Self-Organising at Food Collective Lekkernassûh in The Hague

Cristina Temmink guides transformative learning processes with individuals, groups, communities, teams and organisations. ‘Accompaniment’ she calls it: being at someone’s side while re-designing an organisation and collaboration, but also in the personal transformation that happens as part of it. During the process, one must ask oneself not only what is ‘better’, but also: how do we determine what ‘better’ is? In addition to accompanying several organisations, for a long time Cristina has been involved with Lekkernassûh, a local food initiative in The Hague. As a self-organising system where everyone works together on an equal footing, it is an example of a ‘commons’, and an inspiration for Lenteland. Cristina shares the experiences she has harvested over the years, and in this article lets us taste them.

Written in Dutch by Eliane Bakker from Lenteland, and translated by Marinke van Riet. As HFHP is exploring a self-organising approach to its governance structure, the below experience from Lekkernassuh will serve as a very useful resource. It was written up during a learning visit from Lenteland, another Dutch organisation promoting regenerative agriculture. 

What is Lekkernassûh?
Lekkernassûh is a collective that provides fresh vegetable packages from the region – grown without pesticides and artificial fertilisers and in the open ground. In doing so, it also tries to use as little packaging materials as possible. Its volunteers prepare around 400 vegetable packages every week. As a buyer of a vegetable package, you pay €12.50, or you can use Timebank to pay with 1.25 hours of your time by volunteering in the organisation. Cristina: “The nice thing is that Timebankers get to know each other. This creates a community, where we learn a new language and way of thinking, which also makes us ask different questions.”

Before Corona, a meal was cooked and served every Wednesday evening after the market, open to everyone. “Expats, local activists and residents, (international) students and pensionados all sat together at the table. This created magical connections. The nice thing is that Timebank ensures that everyone can participate: people with a lot of time and little money and people with more money and less time.”

The origins of Lekkernassûh
It all started with Liselotte Bredius, the fantastic chef of Lekkernassûh. Her passion is cooking, and she simply wanted to cook delicious, healthy and organic meals for as many people as possible. At a big demonstration against Monsanto, which she happened to run into one day in Amsterdam, she realised how much people care about healthy food. Thousands of people took to the streets to demand healthy food. She thought, “If the city is so hungry for good food, can’t we just organise it ourselves?” She put it to the test and went into town with a van full of organic pumpkins. They were sold in a hart beat. That was the start. Liselotte went out to buy fresh produce from local farmers and producers.

More and more people joined and started helping out to serve the growing number of interested people. Soon, Lekkernassûh became an initiative by the community for the community. In this first phase of ‘organic growth’ a lot happened. People had an idea, took initiative and there was a lot of freedom and little coordination. Cristina says: “In the beginning, there was no conscious choice for self-organisation. That came later, more or less out of necessity, when rapid growth put a lot of pressure on the organisation. This caused tensions and at times even conflict. So, we decided to start working with self-organisation, inspired by holacracy. The goal was to make the structure of the organisation visible to everyone in order to work flexibly and transparently. During Corona, we suddenly went from 300 to 600 packages, and that accelerated the process of self-organisation.”

Photo by Lekkernassuh

Holacracy
Holacratic organisations operate with an organic structure of “circles” and “roles”. Each circle has a purpose that contributes to the higher purpose of the organisation. In a circle there are roles; each role also has a purpose that in turn contributes to the purpose of the circle. Responsibilities are defined for each role so that everyone knows what to expect from that role. Individuals can then fulfil one or more roles.
The whole circle forms the “super circle” (the organisational or anchor circle), which holds the purpose of the organisation. For Lekkernassûh this is ‘contributing to the transition to a socio-economically and ecologically sustainable food system’. You can actually say that the objectives are the ‘boss’; they are leading in the decision-making process. That’s also how decisions can be objected to: if it doesn’t contribute to the purpose of the role, the purpose of a circle or the higher purpose. “In this way we are like an organism, a living entity or cell. A whole with different working and moving parts that are connected and work together to make the whole viable.”

Such an entity is also active in, and connected to, a larger whole. In the case of Lekkernassûh, that greater whole is the city of The Hague. The super circle therefore also has links with external organisations, contacts, projects and entrepreneurs in The Hague.

Photo by Lekkernassuh

Dealing with conflict
“We work with ‘tensions’. A tension is the difference between the current situation and what it could be. It can be an opportunity (e.g., initiative for a new circle) or a need (e.g., workload or conflict). Any circle or role that is affected by the tension has a say in the matter. If it does not affect your circle or role, you may indicate that you still want to have a say in the matter. The person who introduced the tension may then choose whether to hear your ideas or not. “This works very well, because it keeps our meetings short, concise and functional. If you handle tensions this way, you can prevent them from becoming major conflicts.” In extreme cases, the governance circle can be called in; it does not “govern” in the traditional sense of the word but upholds the higher purpose of the organisation and ensures its overall well-being and health.

Cristina explains that this way of organising is a continuous learning process. “It’s essential to have a basic sense of trust: trust in and for each other and that things will work out, that we’ll eventually organise ourselves properly. Sometimes there’s no one for a market spot on Wednesdays, but then suddenly someone shows up at opening time. And even if it sometimes goes ‘wrong’, new opportunities arise or lessons are learned. Sometimes it even turns out to be a blessing. We experience it time and again: organising is letting go. This is contrary to how we often approach organising: by keeping a tight rein, planning and controlling.” “The trick as a person 0 – the initiator – is to let go of ‘governing’, to observe and see what is present and what ‘wants or needs to happen’. That also works very well to build community and make the organisation powerful and robust.” It turns out that when people are given freedom, they start doing what they like and care about, and what they are usually good at too. “This is how the ‘transport circle’ came into being, because a few people thought it would be a good idea to start home deliveries during corona. For someone else, who had been walking around in Lekkernassûh for a year, the penny suddenly dropped that you could pick up things yourself, and he expressed the desire to start a packaging-free shop. The jars of pulses and grains are now in the gym.” “We have been at each other’s throats from time to time. But things are getting better and better because we have more clarity, communicate more and better, and strive for transparency. That takes away stress. By working around tensions, circles are sensors for when something is going on.”

Advice for Lenteland
“Be clear about the different roles of employees and/or people. These roles can grow and develop, but make sure they are clear. Also, ask what it takes for a person to feel valued as an employee or volunteer. If someone doesn’t feel valued, that’s a tension and you should be able to discuss it.”
“‘Harvesting’ and sharing experiences is important. Everyone is a ‘sensor’ in the organisation and can share information and ideas from a unique perspective. Take advantage of this! Meet regularly in the super circle to share stories, experiences and perspectives. For example, while enjoying a good meal. Eating together connects and creates space for great conversations. Keep an organisational diary to record and reflect on learning processes.” “The basic attitude at Lekkernassûh is one of curiosity. You can describe the whole as a complex system of relationships. Like an ecosystem, you cannot predict what will happen and what will be trigged next. The web of relationships is most important, more important even than the structures. A structure by itself is not alive, what matters is what happens in the relationships, that creates life. When someone leaves or a new person comes in the web re-arranges itself and all kinds of new things are possible again.”

The team at Lenteland was very impressed with this bottom-up model of self-directed organisation. Thanks Cristina, we will be inspired and take your advice and the stories of Lekkernassûh to heart!

www.lekkernassuh.org en here is Cristina’s LinkedIn-profile