by Francesca Pick

September 11, 2022

As a collective that supports organizations transition to and develop new organizational forms, a defining characteristic of Greaterthan is the large amount of internal experimentation around new practices. Starting with our origins with the collaborative funding tool Cobudget, an significant part of our work has revolved around alternative approaches to budgeting, funding, pay and money flow in organizations. In this case study, we take a look at the evolution and insights from one of those practices, the ‘Happy Money Story’, a collaborative process for distributing budgets—a practice which has rapidly evolved into one of the most established ways for project teams in Greaterthan to make budget decisions.

This case study was written for the Blueprint: Funding Governance for Systemic Transformation. Read more.

It all started in December 2019, when my colleague Tom Nixon and I began working on a new project, to support a startup to transition to self-management. It was the first time we were working together as a team. When the time came around for us to split the first paycheck from the client between the two of us, Tom asked me whether I was open to experimenting with something new–a process called the ‘Happy Money Story Game’, a process created by Charles Davies. I was very keen, and so after giving it a try and loving it, he and I continued to use this process for distributing the budget from that project.

At the same time, I began telling other colleagues in Greaterthan about this process, and testing it out in other team configurations I was working in. Greaterthan is a collective that supports organizations to transition to and develop new organizational forms, building on principles such as self-organizing and distributed leadership. As a globally distributed, self-organized collective of around 20, one of Greaterthan’s characteristics is that we do a large amount of internal experimentation around new practices, which we then bring to other organizations after having used them ourselves. Due to our origins in working on collaborative budgeting and its corresponding software Cobudget, Greaterthan members tend to have a high level of curiosity and expertise around alternative approaches to budgeting, funding, pay and money flow in organizations. Hence it is no surprise that the Happy Money Story Game caught people’s attention and began to spread very quickly throughout the collective. Not only did we use the process, we evolved and adapted it to better fit the context of Greaterthan’s work, which is why today in Greaterthan we talk about the Happy Money Story without the term game, and see it more as a practice than a fixed process. Without there being a collective decision or even an explicit intention, two years later the Happy Money Story had established itself as a foundational practice and approach to how budgets in projects are distributed within the collective.

“To me, Happy Money Story is a liberating practice. It breaks open the fallacy of money as “rational” and allows us to explicitly and playfully define what value means for us.” - Elena Denaro, Greaterthan Partner

The swift adoption and continuous use of this practice within a period of two years within Greaterthan provides us with interesting insights about its impact and potential for fundamentally changing how we relate to money and value as a group.

So how does the Happy Money Story work?

The Happy Money Story can be described as a relational approach to how a group distributes a budget, based on a form of consensus decision. The desired outcome is for everyone who worked on the project to agree on a distribution of the money that makes all participants happy.

Here is an overview of the process:

The team doing the Happy Money Story meets with spacious time. If it's their first time, it’s good to plan 60 to 90 min. The group chooses a facilitator before starting (this can be a member of the team or an external person).

The facilitator provides a brief overview of how much money is being distributed, and what the money is for, to ensure everyone has a shared and correct understanding of what the scope of this Happy Money Story is.

Then the team follows a version of these steps:

1. Round 1: Context & Story SharingThis round is about sharing general reflections about the project, contributions and needs in the team, before diving into the numbers. Participants are invited to highlight contributions from others they want to recognize, share context about what is important to them for this Happy Money Story, as well as needs they or others may have.
2. Distribution: Working individually on distribution proposalsEach participant works on their own proposal for a distribution of the available budget in a spreadsheet that we have developed a template for. They cannot see the proposals of others until everyone is finished. The aim of everyone’s proposal is to make everyone as happy as possible!
3. Round 2: Happy Money Story SharingAll proposals are revealed to the team. There is a moment to read and take them in. Then each team member shares their story about their proposed distribution. Clarifying questions can be asked after each person shares, but hold off on reactions or reflections.
4. Round 3: Reflections and ReactionsParticipants are invited to reflect on what they are noticing about each other's proposals. What patterns and differences are there? Is there one that feels like a clear ‘winning’ proposal, i.e. one that makes everyone happy? If yes, how does everyone feel about that proposal? If not, what would be needed for everyone to be truly happy with it? Is that need related to money, or is there something non-financial that would make them happy?If none of the existing proposals makes everyone happy, then the team collectively iterates on a proposal or creates new ones until everyone is happy.
5. Consensus DecisionOnce the team has come to an agreement on the distribution, everyone must give verbal agreement to show their support for the proposal. At this moment, everyone is invited to fully tune in to the question: Does this distribution make me happy? Is there any discomfort with this proposal I have not shared?If nothing else in need of processing comes up, everyone says "I AM HAPPY!" and gives a physical thumbs up to show their support.