your organization is assessed (on the right side) as high, medium and low which when combined lead to a three dimensional cube. This cube is split in three slices of different feasibility which two-dimensional surfaces indicating the activities' importance and urgency (inspired by The Eisenhower Model and the 4-Quadrants used by Steven Covey in his "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", using a different orientation of the items and a three-step rating).
   
   This analysis provides you with an immediate prioritization based on your estimations of the activities' current importance, urgency and feasibility.
   
   The practical suggestion would be to start with implementing the activities in the upper right corner of the high feasibility slice to demonstrate that change is possible and generate the momentum to realize other activities too.

5.What made you call the concept and initiative human-centered Organizational Governance?

The name developed from gender-friendly Human Resources Management, over Human Capacity Management to human-centered Organizational Governance within less than six months.

For a while I thought that the term family-friendly HR Management could be the right term, certainly aware that not all employees have a family, well, but all are supposedly members of one. The moment I resumed my work on this paper, the change happened: "gender equality" as a term was increased to "equality and inclusion", sometimes equitability, fairness, and other values joined.

And another change happened: suddenly I realized that for me employees aren't resources and therefore the whole term HRM started trembling. Human Capital Management seemed to be one potential modern name, which didn't satisfy my intention to write in favour of the employees either. Then the term Human Capacity Management crossed my mind and it seemed right: taking the time, qualification and efforts employees bring into an organization, capacities appeared to describe them well. Have felt the need to replace "resources" and have found that "capacities" might be an option.

When calling the project Human Capacities Management 4.0, I intended to highlight its orientation towards the future of work, but suddenly "human" seemed to be even more redundant… The expression "human-centered" combined both a focus on all stakeholders of an organisation and their values and humanity too, which in my understanding includes respect for all other living and non-living creatures (in case you were worried I would be interested in further exploiting the planet – I am certainly not).

Governance can have many meanings (especially when dealing with management and organizations), therefore I want to light what understanding made me choose it: governance in the sense of steering/piloting, directing, guiding (not controlling, ruling, exercising authority, enforcing, holding in check or manipulating). Governance as I am using it here describes the processes of interaction and decision-making among the stakeholders involved in a collective and complex challenge that lead to the creation, realization, or later revision of new and transformative solutions.

Putting all the different thoughts and part together, the term "human-centered Organizational Governance" unites all the aspects that I perceive as changing in the ongoing work revolution. Additionally it sums up the biggest common denominator and ultimate aim of most of the other concepts I have read (see Thesaurus). Having said this (and described the journey in more detail in Where did the idea come from?), the term is emerging as the logo signifies, and who knows? It might develop into something further in the coming months and years… stay tuned!

6.What do the hcOrG logo and the colours signify?

The idea for the logo has been born when I realized that hcOrG was emerging as a concept and an initiative. At this time, the working title of this project had changed a couple of times (see FAQ 5) until hcOrG appeared and seemed to be the right one (it still could change again...). So the intention was that the logo expresses the organic emergence and the gradual transformation from one model to the other with all the phases and shades of the development in between. Since all my other logos are oval, by chance and fate this one is oval too (I guess a circle would have taken too much space ;-) ).

At the beginning I had chosen blue for the 1st source list because it's my favourite colour. Teal for the 2nd source list was inspired by Frédéric Laloux's notion of teal organizations.

Am still trying to figure out if and how the colours could be connected to Clare Graves' Spiral Dynamics – maybe there is a possible relation and a deeper meaning too…

7.Who is behind hcOrG?

My name is Claudia Gross, I am a transformation catalyst, personal growth supporter and social dynamics designer and host (formerly known as organizational development consultant, management trainer and process facilitator). In 2004, I have received my Dr. in Work and Organizational Psychology at the University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Am contributing my services to teams and organizations mainly in Germany, the Maghreb, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and I am ready to go global. For more information, feel invited to check my personal website: www.claudiagross.com

Additionally to hcOrG, I'm also to the initiator and founder of speakGreen, an initiative promoting the generative power of language for transformation. You can find more information on www.speak-Green.com and the fb page https://www.facebook.com/speakgreenmovement.

8.How is hcOrG funded?

hcOrG is a free and independent initiative, initially funded financially and time-wise by myself, powered by passion for creating healthy, meaningful and life-giving work, workspaces and communities. It is NOT commissioned by anyone.

Due to the amount of time, experience and efforts contributing to this initiative and my desire to both focus more on hcOrG and sustain myself, I offered the option to support the initiative and my continuous contribution through financial gifts.

Individuals, teams, organizations and institutions have the opportunity to give back here according to the value they feel they have received (if any). Their financial contributions have no influence on the initiative's content, approach etc. They are neither funds nor donations, but gift economy in action.

9.Why are the source lists and the material offered online, open-source and under the Creative Commons License?

Instead of writing a book, then trying to find a publisher, selling and getting it delivered to you, I published this initiative online so it is instantly accessible worldwide from wherever you are. support the initiative and my continuous contribution through financial gifts.

When developing both source lists and the respective materials, I have been driven by the wish to share my insights and the outcome of my work as free and as widely as possible so you can use them right away: offering them open-source seemed to be the best way to realize this idea. Am just walking my talk. support the initiative and my continuous contribution through financial gifts.

Consequently choosing the Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (find more information here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ) as the copy left license for the hcOrG seemed to be the best option to contribute to the future I wish to experience in this world.

10.Why is the approach Do-It-Yourself?

When trying to answer my guiding question "What could individuals and teams do to realize organizations fit for humans and fit for the future?", I collected as many concrete activities (or ideas, measures, actions – whatever you call them). I have been driven by the desire to provide as many practical activities as possible so my client teams could choose from them and start implementing them in their organization. I envisioned supporting them in this transformation process, if requested.

All activities collected in the two source lists are like pixels that only you can prioritize and put together to form the bigger picture that represents best how you and your colleagues would like your organization to work and to be like. Like a source code, both source lists provide the potential input to the process so you can co-create your own way of governing your organization – be it individually, together with a team or organization-wide, ideally in cooperation with a like-minded external consultant or process facilitator.

Since you are the one choosing them, you are taking responsibility for the further improvement, development and transformation of your organization (maybe this is the right time for you to have a look at the legal notice). Your are invited to use the offered activities, transform them, tailor them, and share your experiences with hcOrG amongst your colleagues and in the social media if you wish to.

11.What is in it for me? (WIFM)

In case you are interested in concrete business analyses, you are invited to do your own; you might like to focus on your statistics on costs of attracting and selecting new employees and orientation period, absenteeism, turnover/retention, etc.

When I developed both source lists, I had those teams and organizations in mind who are genuinely interested in bringing humanity back to workspaces. My intention is not to convince anyone. Do and experience it yourself.

hcOrG offers you the following immediate benefits:

• two comprehensive source lists of concrete, transformational yet practical activities ready to use
• formulated in a generative constructive language (focusing of what we want to have more of)
• clustered and sorted chronologically
• providing countless action-oriented ideas and inspirations to choose from
• instant prioritized analyses with visualization as a first step to facilitate the activities' implementation in your organization
• additional practice-tested materials to support you in integrating relational governance techniques into your organization
• a library and cinema packed with publications and media on human-centered Organizational Governance and related themes.

Less text – more action!

12.How can I support?