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.
Secondly, 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 definition as written in Glassfrog. You have the authority to take any action and make any decision that serves your role's Purpose or Accountabilities, as long as you do not 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 (you'll learn about this in the Self-Organisation Crash Course). Tracking it doesn't mean you'll necessarily do it; it just means that it's in your system, and if there comes a moment where it's the most important thing to do, then you'll act on it.
So now let's assume you have a personal organisation system set up with a bunch of Projects and Next-Actions that you could act on. How do you choose what to do? The main thing you'll want to do is check in with organisational prioritisations. Prioritisations communicate that one thing is more important than another. You will need to make sure your actions align with these prioritisations.
These include the organisational and Circle OKRs, which communicates the most important outcomes to work towards.
Also pay attention to any ad hoc prioritisations issued by your Circle Lead, or a Circle Lead of any broader Circle.
Finally, if an action requires organisational money, you'll want to make sure you have access to it. You can source money from your Circle's resources or the resources of any other Circle. Alternatively, you could try to source the money from outside the organisation.
Your judgment: what you should do
You'll have a bunch of actions on your plate. But which of them are wise to do? And how should you do them?
For anyone in the organisation, we recommend three practices:
Check prioritisations
Consult others who might be impacted by your action/decision, as well as those with expertise on the topic and the organisation
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.
Particularly, you'll want to:
Read our Stepping Into Your Role guide
Complete the Holacracy Fundamentals Course (a link will be sent to you)
Set up your Personal Organisation system (covered in Weeks 3 and 4 of the Crash Course).
Complete your Onboarding process
Realistically, it usually takes people at least 3 - 6 months to really understand their authority and use it wisely. Once you've settled into the organisation, once you have a system in place for managing your work, and once you understand how Holacracy works, you'll be much better placed to harness the full power of your authority. And when you make small mistakes, don't worry - it's part of the journey!
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