Designing the Organization of small groups?

[Started as an answer for organizational design folks to the question of “what is needed?”]

My curiosity is about wise organization design
at the local and small scale –
outside the huge systems and venture capitalism that,
right now especially, needs alternatives.

I live and work in the biggest city in Canada’s north.
Whitehorse is around 32k folks.
The Yukon Territory is just above 40k.

Both these numbers are rounding errors in a Facebook algorithm.
Not a “market” by global standards.

We’re also at the front line of climate change.
We’re low density, high isolation community.

We are an edge case.
And, we’re a Territorial capital with around 40% direct government employment.

The NGO/citizen ratio is often commented on.

There is little history or capacity for philanthropy
and while in-kind local sponsorship levels are very high,
cash is hard to find.

Many NGO’s are almost entirely government funded.
This is sometimes critiqued, but in times of COVID,
it means we’re able to continue service provision
and keep folks employed.

The last boom in organization creation
and/or consultancy
happened in the era when local NGO’s were told
to behave like large corporations and
to comply with government departments
that could see no difference between
an international gold mining org
and a small arts org
in terms of reporting, over-site and administrative load.

Our organizational models are stuck
in Roberts Rules and
over-subscribed Board of Directors and volunteers.

Never mind staffing
in a location with a cost of living approaching Vancouver or Toronto,
a lack of rental housing and
a government sector that pays 150% the wages
my arts organization can afford.

Also the internet is terrible up here.
7x the cost for 1/7 the service.

So, within that, how does the wisdom of Organizational Development apply?

We need more organization
and social wisdom
and grace

Due of the small scale we are
often precarious and messy but also specific and invaluable.
(us cool kids call it “emergent”)

And almost entirely ignored
by the “thought leadership” / globalized consultancy class

because, as above, there’s no “market” there.

And yet the strength of nations and societies rely on
how the organization of folks working together
in communities respond and thrive.