Playbook

Introduction

The SINA Playbook is the knowledge companion for implementing the SINA Framework and anchored in the SINA License. The Playbook covers all core areas and guides the implementation within a SINA and is the summary of the full SINA Framework. There are three pillars: 

– Enterprise (operations and processes)
– Empowerment (the learning)
– Community (life within the community)

The Enterprise Pillar

Introduction 

The Enterprise Pillar is described as a Symbiotic Enterprise, which is a solution to self-organization of an enterprise and based on distributed authority according to the social technology “Holacracy”. The legal representatives (power holders, e.g. directors) of a SINA formally agree to cede their power into the Symbiotic Enterprise Constitution. This includes all governance and operations. As an exception, any authorities the Members of the Enterprise Context do not have the power to delegate will remain in the Enterprise Context. As a newly formed Symbiotic Enterprise, the SINA has three contexts: enterprise, organization and people.

 

The Enterprise Context

This is the broadest bounded context and coincides with the corporation as a whole (the legal entity and the functions held by people that are legally required, such as directors, board members, etc.). The registration documents for the establishment of the corporation are the agreements of the Enterprise Context, and any persons bound to those agreements are the Members of the Enterprise Context. The Enterprise Context functions as a bridge between the conventional, non self-organized outside legal context and the self-organized inside Organization and People Context of the SINA. The Integration Circle is the broadest circle in the Organization Context. It concerns any operations and governance needed to align between all three contexts of the Enterprise by integrating all perspectives and therefore enabling symbiosis between all three contexts.

The Organization Context

The Organization Context is a bounded context within the Enterprise Context. It is the aspect of the enterprise that concerns governance and operations as present in the Holacracy Constitution which the Symbiotic Enterprise is built upon. Authority is distributed and self-organization practiced via autonomous role-filling and transparent processes. This allows the organization to achieve its purpose.

The People Context

The People Context is a bounded context within the Enterprise Context. It comprises all individuals who are actively filling roles within the Organization Context. These members are called “Partners”. People become Partners through signing the Social Agreement. Only Partners can fill roles in the Organization Context. The People Context provides a platform where personal tensions can be processed, which are not about role-filing. Further, partners enhance their skills through Guilds, get opportunities for social events and hold specific agreements with the Enterprise’s legal entity (e.g. employees, volunteers, etc.).

Initial Circle Structure within the Integration Circle

Role	Purpose	Domains	Accountabilities
Social Agreement Keeper	Optimal Partnership symbiosis	Social Agreement	-Designing the Social Agreement -Integrating tensions of Integration Circle members and updating the Social Agreement as needed -Interpreting terms, conditions and requirements of the Social Agreement as needed
Payment Plan Design	Compelling pathways for Partners’ payment	Payment Plan	-Designing and evolving methods and processes for Partners’ earnings -Publishing general guidance regarding any tiers, categories, distinctions or other related classifying systems made within the Payment Plan -Exercising a duty of care to integrate the needs of the Enterprise Context, Organization Context and People Context when evolving the Payment Plan -Assisting other Roles as required to better understand, explain and advise Partners with regard to earning opportunities
People Operations	Purpose-aligned Members and Partners with clear agreements and clear Enterprise relationships	Member/Partner-Enterprise Relationships	-Tracking Role Filling needs in the Organization Context -Triggering and facilitating the Selection Process for prospective new Members/Partners -Drafting and executing all necessary Member Agreements from latest versions as published  by the relevant roles (Social Agreement, Payment Plan, Work Agreement) -On-boarding Members upon signed Membership agreements -Extending offers of Membership to prospective new Members (following the new Member Selection Process) -Administering Partnership records
Partner Rep	Tensions relevant to process in the Integration Circle channeled out of the People Context and resolved on behalf of Enterprise Partners		-Seeking to understand Tensions raised by Enterprise Partners -Deciding which Tensions are relevant to the collective of Partners (vs. relevant to one Partner or only a few)  and therefore appropriate to process within the Integration Circle -Processing Tensions of the Partnership within the Integration Circle
Community Rep	SINA well synchronized with its Community		-Representing the interest of the Community within the SINA Enterprise -Aligning the needs of the Community with the needs of the Enterprise
Enterprise Rep	Enterprise Context well represented and synchronized		-Representing the interest of the Enterprise Context within the Integration Circle
License and Framework Steward	Clear understanding of the SINA License and the SINA Framework		-Clarifying the terms of the SINA License and the SINA Framework upon request
Payment Advisor  (This Role moves into People Operations once this Role becomes a Circle)	Fair and suitable payment for all Partners		-Assisting Partners to assess their own Purpose Contribution Orientation (PCO) based on criteria defined in the Payment Plan -Assisting Partners to assess their own Core Skills capacity levels based on criteria defined in the Payment Plan -Authorizing changes to Partner’s PCO and/or Core Skills capacity levels -Notifying the Organization’s Finance role of any changes in Partner Payment Plan -Triaging any tensions related to payment -Providing transparency on Partners payments through documentation that is accessible to all partners -Defining and evolving guidelines for focus time reporting of Partners -Conducting regular Payment Plan Review Meetings with partners based on collected data from all relevant roles
Safeguarding Steward	SINA is a safe environment (where harm, exploitation and abuse are effectively prevented as far as reasonably possible and responded to effectively)	Safeguarding policy amendments	-Supporting the SINA community to implement and maintain the safeguarding practices -Collecting and responding to concerns regarding the policy -Proposing actions to mitigate the risks
Operation Circle	A suitable and adaptive structure for organizing the work in service of purpose (Adaptation as needed)		-Structuring and governing all operations

Initial Circle Structure of the Operations Circle (within Integration Circle)

Role	Purpose	Domains	Accountabilities
Empowerment Stages (Circle)	Scholars empowered to work individually and in teams while growing personally and professionally		-Delivering the SINA Framework Empowerment Pillar
Finance	Protect and leverage financial assets	All financial accounts	-Bookkeeping according to local law -Handling all financial transactions -Creating & issuing audit reports to local authorities -Creating and evolving tools for financial transparency -Documenting financial resources available for distribution -Handing in information to local authorities, paying local returns and taxes -Tracking, reporting and accounting for all financial matters -Handling all cash exchanges
Fundraising	Sufficient funds raised for financial sustainability		-Defining a fundraising strategy in alignment with Circle Strategy -Writing fundraising proposals and donors reports -Providing overview to Finance about expected donations -Researching and approaching prospective donors and donation opportunities
SE Trainer	SINA is a professional Symbiotic Enterprise		– Incorporating the Symbiotic Enterprise structure into SINA -Pointing out best practices of the Symbiotic Enterprise’s Organization Context to roles, based on observations regarding work getting done -Delivering Training sessions on content and best practices of the SE Constitution -Providing input and best practices on Article 2 of the SE Constitution to the People Context upon request -Providing input and best practices on Article 1 of the SE Constitution to the Enterprise Context upon request
Community Operations (Circle)	Work in service of the Community anchored in a suitable and adaptive structure		-Structuring and governing all Community operations

The Empowerment Pillar

Introduction

The Empowerment Pillar focuses on the learning and growth processes within a SINA. Empowerment is based on self-organization principles and ‘Freesponsibility’. It is conducted via experience-based-learning and the distributed authority makes everyone as powerful as possible, a leader and follower at the same time. It intrinsically motivates all members with full ownership, replacing a top-down predict-and-control paradigm with a new way of empowerment. The goal is for SINA beneficiaries (called “Scholars”) to gain the skills and experience needed to create societal change through social entrepreneurship. SINA scholars are enabled to unleash their full potentials and grow personally and professionally within the Empowerment Stages. 

SINA Empowerment Overview

The SINA Empowerment Concept contains five core stages:

Freesponsibility

The concept of Freesponsibility is key in the empowerment framework. It integrates freedom and responsibility in a way that one is aware of the effects the execution of personal freedoms have on others (positive and negative), while understanding and fully respecting one’s own feelings and needs. Taking responsibility is the basis for personal growth. Freesponsibility cannot be taught but only be lived and transmitted through role modeling. Freesponsibility requires the freedom of choices between different possibilities and gives space to find meaning and purpose, while becoming critically aware of oneself and the environment. 

Format of Learning

The SINA Empowerment framework is based on experiential, activity-based, project-based and problem-based learning. The learning model is grounded on the understanding and belief that learning by doing gives the freedom and responsibility to learn through real-life experience.

The learning happens in four core spheres;

1. Training: The program includes sessions in the different stages that support the scholars to gain the knowledge, skills and habits for their character and for professional development.
2. Roles: The scholars, through the apprenticeship program, co-fill roles in the organization with the purpose of gaining knowledge, skills and habits they need or might need in their own lives and future social enterprises. Skills and experiences are gained through a hands-on approach.
3. Social Entrepreneurship: The scholars start their own enterprises, might fail several times but will learn to run and evolve their own social enterprises while building the skills base to start, run and grow social enterprises.
4. Community: By living in the community, the scholars gain knowledge and skills helping them in working and living with others respectfully. A lot of informal learning and peer-to-peer learning happens in the community without a defined structure but through countless interactions.

The Empowerment Stages focus primarily on a mindset shift towards self-organisation and entrepreneurial development while fostering integrity and purpose. Two aspects are key; personal development and professional development.

Personal development

Personal development is a lifelong process. It is assessing and improving skills, behaviours and attitudes while considering goals in life to realize and maximize their potential. At SINA, we believe that a strong personal development grooms people well equipped to create and social change.

Personal development has two core areas; private victory and public victory: 

• The private victory; Many young people are groomed to be dependent, have a low self-esteem and have been judged by the education system as not good enough. The private victory nurtures scholars from dependent to independent persons. It is of the self and focuses on nurturing effective skills, habits and knowledge on personal behaviour and uncovering, redefining and living a life based on core values with purpose alignment. 
• Public victory focuses on growing scholars from independent to interdependent persons. The focus is on gaining skills, habits and knowledge on how one relates with others in teams and in the community.

Professional development 

It refers to continued training and support for a professional career. The SINA Framework includes obtaining skills, knowledge and a mindset of turning challenges into opportunities. Areas of focus in professional development include the provision of tools and resources for starting and running successful social enterprises and are facilitated via the core roles in the section 3.5.

The Empowerment Stages

The empowerment stages take a scholar through, from joining SINA with a difficult background and with little skills and experience, till becoming a social entrepreneur.

Scholar selection

The selection of the right people is an important step affecting the process and outcomes. The selection is usually a one day event with several activities to select individuals with the qualities and attributes of an ideal SINA scholar. Those include;

• Being a youth (generally between 18 and roughly 30 years)
• Ideally from a marginalized background
• An inner drive (one can feel the person wants to achieve something and improve his/her life) and a lot of potentials which could unfold
• We generally prefer scholars without a university degree
• Can commit themselves fully in SINA (without an initial income)
• No intention to join university after SINA
• Scholars with a need to show-off or make others feel they are better than them are not selected
• We maintain a gender balance (about 50% male and 50% female)
• We like diversity (people from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences)
• Helping others and can offer support to others 
• Perseverance, even when faced with difficulty or challenges
• Taking initiative

We are searching for scholars with potentials SINA can unfold, with the analogy of the transformation process of a butterfly, we can explain what we are looking for:

Eggs: These are people who take part in the scholar selection but are not able to participate fully due to their very difficult background or very recent traumatic experiences. They are almost unnoticeable in activities. We do not know how much potential they might unfold in the future: some eggs will get spoilt and some will become strong butterflies in the distant future. This is why we decided to give “wild cards” to possibly one or two “eggs” in a selection, despite us not having seen how much potential can unfold in the future.

Caterpillars: A caterpillar has just one job—to eat! She is very hungry. Eating allows her to grow and even increase her body mass by as much as 1,000 times. She moves slowly but steadily. These are the scholars we are looking for: hungry and wanting to grow, no matter how small they are or where they come from,  we get a feeling throughout the selection day, that they possess an inner belief: I can grow. Whatever food SINA provides, the caterpillar is ready to eat it all and continue growing, it can hardly be satisfied.

Cocoons: This is where the magic happens, a transformative process making the caterpillar into a butterfly. It is the key moment of a scholar that SINA is designed to foster.  The scholar suddenly realizes his purpose and sees that she will be able to fly soon if she works hard. If this moment happens in SINA, the person is likely to perceive SINA as a home and might stay connected to SINA for the rest of her life as a butterfly.

Butterflies: This is what we want our scholars to become through the transformation process in SINA. Able to fly and pollinate the world. We do not want to select already made butterflies, as they might have already access to other opportunities and therefore are likely to leave SINA before creating an enterprise and SINA will not have much of an impact in their lives: after all, they are already flying.

Scholar Selection Manual

Suggested Scholar Selection activities;

• The river crossing                    –    The Puzzle crossing
• Barnga card game                  –     Flow of the day and interview questions

Confusion / Applied Social Innovation Stage

The Applied Social Innovation Stage is the initial entry stage to SINA. The stage runs for three months with intense and structured training. It collects the scholars from the realities they are used to (timed sessions, one person as a trainer, etc.). It sets a foundation for a journey towards entrepreneurial growth. It is also referred to as the “Confusion Stage” because scholars are initially confused about a different way of learning and living together. It is all about unlearning limiting beliefs, getting rid of the fear of failing, expanding one’s comfort zone, and—especially—discovering oneself. The stage focuses on personal growth with a focus on breaking patterns and mindsets that have been grown over time and fosters the ability of a scholar to creatively think, try things out and challenge themselves. 

The core elements of the stage include:

• Overcoming limiting beliefs; 

While growing, we are made to think there are things we can do and there are things we cannot do. E.g., a refugee might think “my life is already done, I will not achieve anything.” This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy and therefore, Applied Social Innovation supports the scholars in un-learning and overcoming limiting beliefs.

• Developing habits of effective people; 

Scholars identify and grow who they truly are (character) rather than based on how they want others to perceive them (personality). They identify and discard harmful habits they might have and grow habits that help them take responsibility for their actions, plan their time and be able to work with others.

• Purpose; The focus is to engage scholars in defining their life and what their purpose might be.
• Communication; Most conflicts arise from a gap in communication (the way the message is communicated or how it is received). This block focuses on supporting scholars to be able to communicate respectfully and with clarity, while understanding their own needs and other people’s needs.
• Self-awareness; In self-awareness, scholars are supported to uncover themselves and create a self-image of themselves that they desire.
• Self-learning; SINA believes in the vastness of the impact of self-teaching. In this, scholars learn how to gain the knowledge and skills they seek.
• Problem-solving; Problems are often looked at as bad, but they also present opportunities to create change and transformation in an individual, societies and the environment. Through sessions on problem solving, scholars go through Design Thinking, Associative Thinking and ideation to create innovative solutions to problems. These sessions also prepare scholars for self-organization. The scholars learn to take responsibility in a self-organized system. 

The evaluations for progression into the next stage focus on;

• The ability of a scholar to know and fit into the SINA culture. The SINA culture outlines the way the members of a SINA behave with themselves and others in the community.
• Scholars who have an idea of their life’s purpose.
• Scholars who are able to communicate with a good consideration of their own and the feelings of others in the community.
• Scholars who are able to identify tensions within the community and work towards resolving those tensions.

Further Details:
– Structure of the sessions

– Evaluation criteria

Emerging Stage

In Emerging Stage scholars take over more and more responsibilities, make decisions for themselves, do the accounting, logistics, outreach, and everything needed to run SINA. New scholars learn from older scholars. It is self-organized empowerment and learning through experience. Outcomes are not imposed but scholars set their own goals and continuous steps to reach their dreams. The learning is in the hands of the scholars. Through the Apprenticeship Program, scholars take up roles within SINA to gain the skills and knowledge needed to be able to run a social enterprise.

Emerging stage is also where scholars identify problems in the communities that they have an attachment to and from associations that undergo a journey to form solutions to those problems. Within the stage, the scholars attain the basic skills, knowledge and behaviours for their future entrepreneurial journey. Focus in the stage is on truly understanding the problem through empathy, building a basic understanding of the target market, understanding the ecosystem and developing a good understanding of the potential solution.

Emerging Stage contains two programs:

1. The Apprenticeship Program is an internship program within the SINA. Scholars learn and gain the skills they might need for running their own enterprises. Core to the apprenticeship program is Holacracy. A scholar can take part in the apprenticeship program for as long as they are in the Emerging stage and can take part in as many roles as helpful for the scholar. The scholar will be required to fill the role(s) with a 50% focus time (20h) in a week. The roles within a SINA that scholars take up can be categorized into;

Basic roles; these are roles that may not require a specific skill or experience to execute. These can include roles in Community Operations and can be filled by any of the scholars as the role lead.

Core roles; these are roles that may require a role filler having a specific skill or experience. These roles may include roles in the Organization Context and include roles such as mentors, coaches, finance, etc. These roles will be filled by scholars as role co-fillers. This means, the scholar fills this role together with someone else who is the main role filler, who also guides the scholar through the learning process.

Learning groups; if a SINA is not fully set up and might not be having many roles set up from which the scholars can learn from, the SINA can set up learning groups. The choice of the creation of the learning groups is entirely up to a SINA but should cover core areas of organization and enterprise management.

A scholar through either coaching or mentoring will gain clarity on what skills they might need in their future endeavours. The scholar then fills/co-fills corresponding roles and is required to give regular progress presentations answering the key questions:

• What roles am I currently filling/what learning groups am I currently in?
• Why those roles/ that learning group?
• What is my progress thus far towards gaining the skills I require?
• What are my next targets towards attaining the skills I require?

2. The Emerging Bootcamp is an intense training program where participants are supported to identify a problem in the community that they want to solve which aligns with their past experience and/or life purpose and the SDGs. The scholars interested in solving a particular problem form a group termed as an association. The bootcamp can be run between 3 to 5 days depending on the time available within the SINA. The Emerging Bootcamp workbook outlines its learning process.

The evaluations for progression into the Concentration stage has two aspects 

1. Personal development

• Are the scholars proactive – take initiative, have clarity/some form of clarity on their personal purpose, are able to work with others in a team and are able to identify and resolve conflicts/tensions in the community/roles.

2. Professional development

• The scholar association (members of the team) having gained the skills, knowledge and experiences relevant to their proposed solutions.  
• The scholar association having clarity on the problem. Who is facing/experiencing this problem, how, when, where?
• Clarity on the proposed solution. What is the proposed solution, how might it work that it solves the proposed problem? 
• Who else is solving this problem, where and how?

Further Details: 

– Structure of the sessions

– Evaluation criteria 

Concentration Stage

Concentration stage supports scholar associations to translate personal purpose into viable social enterprises. Scholars are pushed to find out from potential customers and beneficiaries how their solution could work. Scholars explore, prototype and innovate on a continuous basis. Scholar associations are supported to clarify the intended solutions, the market, potential in the market and work towards generating revenue.

The Concentration Stage is for six weeks with a focus on getting scholar associations to develop a greater understanding of their proposed solutions and get customer buy-in. The stage is structured into two core phases;

1. Concentration Bootcamp

The Concentration bootcamp is a one week intensive training period where scholar associations actively seek to understand their solutions, target audiences and generate revenue, while testing themselves if they are ready to become social entrepreneurs. The Concentration Bootcamp Workbook guides the learning process of the bootcamp.

2. Post-bootcamp

The scholar associations continue for five weeks to develop their business models with a focus of getting a problem-solution-fit (the problem the scholar associations solves does really exist and the proposed solution actually solves the problem). To acknowledge that the problem exists, the target customers should be willing to buy and use the solution. This means revenue for the project. In addition, other stakeholders should be willing to support in implementing the proposed solution. This can be tracked through donations and/or grants that the associations get to implement their proposed programs. Therefore, the focus of the post-bootcamp sessions is to support associations that get customer buy-in.

The evaluations for progression into the next stage focuses on;

• The ability of the team to implement the proposed solution. Does the team exhibit the skills required and can they work collectively to make the proposed solution work? 
• Does the association have a Problem-Solution-Fit? Each association should have generated at least $150 in revenues. This can be from sales or from external sources. In as much as the association receives donations or grants, the teams still need to have consistent users. For a charity, the association needs to have donors who will finance the operations of the charity.

Further Details: 

– Structure of sessions

– Evaluation criteria

Linking Stage

Linking stage is where scholar associations now transition into becoming enterprises and create structures and processes. It is now about building an organization. Linking stage takes a two months duration during which enterprises are required to be legally registered, open a bank account and become legally compliant to the laws and regulations. This is the final stage of the journey of the empowerment of a scholar at which point the teams and enterprises graduate with their own jobs established into the Mastery Stage. 

Mastery Stage 

Mastery is a stage one can never graduate from because one can never stop learning. At this point the teams and scholars are in the process of graduating from the local SINA and becoming fully independent, while moving into the outside world continuing to grow their enterprise and impact. The enterprises have the chance to enter the centralized SINA Acceleration Program to receive further support in form of 1-1 mentorship, specific business training and bootcamps from SINA Global. Enterprises become part of an international network of all SINA enterprises and remain with access to potential resources and SINA support.

Initial Circle Structure: Integration> Operations> Empowerment Stages

Role	Purpose	Domains	Accountabilities
Scholar Selection	Finding and selecting the right scholars		-Defining and stewarding the scholar selection process -Planning and providing all logistics for the scholar interview day – Setting the date for selection day and number of scholar spaces -Integrating the perspective of Applied Social Innovation in scholar selection -Selecting scholars for Applied Empowerment Stage
Applied Social Innovation	Scholars prepared for Entrepreneurial growth	Scholar selection for Applied	– Collecting data from all relevant roles to determine learning progress against Stage Outcomes defined in the SINA Framework Empowerment Pillar  – Coordinating suitable amount of time for scholars with Trainer, Mentor and Coach, based on documented learning progress of stage# -Evaluating scholars to transition into Emerging
Emerging  Stage	Scholar forming purpose-aligned associations	Scholar selection for Emerging	-Collecting data from all relevant roles to determine learning progress against Stage Outcomes defined in the SINA Framework Empowerment Pillar  -Coordinating suitable amount of time for scholars with Trainer, Mentor and Coach, based on documented learning progress of stage -Evaluating scholars to transition into Concentration
Concentration Stage	Purpose translated into viable Social Enterprise structures	Purpose aligned associations in Concentration	– Collecting data from all relevant roles to determine learning progress against Stage Outcomes defined in the SINA Framework Empowerment Pillar  -Coordinating suitable amount of time for scholars with Trainer, Mentor and Coach, based on documented learning progress of stage -Evaluating scholars to transition into Linking  -Evaluating problem-solution fit of Social Enterprise  -Defining, evolving and communicating guidelines for Social Enterprises to collect and report data on problem-solution-fit
Linking  Stage	Self organized Social Enterprises		-Selecting purpose aligned collectives of people from Concentration -Supporting purpose aligned collectives to set up legal structures in order to turn into Social Enterprises in a local legal context -Informing Social Entreprises about the possibilities, requirements and content of Acceleration program
Trainer	Inspiring learning progress of scholars through impactful sessions		– Assessing learning needs of scholars in regards to the building blocks defined in the SINA Framework Empowerment Pillar  -Creating and capturing a set of sessions belonging to a Building Block in form of a session plan  Delivering sessions and coordinating resources needed for session delivery (time, finances, material) -Assessing learning progress of scholars  -Improving sessions based on the assessed scholars’ learning progress
Coach	Strong Personal Development of Scholars at SINA		– Offering coaching sessions -Capturing and tracking coaching progress
Mentor	Impactful and self-sustainable SINA Social Enterprises		-Delivering Mentorship Sessions on building Social Businesses/ Enterprises -Capturing and tracking mentoring progress
Apprenticeship Coordinator	Emerging scholars experienced in organisational role filling in SE context		-Assisting Scholars to identify suitable roles to co-fill within the organization to gain skills and experience -Assisting Scholars to identify suitable roles to fill within Community Operations to gain skills and experience -Coordinating beginning and end of apprenticeships with concerned Circle Leads -Triaging any tensions related to the Apprenticeship Program -Defining and evolving guidelines for reporting learnings of Apprentices -Collecting data from all relevant roles as the basis for review meetings with apprentices -Holding review meetings with scholars to provide feedback on learning progress based on collected data from relevant roles

The Community Pillar

Introduction

The community pillar makes up the way we live together in SINA. It includes the definition of a community, shared values, shared community spaces, shared reality and the activities bringing everyone together. It entails measures to enable a conducive environment for learning,  living and working together. A community is a group of people living in the same place or and having a particular characteristic in common. This also includes people who do not necessarily live in the same compound but do spend at least three days a week and a minimum of six hours a day with members in the SINA. With this, partners, the families of partners, scholars, coaches, external trainers/ mentors are a part of the community, as well as other support staff including e.g. security personnel and cooks. A visitor spending more than three days within the vicinity becomes a community member.

Community Guidelines

All community members abide by and sign the SINA Community Agreement. It specifies a Code of Conduct for a safe way of living together and processes to prevent and protect from harm, as well as the mechanism to respond to any incidents. The Community Agreement constitutes a minimal ruleset of how we wish to live together. It is based on Safeguarding principles promoting and protecting people’s health, wellbeing and human rights, while enabling them to live free from harm, exploitation and abuse. Beyond this, each SINA is encouraged to develop further “Community Guidelines” as a collaborative activity where all members can agree on additional guidelines. These can include topics such as alcohol, absenteeism, late coming, cleaning and anything else needed to have everyone’s needs met as best as possible.

Community Culture 

The Community Culture is the way people live and interact with each other within the community. The SINA community culture is grounded on SINA core values and principles:

Growth and Purpose
– Follow your why in every action!
– Pursue your dreams and give your very best!

Equality and Teamwork
– Share what you have and create what you don’t have yet!
– Build open and honest relationships by giving empathy, understanding your needs and other’s needs!

Trust and Transparency
– Share knowledge and happiness, they multiply as you share!
– Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway!

Self-Organization and Freesponsibility
– Be your own chairperson!
-Be responsible and accountable for your actions!

Innovation
– Be creative and create solutions!
– Start small and start now with what you already have!

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is an important element in the SINA Culture. As a tool, it supports a mutual connection and compassion and reminds us of our humanity. NVC assumes that we all share the same basic human needs and that all actions are strategies to meet our needs. Through living NVC in the community, greater authenticity, increased understanding and deepening connection and flourishing relationships happen. Conflict is embraced as a sign that there is an essential need that has not been met; a way to create improvements and find better strategies towards fulfilling the needs of the individual and the collective. This is the culture the community is invited to cultivate. The SINA Handout-NVC has further details.  

Conflict Transformation 

Conflicts are a part of life. They bring our attention to matters that are important to each of us in regards to how we relate with each other. To transform conflict within the SINA community, mediation using Nonviolent Communication allows both conflicting parties to express themselves and be listened to without bias, judgment or blame in a safe space. Confidentiality is required for both parties in a mediation process with an agreement arrived at between conflicting parties acknowledged and respected within SINAs. 

How a mediation process works

A period of one week to a month is given for the conflicting parties to meet with a mediator, and hopefully come to an agreement. If at the end of the month there is still no agreement, the parties upon the recommendations from the mediator are given a choice to either seek mediation from the NVC Coordination or proceed to report to the police. Each SINA has a minimum of three community members (one of the three should be female to consider a scenario a conflict party may be more at ease to have a female mediator) trained on mediation using NVC. They are impartial. They set a safe space for mediation, guide the mediation session, translate interpretations into needs and feelings and formulate a mediation agreement.        

Community decision-making

Decisions made in a SINA Community should not be the majority opinion, as the minority voice would be lost. This may be a trigger for conflict in the future. A majority voice tends to entrench a power-over or top-bottom approach. With this in mind, a focus on the inclusion of the minority voice, as well as the proposal with the lowest resistance is more suitable in a SINA. This bottom-up approach rather considers and evaluates the resistance each person has to a given  proposal and is called “Systemic Consensing”.

In its process, all community members are invited to suggest proposals. Each member has a chance to express his/her resistance to all of the proposals from 0 – 10, using the fingers. Ten means a high resistance (or not in agreement with the proposals). 0 means no resistance and I am in agreement with the proposal. A tally of the total resistance to each proposal is established. The proposal with the lowest count is adopted as the community decision, which sees fewer chances of triggering tensions or conflict in the future during its implementation. 

Personal Wellbeing

Every SINA is encouraged to offer activities boosting individual and community wellbeing and build relevant habits around the five areas of wellbeing:
– Human Connection (such as get-togethers, celebrations, etc.)
– Physical Activities (such as sports)
– Mindfulness (such as meditation)
– Self-Learning (such as a library or availing musical instruments)
– Giving back (such as organizing beneficial activities with or for the sourrounding local community)

A recommended resource for activities is Recipes for Wellbeing.

Community Committee

A SINA Community Committee is made up of three (3) to five (5) or seven (7) members, elected every six months. This committee is tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of the community members. The members are elected (using systemic consensing) among all community members based on their trust, commitment to SINA and also ability to face tensions/conflicts while keeping a balance between caring for their own needs and the needs of the entire community. One of the members is expected to come from the scholars living full-time in the community. The Community Safeguarding Essentials training is a mandatory requirement for all committee members. Nonviolent Communication and Symbiotic enterprises knowledge is an added advantage.

SINA Glossary

Agency	Agency is the capacity of individuals to define aspirational goals and coordinate the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and resources both internally available to them (individual capacities) and externally available to them (in their social, institutional or physical environments) in order to take action to achieve stated goals.
Applied Social Innovation	The first stage in the SINA empowerment model to overcome limiting beliefs, set goals, and discover individual purpose, also referred to as “Confusion Stage”
Association	A group of scholars in the Emerging Stage who come together to define a specific problem(s) which they want to solve and strive to find ways to develop a solution(s) to that problem(s)
Associative Thinking	A process of ideation in which the mind connects elements that might seem disconnected to create connections with one another (associations) that can be developed into solutions to the defined problem.
Asynchronous Proposal	A proposal which does not go through the governance meeting but in holaspirit (or glassfrog) online where all circle members have the possibility to validate the proposal. Best only for simple or straight forward proposals where no objections are expected.
Bootcamp	An intensive training program, usually for 5 days
Changemaker	An individual who drives positive change in society.
Changemaker-maker	An entity or individual that fosters the development of changemakers.
Character	A set of behavior traits that define what type of person you are. Character is learnt from the surrounding from being taught or observation therefore character can change overtime. Example is being honest or dishonest.
Checkin	A quick round where everyone speaks (without corss-talk) to be able to be fully present in the meeting and everyone contribute what primarily has their attention at the moment. “Check-in Round: The Facilitator allows each participant in turn to share their current state or thoughts, or offer another type of opening comment for the meeting. Responses are not allowed.” — Holacracy Constitution
Checkout	A quick round where everyone speaks (without corss-talk) to be able to leave the meeting and space for take-aways, appreciation and feedback
Circle	A group of Roles in Holacracy/ Self-Organization that all contribute to the same Purpose. Every Circle has “core roles” (e.g. Facilitator, Secretary, Lead Link, and Rep Link) as well as other Roles doing the work.
Coaching	Guiding an individual to achieve specific personal or professional goals without advise giving, or telling the person what to do but rather supporting the person to find the answers for him/herself
Community	A group of people living in the same place or/and having a particular characteristic in common.
Community of Communities	Each SINA is a community, so all SINAs together are a community of communities
Community of Practice (CoP)	A term and circle used to describe the collection of SINAs and their growth and collaboration from about 2018 to 2020, after which the circle and term were not used much anymore
Concentration Stage	The 3. phase in the SINA empowerment model to test and validate ideas for social enterprises through intensive bootcamps.
Confusion Stage	The first stage in the SINA empowerment model to overcome limiting beliefs, set goals, and discover individual purpose, also referred to as “Applied Social Innovation”
Country Factor	A factor in the Payment plan, considering the cost of living in a country and trying to make earning fair and comparable.
Design Thinking	An iterative process of problem solving in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding.
???	Something is missing or needs to be updated? Reach out to us at info@socialinnovationacademy.org to help us improve.
Emerging Stage	The second stage of the SINA empowerment model, whereby members take responsibility for themselves; handle community tasks and work with each other through life-coaching. Everyone is a leader and a follower at the same time, depending on the circumstance. Learning is acquired by meeting daily needs, motivated intrinsically, and applied directly.
Empowerment	The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and pursuing one’s purpose.
Enterprise Context	Is the broadest context of the Symbiotic Enterprise and coincides with the cooperation as a whole.
Entrepreneurship	Sensing a need in the world and initiating a process of designing, structuring, launching and running an enterprise to solve that need.
Focus Time	The agreed upon work hours of a partner in SINA
Framework	A framework is a flexible, conceptual model that provides broad guidelines and principles for tackling various tasks or problems, allowing for customization and innovation. Unlike a playbook, which is a specific, step-by-step guide for particular scenarios, a framework aims to guide decision-making within a broader context.
Freesponsibility	A word coined from the two words and combining freedom with responsibility and is the awareness of the positive and negative effects the execution of freedom has on others and the environment.
Full-Time Employment (Job)	Employment of 30 hours per week or more
Governance	All circles and roles with their purposes and accountabilities. In SINA Global https://app.holaspirit.com/public/sina-global
Governance Meeting	A specific meeting to change the Governance through Integrative Decision Making (Proposal, questions, reactions, Objections)
Growth Mindset	In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and personal growth. It is highly suggested in the Applied Social Innovation Stage (personal development) that all scholars read the “Mindset” book and it is discussed. You can access a free soft copy here and the audiobook here.
Guilds	Guilds are defined as sub-contexts within the People Context of three or more Members, organized to enhance Partners’ skills and maintain practice standards in key areas of interest to the Partners and the Organization Context specifically.
Holacracy	A method of decentralized management and organizational governance, in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy.
Integration Circle	Broadest Circle that holds the Purpose of the Organization Context. Holds all Authorities and Domains of the Organization.
Learning Group	A group of scholars who come together to learn a specific skill. Usually, Learning Groups have a specific target in terms of skills and scholars can join the group and leave whenever they have acquired the specific skill.
Linking Stage	The fourth phase in the SINA empowerment model to incorporate social enterprise ideas which gained traction and preparing scholars to graduate with their own enterprise and jobs established.
Member	Individual who is actively engaged in the Enterprise’s expression of its Purpose
Members	Collective of individuals who are actively engaged in the Enterprise’s expression of Purpose
Mentoring	Mentoring is a practical approach to helping entrepreneurs develop their own abilities and insights as they start and grow their business.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC)	A language that supports mutual connection and understanding. It is also referred to as compassionate communication or language of the heart. It is anchored on Empathic connection. It was developed in the 1960s by the late Dr. Marshall Rosenberg.
Organization Context	Is a context that encapsulates the rules and processes for the operations and Governance of the Enterprise.
Part-Time Eomployment (Job)	Employment of 29 hours per week or less
Partner	Member who has signed the Social Agreement
Partners (organizations)	Organizations that collaborate or associate with another entity
Partnership	All Members who have signed the Social Agreement
Payment Plan	The most transparent and fair way we have so far found to do transparent compensation in SINA
People Context	Is a context that encapsulates the common interests of all Members
Personal development	Personal development is a lifelong process. It is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise their potential.
Personality	A set of inborn traits that a person has. For example, some people are shy, while others are outgoing and talkative.
Playbook	A playbook is a specific, step-by-step guide designed to handle particular scenarios or tasks, often with the aim of minimizing decision-making by providing pre-defined actions. Unlike a framework, which is broader and more flexible, a playbook is tailored for specific situations and generally offers less room for deviation.
Practice Group	A group coming together (mostly virtually) to collaborate,support each other, share knowledge, resources, and best practices.
Private victory	It is of the self and focuses on nurturing effective skills, habits and knowledge on personal behaviour and uncovering, redefining and living a life based on core values with purpose alignment.
Professional Development	Continued training and support for a professional career and includes obtaining skills, knowledge and a mindset of turning challenges into opportunities, and tools and resources for starting and running successful social enterprises.
Proposal	Based on a tension, a change in governance
Public victory	Focuses on gaining skills, habits and knowledge on how one relates with others in teams and in the community
Regeneration	Regeneration focuses on continuous improvement in all aspects of work, life, and learning. It involves understanding SINA as a living system with an evolutionary purpose and not just something that needs to be managed. It emphasizes a systems view and includes elements of nature, as well as a decentralized organizational design with distributed authority. The goal is not to sustain the status quo, but to constantly bring new life and energy, so to renew and regenerate. Key principles of regeneration include life-affirming circular principles, a constant state of change, diversity and collective intelligence, and building relationships of re-connection.
Role	An organizational construct with a descriptive name and one or more of the following:A “Purpose”, which is a capacity, potential, or unrealizable goal that the Role will pursue or express on behalf of the Organization.One or more “Domains”, which are things the Role may exclusively control and regulate as its property, on behalf of the Organization.One or more “Accountabilities”, which are ongoing activities of the Organization that the Role will enact.
Safeguarding	A process to ensure the safety and well-being of all community members from both, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and any other form of abuse.
Scholar	A person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly those that develop expertise in an area of study.
Self-Esteem	an indicator in the SINA Traffic Light assessment system describing the confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect and a feeling of having respect for yourself and your abilities.
Self-Organization	A system based on peer relationships with no need for hierarchy, consensus, nor central command and control but instead with autonomy, distributed decision making and an arising order towards a shared purpose.
SINA Alumni	An individual person from any SINA, who finished at least the Applied/ Confusion Stage
SINA Alumni Enterprise	A SINA Social Enterprise who graduated from a SINA, meaning it has moved out of the physical space of a SINA and is surviving on its own
SINA Culture	These are the shared values, principles, norms, processes, and structures among all members of a SINA community.
SINA Social Enterprise	A social enterprise has the primary purpose of solving a social or environmental challenge (instead of making money). It does so through a business model (making it repeatable and not relying solely on grants or donations). The enterprise emerged from a SINA Community and has at least 2 (paid) full-time employees and more than 150 USD in revenues
SINA Social Entrepreneur	A person who started or is leading a SINA Social Enterprise
Social Agreement	A binding agreement between a partner of a SINA and SINA, outlining how we wish to deal with the social aspects of working at SINA, interrelational tensions and how we transform conflicts.
Social Business	As defined by Prof Muhammad Yunus, a social enterprise which is able to cover all its costs from earned revenue (no loss, no grants) but also not paying out dividents (profits) ti shareholders but rather investing them into solving the social/ environmental challenges the enterprise has its purpose for
Social Entrepreneur	An individual who starts businesses to address social issues.
Social Entrepreneurship	The act of starting businesses to solve social problems
Social Innovation	New social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions
Startup	A newly created business, which has not yet fully reached maturity
Symbiotic Enterprise	A set of nested Contexts. Each Context has a clearly defined boundary and differentiates a particular aspect relevant to the Enterprise.
Symbiotic Enterprise Constitution (SE Constitution)	A document outlining the way we are operating as SINA Global and specifying details
Systemic Consensing	This is a group decision-making process that seeks the most sustainable proposal, the one that has the least resistance, meaning it has the least harm to the group. Each proposal is evaluated by either 0 ( absolutely no resistance) and a high of 10 (which is an unacceptable proposal).
Tacticle Meeting	Meetings within a Circle happening tzpicallz once a week to sznchroniye the work and give project updates. The process is> Check-in Round, Checklist Review, Metrics Review, Project Progress Updates, Build Agenda, Triage Items
Tension	Describes a person’s feeling/sensing that there’s a gap between the current reality and a potential future. It’s just a feeling that something could be different.
Traffic Light Assessment	a peer-to-peer evaluation method where scholars rate each other using a color-coded scale of red, yellow, and green based on specific criteria like self-esteem and growth mindset. Each color signifies a level of proficiency, with red indicating low, yellow as moderate, and green representing high. The system aims to provide constructive feedback for personal growth, with results compiled and translated into points to measure overall progress and impact.