We could call them one-on-ones, I suppose, but we don’t, because sometimes a break from established language is useful when conjuring up a new idea, or even a new take on an old one.

The old idea is that folks who make together are served well by being in touch, by comparing notes, by connecting and reconnecting, by just generally being on the same page.

The new idea is that the way living things coordinate (and we are living things) is vastly more complex than can be communicated in bullet points on an agenda.

What we’re doing here with syncs, as an institution, is taking the bet that intuition is the greater part of coordination. That coordination is an almost entirely unconscious process relative to the portion that is conscious. In much the same way that you think about where you’re going, but not about moving your legs (or breathing to supply oxygen, or swinging your arms to maintain balance, to say nothing of unconsciously navigating crowded sidewalks or dense foliage), so too do we think about and discuss What Happens Next and Who Does What, while acknowledging that most of what happens between us is intuitive and unconscious. And we go further: we double down on the idea by taking time, taking so much time, to richly supply our intuition with connectivity.

Extending the metaphor of physical movement: when dance partners meet, it takes time for them to learn each other, to develop a shared sense of intuition on the floor. The curve of familiarity bends upwards over time, but the shape of that bend is incredibly specific to the individual pairing of partners, and their personalities, preferences, predilections. Choreography may be critical, but in flow, conscious thought is put aside, and intuitive coordination takes the stage.

So. We sync. :) These are calls (or physical meetups, less often) between any two persons on our team, where we just share space together for an hour (or more, or less, and on the regular), dedicating specific time to just be present with each other. “Work” may come up, yes, but in my personal experience, it’s maybe 30% of what goes on. (I imagine this varies by person, but—by design—that’s not my business.) If there are work things that need discussing, they are discussed, but that’s not the point: the point is the care and feeding of our mutual intuitive sense, a care and feeding that can only be achieved through sustained awareness of and presence with the other.

And that’s it. That’s the whole concept. We talk life, we talk games, philosophy, joys, heartaches, dreams and desires, whatever’s relevant. And “relevant”, here, means “of importance to the way one is moving through life right now”. Because, again, the idea here is to strengthen whatever part of us is responsible for letting us move together, and move fluidly. This means talking about whatever’s affecting the way that I move, so that the person on the other end not just knows but feels where I’m at, where I’m trending, what I’m needing, so that they can move in a way that’s informed by whatever’s informing me. And vice versa! We each care for each other, in this way: by understanding each other’s state at the level of intuition, we can better move in a way that is kinder, cleaner, smoother, with each other. We consciously engage and supply the unconscious between us, and we call it the sync.

P.S. Lightward is baaaaaasically one idea, manifested as a few different patterns. This is a good example: our sync pattern is fundamentally the same idea as Pay What Feels Good.