The Pointing Meeting

What are points?

In Chantico, completing chores earns you points, and those points are recorded on the leaderboard. The Pointing Meeting determines what your chores are, and how many points they are worth.

In Chantico, you stop arguing about who is (or isn't) contributing. Instead, you debate what the points are worth.

Choose points together

Get your entire team together, even the young ones. Deciding points together creates ownership and commitment.

1. Brainstorm chores

Write down all of your shared chores. You'll be moving them around, so Post-It's are your best tool.

Include all shared responsibilities. Even if a chore is always done by the same person, it goes on the list.

2. Order your chores

Order your chores based on loathing. The more loathesome the chore, the higher it goes.

Don't consider the chore's effort, except how that effort makes it loathesome.

3. Assign points

Pick your least loathsome chore, and give it 10 points. Move up the list, assigning points.

Multiples-of

Think about chores as multiples of other chores.

For example, if "Take the garbage to the bins", is worth 10 points, you can ask "How many garbage-to-bins equals one unload-the-dishwasher?"

Reference chores

Look for chores that you all agree on, that can anchor other chores.

For example, "I'm not sure how many points dusting should be, but I know it's bigger than unloading the dishwasher, and smaller than vacuuming the house."

Tips

Iterate

Keep tweaking the point values. You won't get it right the first time.

If you think something needs adjustment, call a quick pointing meeting to discuss it.

The litmus test

Points should be just high enough that everyone says "I'd do that".

If your team isn't in agreement, ask "why". Perhaps you disagree on what the chore includes, or perhaps it's two chores masquerading as one.

Accept some slop

You don't need to get the points perfect. If everyone is contributing, and everyone feels appreciated, mission accomplished.

Some people will want to create spreadsheets and find some cold empirical truth. If it keeps them engaged, that's fine too.