Emprogage’s Way of Working

Emprogage – A web of life

Emprogage is a complex living organism – represented by a tree – that as an entity has its own consciousness. It consists of the members, the Emprogagers, and their relations with each other. At the same time, it is more than just the sum of its people and their relations. The difference between that sum and the consciousness it possesses can be described as Emprogage.

Emprogage’s way of working

This video shows how Emprogage, a co-owned and co-creating consultancy company based in Malmö, Sweden, organizes work. The organization is perceived as a web of life – the metaphor used here is a tree. An adaptive and fluid cell structure provides its owners (Emprogager) as well as Co-creators (Consultants and Customers) the opportunity to engage in projects they perceive as meaningful and are in the direction that is best for the world. The ownership of Emprogage is through the individual companies its members have established themselves. That means Emprogage is at the same time a personal company as well as a collective. The aspect of non-duality is found in many aspects of Emprogage’s way of working, for example in the collective leadership responsibility and decentralized decision-making.

CULTURE

Organizing Principles

Our organizing principles define our way of being and the way we organize EMPROGAGE as well as ourselves. The organizing principles should be seen as a whole. The principles, our attitude, and the way we act are in line with our joint purpose and supporting our guiding principles: We choose EMPATHY before sympathy, PROACTIVITY over reactivity, and ENGAGEMENT before attendance.

As our organizing principles, we also choose LOVE before fear. AND and BOTH instead of either or or. INCLUDING WE as an entity instead of we and they. We choose CONVERSATION and DIALOGUE instead of debate and polemics. And we LISTEN and pose questions to UNDERSTAND instead of questioning. We CLARIFY, ILLUSTRATE, and ADJUST rather than explain and correct.

The organizing principles in a context, as for example learning, I and in relation to clients

For a deeper dive into our guiding principles explore the Soul (Roots function) of Emprogage and the organizational principles in a context in the DNA (How function) of Emprogage in the Emprogage Being Document.

STRUCTURE

Dynamic 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:

1. Consultancy Services,
2. Exploration Programs,
3. Development Concepts,
4. 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.

The dynamic cells and their created static designs within the four functions of Emprogage form a holistic being. 

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.

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.

Value Distribution

The earning opportunities within Emprogage are two-fold; and based on delivery and ownership.

On the one hand, every person that decides to become an Emprogager signs a contract with Emprogage which makes her/his own organization a co-owner of Emprogage. The shares of Emprogage are equally divided between all co-owners, which makes Emprogage a collectively owned entity. The earned profit of Emprogage is equally distributed at the end of the financial year.

On the other hand, every Emprogager and Consultant has the opportunity to contribute as much time and energy she can afford and thereby influence the value she creates, and thus also the earning opportunities. 17% of all earnings created go to Emprogage and is reinvested into the operations. The outstanding 83% go to the firms of the Emprogagers/Consultants that have been engaged, which could be an individual person or a group of people. It is recommended to distribute the earnings between the individuals based on engagement and value creation.

Emprogage’s cell structure and relation to Co-creators

WHY such an organization of work?

What is the advantage of such a collaborative, life-affirming, and self-organizing way of working?

We have been asking ourselves how can we amplify togetherness and co-creation beyond organizational boundaries, which has essentially led us to a socially sustainable organizational ecosystem design that allows a diversity of ideas and give humans the space to bring their whole selves to work. Besides co-creating and nourishing an open and explorative culture that allows us to be curious and experiment with alternative solutions, which makes Emprogage an innovation platform, the dynamic cell structure allows us to proactively drive change in the direction that is best for the world on a personal, business and societal level.

Our Emprogagers Stellan Nordahl and Jens Rinnelt dive into Emprogage’s way of working in-depth during the Best for the World Live Broadcasting.

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.