Pods Agreement

What is a Pagoda Pod?

Pods are the way we build and maintain Pagoda, if Pagoda were a body, working groups would be the organs. Pagoda pods are like working groups in the Pagoda network. They are the actual body working on the internal building of Pagoda. Pods are small groups of people (4 to 5 is suggested) formed by members and contributors of Pagoda. These groups can support us to build relationships across the network – especially with those further from the center – supporting more people to be ‘seen’ and to experience mutual support and care.

Pods can be 1) Mission-oriented and/or 2) Care-driven.

Pods may include:

• Decentralized Podcast

• Website

• Pagoda Pass

Forming a pod

A pod is formed by a few people coming together around an intention and some principles. An initial invitation is made by a caller, who also coordinates the first video call or meeting.

The invitation will often come with the seed of an intention. It could also suggest a format that the group may choose to follow, or some principles and rituals to use through their calls.

In summary:

• The intention clearly states the common intent bringing a group together (e.g. studying a topic together or going through a self-development methodology).

• Principles are the set of rules, protocols and values that define the culture of the pod. You might consider principles around context, meeting rhythm as well as facilitation and hosting duties.

• Rituals are practices that help boost the interactivity of your calls. It could be as simple as holding a minute of silence at the start of the call.

• A format gives your pod a direction and structure over time. It might specify a set of rituals for each session (of a set) or perhaps even activities that participants do in-between calls.

Running a pod

There are key areas where principles might be specifically important for all groups:

Acknowledging Boundaries – What are you up for? And what are you not up for? Talk about your Norms and Boundaries. Eg, being respectful with each other, setting a confidentiality agreement, etc.

Cadence - How often are you meeting? …for how long? Some pods do it every week for a while and then change to longer cadence, fortnightly or monthly. Many meet from either an hour up to an hour and a half. It is up to your pod members to decide.

⚠️ Having a regular time (eg, first Monday of the month) makes it significantly easier to get together. If you don't have a regular time to meet, dedicating a few minutes at the end of each meeting to schedule the next one makes logistics easier and more effective.

Presence - Agree on the minimum number of participants you want to be present to go ahead with a meeting: Do you want everyone to be present every time? Can you go ahead with a meeting if someone can’t make it?

Cycles - When do you stop? When do you reflect? Start with the end in mind or with a moment when you will stop and reflect.

Hosting Duties - Should facilitation ‘rotate’ amongst your pod’s members, with a different person attending to the clock, agenda, or people’s speaking time each session? Should you take turns to decide who's in charge of inviting people of the next meeting and providing a link for them to join?

Setup Concerns - Some pods may want to commit to certain basics, such as being able to see one another’s faces.

⚠️ Starting a topic on TG will help everyone know where to find key info and updates.

Naming Your Elders - What’s the lineage that you are following? Who are you emulating or modelling after?

Continuous improvement

There are two ways you can help make your pod experience increasingly useful to its members and others:

Retrospective - Agree on a time to stop and reflect on how is the pod working for each member: What is working well? What can be better? What are we going to change? You can use that reflection point as a good place to decide if you stop or if you keep on going, and how.

Sharing learnings - Share what you learn in your Retro with the network so we can all learn together. We will have shared learning prompts with the network every 3 months, and an open thread where everyone can post what have they learned from specific Formats and Rituals.

The pods process at Pagoda

• Every 4-6 months the catalyst will put a callout to the network for new pods formation.

• People interested in being Callers or joining a new pod will opt-in, share what they're interested in, and find their pod members in compatible timezones.

• Pods will form around the Intention, Principles and Format they choose, based on what the people in them agree on.

• In advance of the next round, the catalyst will start a thread to encourage pods to do Retrospectives and collect and share lessons for the whole network.

• Once a pod ends we will encourage people exiting a pod to either join another pod or become caller for new ones.