Cell Structure
Cells are the fundament in Emprogage. The Emprogage organism consists of a dynamic cell structure containing cells, as the smallest and fundamental unit of life in Emprogage, which are responsible for all of life’s processes.
A cell performs functions essential for the growth and development of Emprogage. Important functions of cells are as follows:
- Provides Support and Structure – Emprogage is made up of cells. They form the structural basis of Emprogage.
- Allows Transport of Ideas and Knowledge – Various ideas and knowledge are imported by the cells to carry out various processes going on inside the cells.
- Energy Creation (the Value) – Cells require energy to carry out various processes. This energy/value is created and reformed by the cells and the energy flows within the cells. Energy is then reformed to value in forms of Designs, which can take many forms as for example Ideas, Knowledge and Engagement as well as Money, Time and Structure – they are named in relation to the respective type of cell as:
- Consultancy Services,
- Exploration Programs,
- Development Concepts,
- Root Fundamentals
- Aids in Reproduction -Genetic information is passed on from one cell to the other. A cell aids in reproduction through the processes called mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis is where the parent cell divides to form daughter cells. Meiosis is when new Cells are formed and causes the daughter cells to be genetically different from the parent cells.
Cell Areas / Organs
Various types of cells perform different functions:
The Consultancy Cells are headed in the crown of the tree, flourishing of beauty to the world. The consultancy area is about delivery and offering services to clients – to help clients now with structure and culture.
The Exploration Cells form the stem of the tree making up the conversation and transport of learning through joint exploration. The exploration area focuses on learning together with clients – to help clients with structure and culture change soon (education of existing co-workers) or later (education of future co-workers).
The Development Cells is the Root Collar serving as a basis for stability creating, forming and conceptualizing new knowledge and experience. The development area consists of ideas people want to explore by learning together. It could be projects or services that are currently in an early prototype state and are tested with Emprogagers or Co-creators.
The Root Cells constitute the roots and give support to all other parts of the tree. The root cell area is concerned with ideas and functions that address the structural and cultural development of Emprogage.
Decision-making
Decision-making is distributed in the organisation and guided by the Organising Principles. Every cell is self-governing and responsible for the decisions it takes based on the trust to other cells, Emprogagers, and Emprogage as a whole. A way of rising this into awareness is to ask “How would this affect …?”.
The exception is the relationship an organization of the Emprogagers or the Consultants has with the entity of Emprogage. The Emprogage realm is strategical in its nature and shares a collective why. Twice a year all Emprogagers come together for a strategy meeting in the form of a lunch-to-lunch conference. In the sowing and harvest conferences, the joint direction is set.
The process for changing the way of working requires engagement by an Emprogager. In our self-organizing way of working it is the personal responsibility to drive change. That requires the awareness and motivation to change, or not to change, an existing pattern or process, describing the experienced situation transparently to other Emprogagers, specifically those who are affected by the decision.
Meetings
Every year the operational triad, responsible for the operational running of the organization, invites to four Cell area days and two strategy conferences. The strategy conferences are on a strategic level. The cell days are on a tactical level and open to all current and potential Co-creators in the cells. Look out for Cell Days in our Events and experience Emprogage yourself!
Besides that the setting up and organizing of meetings lies in the responsibility of each cell, which run the operational activities of Emprogage.
Communication
In order to be able to make collective decisions and decisions affecting the collective, a transparent communication platform is needed. That not only allows peer-to-peer or cell-to-cell communication but makes information available to everyone (who subscribes).
We currently use Slack for this purpose. You can join the Emprogage Slack group by clicking this invitation link, to join the #emprogage_general channel, where the virtual watercooler dialogues happen.
In addition, for the storage of documents, files, or pictures we make use of an Open Source cloud-based storage platform named Dropbox.
For more information about Emprogage’s Way of Working contact us, especially the consultancy cells #cons_innov-strategy and #cons_org-development. You can contact these cells and their co-creators directly through the contact details provided in the visualized cell structure in Emprogage’s Kumu Map.