Description of a self assessment rewarding system, when Ludo and me talked about this way back it sounded still very abstract to explain. I recently wrote it down for Carmen and Lorenzo with clear applying examples for Akasha Hub Barcelona, and found that it explains pretty well how it could be applied. Below the letter:
Hello Carmen,
I promised to write down for you what could be used for a system of contributions and members for Akasha Hub Barcelona.
Objective:
Create a value system where each person feels part of something bigger, the community. Where they feel valued for what and who they are. And where everybody has the same opportunity to gain rewards regardless of age, expertise, or popularity. Where they can grow as a person within the community. From the community perspective it would be highly desired (especially in a digital environment) that people do what they say they would do. This is the first level of trust within a group that is acting towards a shared vision and mission.
Ideally we would create a valuation system that could work across different communities, and could be regarded as a reputation system* of some kind.
Problems:
Time valuation system:
Some people take more time to do tasks than others. Time based value system therefore is not equally giving value to effort or expertise of people,
Some professionals can take 5 min for something while someone that is learning takes 3 hours for the same thing. If you value time, you incentivise people to take longer on contributions.
Task valuations system:
As a solution task oriented reward systems seem therefore more appropriate, but the problem here is that the relation and the community feel suffers. Plus tasks can still take long to do. There are tasks that are ever-going and little tasks that are fast and easy. It means you will need to valuate every single task before, which is a lot of hassle.
Peer- praise systems:
Gaining rewards on outside opinion from community members (gain Praise) seems like a good and open way. And might work to compliment other value systems. But it repeats social systems that are based on popularity. And has the trap to fall in the same patterns of rewarding that as what is seen as valuable by "most" people. Which most likely are the tasks that have been done that: 1 are most visible, 2 are understood. Which has the danger that "unpopular" tasks like cleaning up a db or doing administration or people that do not bloat about what they did are being rewarded less.
Thoughts:
To reach the Objective set out, I feel that this could be approached as an educational system that we used to create around children. Where it was obvious very fast that expectation and reward system Top-down was not as motivating as a self assessment system.
Self assessment system is basically a structure of learning where the student sets its own goals and them learns how to reach those. This could vary from topic, to depth and span.
For community systems that should not forget that we are all humans, and like children never stop learning. We could incentivise and motivate all humans that are part of a bigger vision. To self set their goals, and gain rewards according to their accomplishment of those goals.
This is best explained with an example: Let's take the Akasha Hub.
At the Hub as a a community there are a lot of different kind of tasks that need to be done. The hub sets the tasks and the timeframe. There is room for proposals from the community, but there is a set of tasks that is the minimum to maintain the Shared space for example.
For example: We need to have a clean kitchen always on the start of each day.
The Members then can set their own sub tasks, with their own timing. Let's say the lady that is 64 years old (Maria) would say that she can dedicate very end of the afternoon 1 hour in cleaning all the surfaces, shelves and dishes. (She can not do the floor since her back is hurting)
Someone else in teh community (Tom) sais he can tajke care of throwing out the trash at the end of the day. And Olivia who comes in early, sais she can swipe and mop the kitchen floor every day before everyone comes in she estimates it will take her 15 min.
As a reward system people therefore can get the highest rewards the closer they are to their own set estimation/compromiso. revised every week (or two weeks) for example.
For this example, lets say Maria dedicates her 1 hour cleaning the surfaces, every day but she would take a bit longer actually its more like 2 hours.
Tom takes out the trash only on the first 3 days of the week and not the last 2 days.
Olivia does her cleaning of the floors every morning for 15 min.
Marias rewards would have been the full 100% if she did exactly what she set out. But instead the will receive a bit less since her time is longer than she expected. For this next week she will adjust her goal and estimate 2 hours for the task she had set out to do. For this next week she has learned how much it takes her and will most likely receive the full 100% rewards.
Tom will not receive his 100% rewards since he only did 3 days out of the 5 he would say he would do. so he will get less rewards and adjust his talks for the next week to 3 days since he realises he is only at the hub for 3 days, and the other 2 days he would be out.
Olivia will receive her full 100% rewards since she got the achievement of her own set goal spot on and the floors are sweeped and mopped before everyone else comes in.
That people do what they say they will do has a high value in any community. And the assessment is not so much a judgement. If you don't reach your goal, you are encouraged to simple adjust it according to your own capacity, so you will learn how to estimate your real capacity and grow as a person. Whereas if you are simply "punished" for things you didn't do you would be demotivated or feeling guilty or "in debt" with the community. Wich is not the sentiment that inspires trust.
Nobody will judge Maria if she is being honest and adjust her goal to what she can actually achieve, or Tom for admitting he has a hard time to commit to take out the trash 3 times. Its better to know, so another member of the community can step up and do the other two days.
Cross community
So as far as a reward system is created based on self assessment. It can be more universal and flexible too. Since it's not limited to the tasks or the community. It could work for any community that values commitment from their members, and therefore can work as a reputation system. If you build up a reputation that you always accomplish the goals that you yourself had set out, contributing to a community with a shared mission. You most likely will be able to do so in other communities. It's not limited to your skillset, popularity, your time availability, or the kind of task you are doing. Just your self-knowledge and honesty.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
* not a fan of the reputation system as a concept, but it could be seen as a s selfgrowth system you could bring with you across communities.
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