SpatzAI is a pre-grievance self-management system for addressing minor behavioural issues in workplace teams.
Its purpose is to help team members resolve objectionable behaviour early, fairly and proportionately, without unnecessarily involving managers or HR.
THE AGREEMENT
Teams agree to the Spatz Team Charter (5-page PDF), establishing explicit behavioural boundaries and a level playing field, regardless of rank.
Every team member has an equal right to disagree with another person’s ideas and to object to their behaviour.
Disagreement is not conflict. SpatzAI distinguishes between challenging someone’s ideas and objecting to how they behave.
Everyone agrees to a fair, reciprocal accountability process, knowing their conduct, including their objections, can be examined through a Team + AI Review if needed.
Accountability Before Authority.
THE PROCESS
Any team member can issue a simple verbal “Caution” when they deem someone’s behaviour crosses their line.
Like a referee blowing the whistle for an unfair challenge, except anyone can call a foul, but the call itself can also be challenged and reviewed for fairness and proportionality, if needed.
If the caution is acknowledged initially, both parties move on, it’s that simple.
If the verbal caution is challenged or ignored, the issuer informs the team member or manager that they will SpatzChat them later. at a more convenient time and place. The chat app is a simple messaging app with three stages that are escalated or resolved using the Resolved or Escalate prompts:
- Formal Caution — requests acknowledgement, using the chat app.
- Formal Objection — requests a simple apology, using the chat app.
- Formal Stop — requires an acceptable apology after the review process.
At each stage, the issuer can resolve the matter or escalate it.
The intention is to resolve most issues early, with minimal effort, time, cost and disruption.
THE TEAM + AI REVIEW
If an issue remains unresolved and reaches the final Stop stage, it automatically triggers the transparent Spatz Team + AI Review process, on their Slack team channel.
The chat data from the chat app of both parties’ can be examined, including the fairness and proportionality of the original objection, the responses and any subsequent conduct.
The final process requires an ACCEPTABLE apology, explaining what behaviour caused the issue, why it occurred and what future behaviour will look like.
The review itself, including the AI’s contribution, must also be open to scrutiny and review, if needed.
No one, regardless of rank, is above review.
THE TEAM DATA
SpatzAI can generate a structured, time-stamped dataset of recorded micro-conflicts, capturing cautions, acknowledgements, objections, escalations, resolutions and Team + AI Reviews.
This enables teams to measure acknowledgement rates, escalation rates, time to resolution (TTR), recurring behavioural issues, and the fairness and quality of resolutions.
Unlike retrospective employee surveys or formal HR complaints, SpatzAI can capture how recorded minor behavioural issues are challenged and resolved before becoming serious disputes.
Importantly, more cautions do not necessarily indicate a worse workplace culture. They may indicate that team members are becoming more willing to speak up and hold one another accountable.
Over time, appropriately anonymised and aggregated data could help teams identify recurring patterns, improve their behavioural agreements and evaluate whether early interventions are working.
It could also help AI improve its review recommendations, subject to human oversight and safeguards against bias.
With appropriate privacy protections, the data could support independent research comparing SpatzAI teams with teams using conventional approaches, including leadership modelling, psychological safety initiatives and HR procedures.
Researchers could examine whether SpatzAI reduces the frequency, duration, severity and organisational cost of unresolved behavioural issues, while testing for unintended consequences.
The long-term objective is to move workplace behavioural accountability from largely subjective assessments towards a measurable, independently testable and continuously improving system.
SpatzAI is currently experimental. Its effectiveness, fairness and safety remain to be established through independent workplace testing.
Leave a Reply