How We Work Together

 

The ChangemakerXchange Team Manifesto is our roadmap for creating an organisation we truly love working for—one that helps us thrive and supports our purpose of serving changemakers worldwide. It reflects and integrates our diverse values and principles, aiming to cultivate a workplace that is inclusive, agile, empowering, and impactful. We are committed to following the Manifesto, while continuously adapting and evolving it over time.

Our Guiding Star 

 

Our purpose guides everything we do. We focus our resources, energy, and time only on initiatives that clearly contribute to advancing it.

 

Why we exist

We see incredible changemakers every day, everywhere. We also see a lack of support communities, of resources, self-care and of co-creation though. We believe this leads to a significant unfulfilled impact potential in the social impact sphere and in society as a whole. We want to contribute to changing that.

 

Our Mission

ChangemakerXchange is a global community providing safe, supportive, fun, and empowering spaces for changemakers. We foster profound and lasting connections, nurture wellbeing, and enable peer-learning and meaningful collaborations so that changemakers may create, sustain and scale positive change.

 

Our Vision

We envision a world where everyone is part of inclusive communities in which people connect deeply and co-create positive action to serve the wellbeing of people and planet.

Our Principles 

 

We are also guided by a set of principles that inform how we work together with each other, with our community, and with other organisations. These principles are directly linked to (and some derived from) the ChangemakerXchange Community Values, which act as a compass and guide for all community members.

We prioritise wellbeing: One cannot do well if one isn’t well.

We aim for beauty, simplicity, and excellence: Small details and personal touches make the difference.

We are transparent and accountable: Free flow of information is a pre-requisite for positive change.

We are community-led: We serve the ChangemakerXchange community and we take decisions with, not for the community.

We are in permanent beta-mode: Life is in a state of perpetual flux.

We are generous: Mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn and grow.

We care for our planet: Earth needs stewards, not masters.

We don’t take ourselves too seriously: Life is a miracle. Our work is important and urgent, but we also make sure to include play and fun at the right time.

Key Features of the Organisation

 

Our Manifesto covers every aspect of our work, from performance cycles to overall strategy. Below are the three features that matter most to us.

 

Leadership & Team Size

No one person or group of people is the single leader in the organisation. We distribute classic leadership roles and responsibilities among team members based on competency, allowing for constant fluidity and adaptation. Specific team members are nominated as “Keepers” to embody all key leadership responsibilities and values, facilitate the implementation of the respective projects, activities, and tasks, and ensure they contribute to the fulfilment of the ChangemakerXchange purpose.

 

For more on how we approach job titles, team size, community representation, diversity, and much more, please see the full version of our Manifesto.

 

Decision Making

We aim for decentralised and agile decision-making to avoid bottlenecks. Except in a few cases, any team member can make decisions. The person leading an issue or who feels a sense of urgency owns the decision-making process and does not need to ask for permission from others. We have a culture of ‘asking for forgiveness rather than permission’, but consultation is needed with team members who are significantly affected by the decision.

 

For more info about our "Consensus Spectrum", four-eye principles, and deadlocks please see our Team Manifesto.

 

Transparency

We strive to cultivate a trust-based environment where everybody is heard and listened to, and where delicate topics, ‘elephants in the room’, and tensions can be addressed openly. All team members have access to all the organisation’s information, except for HR data that are confidential by law. All salaries are transparent and shared with all team members. We create spaces that invite frequent, timely, genuine, and constructive feedback. All our internal meetings are facilitated, with the intention of taking in different perspectives (e.g. mental-cognitive, emotional–relational, physical–practical, and spiritual–meta-reflective).

Thank You for Reading This Far

 

Ultimately, we believe organisations should be built in ways that serve the wellbeing of people and planet. Unfortunately, many organisations do the opposite, often causing frustration and harm. We hope you get the chance to be part of — or even build — healthy, thriving organisations. And we wish you the strength and courage to speak up whenever you encounter toxic work environments.

 

Together, we can change the way we work.

 

All the best.

Yours, the ChangemakerXchange Team