SPIKER

five-actions-book

This guidebook lays out five behaviors the group runs on purpose, together. With step-by-step exercises for each of them.

The five actions work for a project team, a volunteer board, a parent group, or a department that has stopped talking to itself.

Start with one exercise and two people. The guide shows you how to grow from there and how to introduce the work to your peers, your department, and your boss.

You will get a PDF (26MB) file.

A Guidebook by J R Spiker

Five Actions for Collective Work

Convert collaboration into compounded results.

Five small actions you can run this week with the people you already work beside. Each one takes a sheet of paper and about 10 minutes, and ends with a result you can point to.

Buy Now $19

You will get a PDF (26MB) file

Cover of Five Actions for Collective Work: A Guidebook, by J R Spiker

Discover

The Five Actions

  1. Action 1

    Build Your Base

    Choose the small group you keep on purpose, and build trust that does not reset.

  2. Action 2

    Teach What You Know

    Hand a skill to the person beside you, and grow what your people can do.

  3. Action 3

    Name What Is Happening

    Say the pattern out loud, so the meeting stops repeating itself.

  4. Action 4

    Pool What You Have

    Map what each person holds, and ask for what any one of you is short.

  5. Action 5

    Stay in the Room

    Finish what you started, and keep your seat when the work gets hard.

Portrait of J R Spiker

About the Author

J R Spiker

J R Spiker is a writer, educator, and organizational designer with more than 30 years in advertising, branding, and civil organizing. He holds an M.P.S. in Design Management from the Pratt Institute and has taught at Howard University, Pratt, MICA, and Boston University.

He grew up in an intentional community in Caroline County, Virginia, and lives in Maryland. His writings trace how American work culture came to treat collective work as weakness.

Cover of Five Actions for Collective Work

Table of Contents

  1. Before You Start
  2. Why I Wrote This
  3. What Free Riding Costs
  4. Internal and External Goods
  5. How to Use This Guidebook
  6. Action 1Build Your Base
  7. Action 2Teach What You Know
  8. Action 3Name What Is Happening
  9. Action 4Pool What You Have
  10. Action 5Stay in the Room
  11. After the Five

Download the Guidebook

Buy Now $19

You will get a PDF (26MB) file

Five Actions Guidebook Spiker
Five Actions Guidebook Spiker
$19.00

Some people carry the work. Others ride along. People discuss problems in the hallway after the meeting instead of in it. The same issue returns months after everyone thinks they've fixed it.

If that sounds like your group, a new leader or a new app probably won’t fix it. What works is a small set of behaviors the group runs on purpose, together. This guidebook lays out five of them, with step-by-step exercises for each.

You do not need authority to run these. The five actions work for a project team, a volunteer board, a parent group, or a department that has stopped talking to itself. Start with one exercise and two people. The guide shows you how to grow from there and how to introduce the work to your peers, your department, and your boss.