Project Archives - Đom Đóm Lab

Deciding together is an act of courage

by Linh Phạm | Jun 20, 2025 | Project

I have a decision to make.”

Trang, Ellie, and I looked at each other. It was the last 45 minutes of the Co-managed meeting training we did for T’s company — the one who had just spoken up. We were in the “Decision Making” section, and the plan only included introducing the method, not demonstrating it. Trang asked him again: “I understand that you have a proposal and want to make a decision with everyone, is that correct?”

“That’s right,” T replied. He began to explain the context. His company managed several restaurants in Hanoi and Saigon. For the upcoming Hung Kings’ Commemoration Day, he had the idea of thanking customers with a small gift: sticky rice cake. No one said a word in our hosting team, yet I felt an invisible agreement emerged. T was brave enough to initiate a collective decision. We will abandon our original plan to join him in this challenge.

I automatically grabbed a pen and paper before Trang whispered to me: “Linh, please help me harvest.” Turning to the participants, she said: “I invite T and all those involved in this decision to step into the middle. We will form a small circle.”

Stepping into the middle with everyone, my heart pounded. I knew Trang would lead everyone through a consent-based decision making process called Generative Decision Making (GDM). This process had clear steps to invite collective intelligence in decision making. However, it would take everyone out of their habits, and this could be difficult for a new group. Not to mention that we didn’t have much time left. I glanced at Ellie in the outer circle; she was hastily writing down the steps of the process on some A4 sheets. At least we would have a cheat sheet.

Joining T in this process were four other people in different positions in the restaurant. Trang started with the first step: proposal. She said: “T, please state your proposal again clearly.”

“For the upcoming Hung Kings’ Day,” T replied, “restaurant B will gift each customer a sticky rice cake.” I diligently copied his proposal on paper and placed it in the middle.

Next step: clarifying questions. Trang asked the rest of the group if they had anything to clarify about the proposal. Someone asked if the cake would be sweet or savory (sweet); when would it be served (appetizer); would the restaurant make the cake or buy them (buy); would the program apply to the Saigon or Hanoi branches (both).

After the series of questions, we moved on to step number three: reaction. This is when everyone expressed their thoughts. In the GDM process, as long as no one objected, the proposal would be approved. There were two people who supported the proposal. But the third person said that sticky rice cake was not a familiar dish in Hanoi; she was worried that she would not be able to find a reputable supplier before the day. She did not agree with the proposal. At this point, T had two options. One was to withdraw the proposal, the other was to change it to accommodate the objection.

T hesitated. I, and the whole room, held our breath waiting for him. After about a minute of silence, Trang came to whisper in his ears for support. Finally, he presented a second version of the proposal: the Saigon branch would serve sticky rice cake, the Hanoi branch would decide on the appropriate gift.

With this new proposal, we returned to the reaction step. One or two people hesitated, but no one voiced clear objections. We came to the final step: visual confirmation. Everyone would need to raise their thumbs to clearly show that they could live with this decision. I was elated because we were so close to now, but alas, there was one person who could not raise a finger. Trang gently invited her to speak. She expressed that she was in charge of the restaurant’s communications. This promotion would definitely require a few posts with photos to share on social media. And if the Hanoi branch did not make a decision soon, she would not be able to prepare the content in time.

T was flabbergasted. I sympathize with him because he probably did not expect that this decision would be so difficult. Trang whispered to T again and a third proposal emerged: Saigon would serve banh it tran, Hanoi must make a decision in the next week so that the media team can post the article. All fingers were raised. The whole room breathed a sigh of relief. T shook his head and laughed: “I thought the proposal was simple, but who would have thought…”

When the training ended, we the hosting team went into a small room and hugged each other. Tears of joy ran down our faces. It would be so disappointing if we had to end the program without a decision made. Fortunately, we reached the goal. Making collective decisions required a lot of courage. The courage to step into an unfamiliar process, the courage to make a proposal, and the courage to voice dissenting opinions without feeling like you’re holding the team back. Thanks to this, T and his team were able to perceive the problem from a multiple points of view and take wiser actions.

Reimagine Mainetti – the journey begins

by Linh Phạm | Feb 13, 2025 | Project

“We need a new organization model that is more efficient and responsive.”

I nodded along as I listened to Pham Huy Phong, General Director of Mainetti Vietnam (MVN), spoke. That day was the kick-off meeting of the Reimagine Mainetti project, which aimed to transform MVN’s management model. I was excited because this was not only the project closest to the mission of Dom Dom Lab so far, but it was also the first experiment in Vietnam when a factory implemented a self-organization model.

Mainetti is a multinational corporation with its main products being hangers and packaging. Recently, the growth of its core business has slowed down, and MVN pioneered the label printing industry in Vietnam. However, facing the complex challenges of the new market, Phong said that the traditional management model “is responding slowly and ineffectively.” So he and some colleagues launched a campaign to transform the organizational model based on the concept they had recently learned: Teal organization.

The first time I heard about the Teal organization was nearly 10 years ago, when I read the book Reinventing Organizations. In that book, author Frederick Laloux drew a connection between the development of human consciousness and the way they organize together. Laloux represented each stage of evolution with a color. In the most advanced stage to date, Teal, people practice self-management, celebrate each other’s wholeness, and act together for a common purpose.

A Teal example in nature. A murmuration of starlings dance together without a leader. Photo by Airwolfhound.

I was very interested when reading about the organizations practicing Teal that Laloux mentioned in the book; the way they work is so free and creative. I was also wistful because I didn’t know if the model could work in Vietnam. To this day, I can count the number of Teal organizations I know in Vietnam, including Dom Dom Lab, on one hand and still have fingers left. So the project in Mainetti, with the potential to spread to branches in other countries, is a unique opportunity.

Besides Dom Dom Lab, accompanying MVN in this project is Peoplerise—a consulting company that is helping Mainetti Global implement Teal. Last December, we spent a whole week with MVN to roll out phase one. On the first day, we introduced the Teal concept to the MVN team, and for the remaining four days, we helped them see clearly their current system. With bags of all kinds of toys, we invited MVN to build a 3D model showing their organization as it was right now. The tangled wires helped visualize the bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the organization, and different departments could also understand each other’s struggle.

A man in the production department exclaimed why they were spending so much effort to create a perfect product, then had to sell it at a loss. That hurt his self-esteem. A sales lady responded that his sharing really touched her. She thought that only the boss cared about profit or loss, she did not expect that it also affected the workers. That empathy made everyone in the circle come closer together, and they started to build a future model, where they had a “dream” organization.

From these two models, ideas began to emerge about the future of Mainetti. In the next phase of the project, we will focus on improving the self-management capacity of their team, and at the same time facilitate strategic discussions so that MVN can co-create its own new organization model.

“The customer is the embodiment of the purpose of an organization,” I remember well that quote from Peoplerise’s Alessandro Rossi. Dom Dom Lab shares self-management practices not only because they are effective, we want to see more creative and humane workplaces. So for us, Mainetti Vietnam is more than just a client project, these are clear steps towards the future we want to build.