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§ The Lens · the working part you can use

The questions, and the practices others have walked.

Two layers, in the same library. Each Pattern names one place where a Lab can read itself. Each experiment names one direction others have walked across the transitions between levels. These describe, they do not prescribe. Six rules drawn from living systems, ten principles for working responsibly in the world, and the small practices others have walked to move from one stage to the next. ORRI is Open and Responsible Research and Innovation, a European framework for doing work in genuine relationship with society.

Patterns API · readGET https://compass.syfers.eu/api/v1/patterns
→ Fetch JSON
Experiments API · readGET https://compass.syfers.eu/api/v1/experiments
→ Fetch JSON

§ Design rules

Six rules drawn from how living systems sustain themselves, in a forest and in a group. The ground the rest stands on.

  1. R 1 · Diversity

    Diversity first

    Where does the Lab rely on a single element, person, or income? What would carry the load if it fell away?

  2. R 2 · Circulation◆ structural

    Circulation over accumulation

    What value enters and then stops moving? Where does it pool instead of circulating?

  3. R 3 · Succession

    Succession, not imposition

    What is the next stage, and are its conditions being built, or is an end-state being imposed?

  4. R 4 · Soil

    Soil before harvest

    Where is harvest being taken before the ground and the relationships can carry it?

  5. R 5 · Feedback◆ structural

    Feedback over control

    What signal or conflict is not yet being heard? Is there a structure that lets it surface early?

    3 sub-questions

  6. R 6 · Scale◆ structural

    Scale follows rhythm

    Where is growth outpacing the capacity to integrate it? What wants to slow down?

    3 sub-questions

§ ORRI principles

Ten principles for doing the work in honest relationship with the world around you. Each one points to where the Lab keeps the evidence of that work.

  1. O 1 · Governance◆ structural

    Inclusive governance

    Who is affected by decisions but not yet part of making them?

    evidence · 01-governance/

    3 sub-questions

  2. O 2 · Stewardship

    Societal goals

    Beyond its own survival, what larger-than-itself does the Lab tend?

    evidence · 02-ecology · 03-social · 04-economy

  3. O 3 · Relationships

    Multi-stakeholder

    Which of the four worlds (government, knowledge, enterprise, civil) does the Lab not yet touch?

    evidence · 03-social/stakeholders/

  4. O 4 · Reflection

    Anticipation and reflexivity

    How does the Lab notice what it is becoming, and does that noticing change the next step?

    evidence · 09-learning/quarterly-reflections/

  5. O 5 · Economy◆ structural

    Economic base of its own

    Addressing market deficits

    What does the Lab depend on a single source for? What would standing on its own look like?

    evidence · 04-economy/circulation-model.md

  6. O 6 · Accessibility

    Broadening representation

    Whose voice or threshold is not yet held? Where does language or form keep someone out?

    evidence · 03-social/onboarding/

  7. O 7 · Accountability◆ structural

    Monitoring and accountability

    What is not being measured that should be, and to whom does the Lab give account?

    evidence · 09-learning/indicators.md

    3 sub-questions

  8. O 8 · Experiment

    Experimental approach

    What is treated as fixed that could be a prototype? What experiment is being avoided?

    evidence · 02-ecology/ssaaflab · 06-housing

  9. O 9 · Integrity

    Ethics and integrity

    What went wrong that has not yet been named honestly? What is being polished?

    evidence · 09-learning/mistakes-and-lessons.md

  10. O 10 · Sharing

    Sharing what is learned

    Science education and citizenship

    What has the Lab learned that it has not yet given away?

    evidence · 03-social/education/

§ Experiments · the practices others have walked

Each experiment is a small, reversible probe others have walked for one (condition, transition). Offered, not prescribed. The names belong to the sources cited; the framings are written in our own words. Walking one is a Lab’s choice; what it finds, including a finding that the experiment did not fit, belongs in the Lab’s own repository.

Cooperative tradition

  1. O 5 · Economyemerging → established

    Open the books for one cycle

    Make the finances open to all members for one cycle, plainly, and see what changes in how decisions are weighed.

    Observe. What conversations the openness made possible, or unavoidable.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

Doughnut Economics

  1. O 2 · Stewardshipemerging → established

    A portrait against the doughnut

    Sketch your place against the doughnut, the social foundation below and the ecological ceiling above, and mark plainly where you fall short and where you overshoot.

    Observe. Which shortfall or overshoot you had not been counting.

    licence · CC BY-SA · source ↗

Elinor Ostrom

  1. R 6 · Scaleestablished → embedded

    Form a new circle, do not enlarge the old

    When a circle grows beyond its capacity, form a smaller linked one rather than swelling the single group, and connect them.

    Observe. What stays workable at the smaller scale that would have broken at the larger.

    licence · Academic; cite the source

  2. O 7 · Accountabilityemerging → established

    One shared indicator

    Agree on one simple, visible indicator the group watches in common, and one light, proportionate response when it drifts, before it is needed.

    Observe. Whether watching it together changed what people did, without anyone enforcing.

    licence · Academic; cite the source

Group facilitation practice

  1. O 6 · Accessibilityemerging → established

    Hold back, and watch who steps in

    For those who tend to fill the space, hold back in one decision. Say nothing first. Leave the silence open long enough that someone else can step into it.

    Observe. Who speaks when you do not, and how long the silence has to last before they do. The waiting is the experiment.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

  2. O 6 · Accessibilityabsent → emerging

    Name one thing you see

    For those who tend to wait, name one thing you see in the next gathering before anyone invites you to. One observation, offered unbidden.

    Observe. What it cost to say it, and what happened in the room when you did.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

Liberating Structures

  1. O 8 · Experimentabsent → emerging

    Fifteen percent solutions

    Ask each person what they can do this week within their own discretion, with no new resources and no one's approval. Do one of those.

    Observe. How much was already within reach, with no need to wait.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  2. O 3 · Relationshipsabsent → emerging

    Map who could connect

    Map every individual and group that could be drawn to the work, by formal or informal tie, and notice which threads are already there and which are missing.

    Observe. The relationship you had not seen, that was nearer than you thought.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  3. R 6 · Scaleestablished → embedded

    Minimum specifications

    List everything you believe you must do. Then strip it to the few must-dos and must-not-dos without which the thing fails, and let the rest go.

    Observe. How much of what felt required was not.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  4. O 2 · Stewardshipabsent → emerging

    Nine whys

    Take one activity and ask why it matters, then ask again of the answer, several times over, until the purpose beneath the doing shows itself.

    Observe. Where the asking stopped being comfortable, and what was there.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  5. O 6 · Accessibilityabsent → emerging

    One, two, four, all

    In one meeting, before open discussion, give everyone a minute alone with the question, then in pairs, then fours, then to the room.

    Observe. Whose ideas appeared that usually do not.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  6. R 3 · Successionemerging → established

    Stop one thing first

    Ask, only half in jest, how you could guarantee the worst result. Then notice what you already do that resembles it, and stop one such thing.

    Observe. What space opens when something is stopped rather than something added.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  7. O 6 · Accessibilityemerging → established

    Troika consulting

    In threes, one person asks for help on a real challenge, then turns away while the other two consult, then turns back to receive it. Rotate.

    Observe. What was easier to hear because you were turned away while it was said.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

  8. R 5 · Feedbackemerging → established

    What, so what, now what

    After one event, walk three short rounds together: what happened, what it means, what we will do. Record the third.

    Observe. What the group saw differently once it spoke in that order.

    licence · CC BY-NC 3.0 US · source ↗

Permaculture

  1. R 4 · Soilabsent → emerging

    Observe before you act

    Before changing anything, spend one defined season simply observing, recording what the land or the group actually does, before you intervene.

    Observe. How much of what you would have changed turned out to be unnecessary, or wrong.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

  2. R 1 · Diversityemerging → established

    Stacking functions

    For the next element you add, a plant, a structure, a role, require it to serve at least two functions before you place it.

    Observe. What you almost added for a single purpose, and what the second function turned out to be.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

Sociocracy 3.0

  1. O 6 · Accessibilityabsent → emerging

    Ask for help, with room to decline

    Make one real request for help, plainly, and leave the other genuinely free to decline. A small protocol, with respect for agency on both sides.

    Observe. What the freedom to decline did to the quality of the help offered.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

  2. O 1 · Governanceabsent → emerging

    Consent for one decision

    For one upcoming decision, try consent: present a proposal, invite objections, and integrate what they reveal, rather than seeking a majority.

    Observe. What the objections surface that a vote would have buried.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

  3. O 1 · Governanceemerging → established

    Fill a role by consent

    Fill one role by open nomination and consent, with reasons spoken aloud, rather than by who steps forward loudest.

    Observe. Whether the reasons spoken changed who was chosen.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

  4. O 1 · Governanceemerging → established

    Form the proposal from the need

    For one decision, start from the need itself, named plainly, and form the proposal together with the people it touches, rather than arriving with the answer.

    Observe. How the proposal changed by being formed rather than presented.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

  5. R 5 · Feedbackemerging → established

    Good enough for now, review later

    Take one standing agreement, set a date to review it, and treat it as good enough for now and safe enough to try, not forever.

    Observe. Whether knowing it will be reviewed changes how tightly it is held.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

  6. O 4 · Reflectionabsent → emerging

    Name the driver before acting

    Before acting, name in one sentence the actual situation that calls for action, the driver, and check that everyone recognises it before any solution is discussed.

    Observe. How often the named need differed from the assumed one.

    licence · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗

Syntropic agriculture

  1. R 3 · Successionemerging → established

    Plant for the next stage

    When you place something, place alongside it what the next stage will need, so the system prepares its own succession rather than waiting to be replaced.

    Observe. What becomes possible later that you would otherwise have had to start from nothing.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

  2. R 2 · Circulationemerging → established

    Return a share to the system

    Take one output, and return a fixed portion of it into the system rather than exporting all of it. In a garden this is chop and drop; in an economy it is a share set aside before distribution.

    Observe. Whether taking the share first, rather than from what is left, is what makes it hold.

    licence · Tradition; attribute the lineage

§ Read in your own Lab

Sixteen reflection questions, across four stages you read against your own past, never against another Lab.

See this in your Lab →or read a worked example

SYFERS · Syntropic Federations · Ecologies of Regenerative Systems.