What You Can Do In Your Role

Animal Think Tank works a bit differently to most organisations. You don't have a manager whose permission you need to do stuff. But you also don't have the authority to just do whatever you want.

It's useful to distinguish between what you can do and what you should do.

Your authority: what you can do

• The things you can do are defined by your role definitions as written in Glassfrog. You have the authority to take any action and make any decision that serves your role's Purpose or Accountabilities in the context of the broader organisation, as long as you don't violate a policy (as documented in Glassfrog) or a rule of the Constitution.

• When you're considering taking on a project or next-Action (including when someone - even your Circle Lead! - requests it of you), you should ask yourself: "In my interpretation, would it serve my role's Purpose or Accountabilities to take on this Project or Next-Action?" If the answer is yes, then you must track that project/next-action in your personal organisation system.

• When you're choosing what next-action to take, you need to ensure your choice aligns with organisational prioritisations. Prioritisations communicate what's most important to work on. These are usually communicated by Circle Leads.

• Finally, if an action requires organisational money, you'll want to make sure you have access to it. Typically you'll source money from your Circle's budget (check with your Circle Lead about this).

Your judgment: what you should do

At any point you'll have a bunch of projects and actions on your plate. But which of them are wise to move forward? And how should you do them?

For anyone in the organisation, we recommend three practices:

1. Check prioritisations

2. Consult others who might be impacted by your action/decision, as well as those with expertise on the topic and the organisation

3. Voice your intent to do something in advance, so that others are aware and can act appropriately if they need to

When you're new to the organisation, we recommend consulting a lot and taking the advice of others. There's a lot to get up to speed with, and it will take time for you to build up a comprehensive picture of what's most important.