Congress
Self-Similar Scaling
Purpose
A Congress is a gathering of Assemblies from across the enterprise (similar to an Assembly being a gathering of Bases). A Congress offers a place to talk and make important decisions that apply to all participating Assemblies.
Leagues rarely operate alone. They need guidance, structure, and a (small) amount of standardization. Without some coordination across the Leagues, they might as well be independent companies.
When people get together for talking and decision-making, we call that a Forum. When Bases get together to do the same, we call that an Assembly. And when Leagues do the same, we call this a Congress.
Notes
Forums can extend beyond the boundary of one Base, but when participation is open to all workers, we still call that a Forum. With a Congress, however, the participants are the Leagues themselves. This means that each League sends a representative to the Congress. After the discussions are done and decisions are made, everyone returns to their League.
In Congresses, League discuss knowledge, trade-offs, and opportunities that serve the greater good of the Crowd. Sometimes, ways of working need to be synchronized. Sometimes, tools and technologies need to be standardized. The autonomy of individual League must be offset against the needs of the entire Crowd.
Rules / Constraints
The Congress exists only for discussions and decision-making.
The Congress participants are representatives from their Leagues.
“Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.”
(Source: Francis Ford Coppola)
Improving the company organization design of epharma by using unFIX - structure with 18 bases, organized one unFIX congress and five domains.