What Are You Interested In?

Circular hierarchy

Circular hierarchy: information flows freely through the organization.

Cohabitat Quebec

Cohabitat Quebec (cohousing in Canada)

Process Roles

Leader, delegate, secretary and facilitators have roles that help the circle function.

Comical sign pointing in three directions that show the right way

The Holy Grail of Self-management

Still looking for the perfect governance system? Stop overthinking. Start doing. Improve from there.

IT tools for sociocracy: Sutra

Sutra is an IT tool that supports communication in small groups (circles) and makes it easy to nest teams in

Magic phrases for meetings

Magic phrases for meeting that can move a conversation along.

Book — Many Voices One Song: Shared Power with Sociocracy

Sociocracy Handbook: Many Voices One Song

The practical sociocracy handbook written by the co-founders of Sociocracy For All. 300 pages full of real-life support!

Another School is Possible Association

A movement striving for a childcentered, playfocused, nonprofit primary education.

Scorcher Bakery in Oregon

A worker-owned bakery in Oregon that implemented sociocracy years ago.

Social Enterprise Start-ups – 5 reasons to implement sociocracy early

If you are a social enterpreneur, integrity in your decision-making will be important to you, and you're not willing to

“The trouble with majority vote”

Majority rule creates winners and losers. It breaks us apart rather than bringing us together. Majority rule becomes a game.

Is sociocracy ‘teal’?

Many of us have been and continue to be inspired by Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. While there is reference

Tips for more effective meetings

Permatopia

A community in Denmark

Double linking

Double linking between two circles.

Residential Care Facility

This case study features a residential care facility in Vermont that has been using sociocracy for many years in combination

Sociocracy and Permaculture

A comparison of the concepts of permaculture with the concepts of sociocracy. Erin Young and John Schinnerer.

Deepening Our Practice of “Both/And” Thinking – Laureen Golden

https://youtu.be/HHgJD9ctM0EVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Deepening Our Practice of “Both/And” Thinking – Laureen Golden (https://youtu.be/HHgJD9ctM0E) In a

Meeting sheet for facilitators

An advanced and condensed version of a facilitator sheet.

Heaven on Earth

An interview with the founder of the Children's and Neighborhood parliaments in India.

Sociocracy: The Movement

Curious about one of the roots of Holacracy? This overview of past and current also conveys the values and emotional

Is inclusive & saves times

A Venn diagram showing the balance of inclusivity and efficiency/effectiveness of sociocracy.

Meeting poster: meeting format

A poster showing the sociocratic meeting format

IT Business

What does S3 bring to Sociocracy? Bernhard Bockelbrinck

https://youtu.be/fPvlBW6lQc4Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: What does S3 bring to Sociocracy? Bernhard Bockelbrinck (https://youtu.be/fPvlBW6lQc4) This session is

Permaculture, transition and sociocracy

An interview with Permacultura and Transizione, Italy. Hello Ted and Jerry, good to meet you and to have a little

Children’s parliaments

Presenter: Gnanasekar Dhanapal https://youtu.be/hxTUX3W7pEYVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: The Children’s Parliaments in India (Gnanasekar Dhanapal) (https://youtu.be/hxTUX3W7pEY)

Basic circle structure

Basic circle structure with GC and one example role

Overcoming hierarchy

Presentation and conversation with Gregg Kendrick, a consultant working with non-violent communication and sociocracy in workplaces.

Was ist Soziokratie?

Animiertes Video mit einem guten Überblick über die Soziokratie komplett auf Deutsch!

Enkindle Village School

We are a new democratic school opened in Townsville in 2019. We use a sociocratic school circle model from the

Imago relationships

Imago Relationships Worldwide is a network of Imago Relationships professionals and supporters in 17 countries, with the founders and majority

Albuqueque Cohousing

A forming community in New Mexico (USA). Note the outside consultants/stakeholders connection.

ArboLife

Arbolife was founded by Morli and Marc Mathys because they wanted to take a road to better care about themselves

Nothing AG

We are a digital design company (for-profit) based in Switzerland. Our overall purpose is simple: we want to create products

Woodard Lane Cohousing

Woodard Lane CoHousing

Mediagenix

MEDIAGENIX has chosen to implement their version of sociocracy (more precise S3) based principles and patterns.

SoLaWi

Solawi Bodensee is a German association with around 90 members. Solawi is an acronym for “Solidarische Landwirtschaft” which is translated

How to make a an agenda and a minutes sheet

Screencast on our agenda and meeting minutes format and how to use it.

An effective, fun way to understand & use feedback loops – Diana Leafe Christian

I describe what I’ve learned about the need for people new to Sociocracy to learn how feedback loops are built

A poster showing major sociocracy tools

The most important features on one poster - hang it up in a meeting room or bring it to presentations

Performance reviews: step by step

A schematic few of performance reviews

Rocky Corner cohousing

Rocky Corner is a cohousing community being built in Bethany, Connecticut in the USA.

For purpose: Galgael

A social enterprise giving people more opportunity.

Cooperative: Blue Scorcher

How to make a proposal in sociocracy

Picture forming and proposal shaping in an example

Making of the agenda: past, present and future of the circle

Preparing the agenda with all aspects of the circle. Diagram from the handbook Many Voices One Song.

Sociocracy. Governance as Equals

Ultrashort (50 seconds) overview of sociocracy and Sociocracy For All

10Pines

10Pines is an Argentine Software company founded with the Agile manifesto values in mind. It is an open, participative, self-organised

The perfect complimentary edge (sociocracy and permaculture)

An interview with Rakesh on how sociocracy and permaculture and complement each other.

Sociocracy and Holacracy – a comparison. Christian Rüther

What are the main differences between sociocracy and Holacracy?

book cover — We The People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy

We the people. Consenting to a deeper democracy (not SoFA but great!)

A book by our colleagues John Buck and Sharon Villines

Non-profit: Learn To Change

Case study: Learn to change is a Non Governmental Organization that brings together a community of teachers and educators working

IT tools for sociocracy: holaspirit

Holaspirit helps self-managed organizations keep track their circles, roles, tensions and documents.

For Profit: KittenTech

This case study features a proposal for a for-profit in the UK.

Our systems are not working. Let’s try something new.

Very short video on how everything is a system - which gives us a chance to improve things by using

List of feelings and needs

Decision making sheet

Insider view into decision making in a community

Amy and Jana from Pioneer Valley cohousing are talking about the implementation process and how things are going in comparison

Many Voices One Song

A video about the book Many Voices One Song.

Sociocracy: The Worker Co-op Operating System

Sociocracy: The Worker Co-op Operating System (By John McNamara. Originally posted on workersparadise.) Over the last couple of years, I

Sociocracy in Schools: The Harvest Bounty Restaurant Project: Gina Price and Jessie Barber

Jarrahdale Primary School in Western Australia used Sociocracy to produce a restaurant evening featuring food cooked by the students from

The liberating effect of “good enough”

"Good enough" sounds like a low-level decision-making method. And yet, for some people, that's not how they experience it. "Only"

Cohousing: Eden community

Eden Community is a Christian cohousing community.

Incremental implementation often add depth to their sociocratic tools.

Picture-forming with 6 hats – Erin Young

The Six Thinking Hats of Edward de Bono present a series of lenses to consider a situation/issue (ranging from facts,

Organizations as sub-circles

Organizations itself can be subcircles of a larger organization

Community of eco villages: Casa Latina

Casa Latina is the Latin American part of the Global Ecovillage Network, an association of ecovillages

Sociocracy in communities

Governance in intentional communities (cohousing and ecovillages) - what do they struggle with? How can sociocracy (aka Dynamic Governance) be

Difference between mission circle and general circle

The mission circle keeps the organization true to its mission. The general circle keeps the organization true to its aim(s).

Meeting poster: consent

A poster on the consent process for policy

IT department at DTU in Denmark

The Technical University in Denmark has an IT department that is running sociocratically.

You only need _________ to fix how organizations are run

What do new organizations need? Better structure, better mindset, better communication?

Sociocracy and Bio-inspired Organizations – Ruth Andrade

https://youtu.be/WdJPEgthRTwVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Sociocracy and Bio-inspired Organizations – Ruth Andrade (https://youtu.be/WdJPEgthRTw) What can we learn

Common pitfalls for implementation of sociocracy

A change in governance or an organization can be compared to open-heart surgery. Just like heart surgery is invasive for

What do we do with “disruptive” behavior in meetings?

Do we have to endure "disruptive" team members if we want to be inclusive? What crosses the line, and what

s3canvas.sociocracy30.org/ – Bernhard Bockelbrinck

The S3 delegation canvas is a simple format for understanding and defining domains, e.g. roles, positions, circles or teams. It

Mindfulness first

Mindfulness first is a nonprofit that promotes mindfulness in schools and beyond.

IT tools for sociocracy: using Sharepoint for sociocracy

How one can use sharepoint for sociocratic organizations

Understand – explore – decide

Understand, explore, decide: different forms of agenda items.

Sociocracy for a consultant – Simon Copsey

As a business change consultant Simon Copsey was fortunate to employ tools from Sociocracy in a few different settings, from

Middesex cohousing

A community in Massachusetts preparing to build

Sociocracy in schools (webinar recording)

https://youtu.be/wWlixHg-NscVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Sociocracy in schools (https://youtu.be/wWlixHg-Nsc)

Treehouse cohousing

A cohousing community in Nova Scotia (in formation)

Support system

The inherent support system in sociocracy circles.

Consent decision-making in a family meeting

Family meetings are a wonderful and easy way of giving (your) children a voice. In family meetings (just like any other time

An introduction to sociocracy (Abbie Kempson)

Recorded in March 2019 at Co-operatives UK, Abbie Kempson (Unicorn Grocery, Manchester) leads the introduction to sociocracy and is joined

Decision Making through conflict

SoFA colleague Chen explaining not only feelings, needs and strategies but also the harder part - overcoming the adversarial story

Sociocracy and the New Economy

We have been calling sociocracy the “operating system of the New Economy”. We say that sociocracy could be at the

Cohousing: Instituto Bioregional do Cerrado

IBC’s purpose is to raise awareness and increase sustainability in bioregional communities.

IT tools for sociocracy: maptio

An IT tool to display circles and roles for self-managed organizations.

Pathfinder

A school in North Carolina (USA)

On rounds

Using rounds helps giving everyone a voice without losing track of time. This article is a celebration of rounds!

Drawing of progression of individual to group to circle

Sociocracy Starter kit

You want to implement sociocracy but you don't know how to go about it? This article walks you through the

Pittsfield Listens!

Pittsfield Listens Pittsfield Listens is an organization in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, that works to build community, inform on civic issues,

Sociocracy & Montessori

What do Sociocracy and Montessori have in common?

Aldeafeliz

Aldeafeliz is an ecovillage, an association of people with the same vision. We have been using sociocracy since 2014 and

The sociocratic meeting format

Imago Relationships Worldwide

Jefferson House

Jefferson house in Charlottesville, Virginia, it is a small boutique facility built around an historic home with a warm, family

Go to Stories of Remote Teams Doing Great Things

The Collaboration Superpowers – No One Is Ignored With Sociocracy

What's special about Jerry Koch-Gonzalez's meetings is that they are sociocratic. How often have you been part of a call

Intentional feedback in organizations

Making it a habit to ask for and give feedback will make every organization stronger on all levels.

Casa latina

An association of (associations of) ecovillages in Latinamerica.

Sociocracy. The operating system of the New Economy.

4 min video (introduction into sociocracy)

Non-violent communication in organizations

A webinar on NVC (non-violent communication) and its use in organization.

The Art of community

A presentation and interview with Gregory Rouillard on his take on sociocracy.

Blue Scorcher worker-owned bakery

A worker-coop bakery in Oregon.

Delegates to the General Circle

Delegates represent the Department Circles in the General Circle.

Dreamocracy: Dragon Dreaming and Sociocracy – Tanya Stergiou

https://youtu.be/ZUxPCA1RiWUVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Dreamocracy: Dragon Dreaming and Sociocracy – Tanya Stergiou (https://youtu.be/ZUxPCA1RiWU) Presenter: Tanya Stergiou

Sociocracy and the cooperative movement – Jim Johnson

Sociocracy and cooperativism stem from the premise that humans thrive as social animals. Quite possibly, cooperation acts as our most

A permaculture school in Sweden

Andreas Jonsson is showing us around in a sociocratically run permaculture school in Sweden.

What does sociocracy offer towards ending classism?

Webinar with Anne from ClassAction on governance and classism.

BOSSAnova

Jutta Eckstein and John Buck presenting their BOSSAnova framework: a combination of agile, beyond budgeting, sociocracy, Open Space.

Blue Scorcher Bakery

We seek out small producers and bring you their heirloom varieties of everything from apples to beans to tomatoes. Being

Eden cohousing

A Christian cohousing community in Texas.

Mindfulness and Sociocracy – Stephanie Luz Cordel

Sociocracy supports collaborative management in the nonprofit sector and is in line with many mindfulness values.

IT tools for sociocracy: peerdom

An IT tool to display roles and circles with their holders and attached descriptions.

Denmark Technical University DTU

IT department of 45 people, embedded in a typical hierarchical IT organization of 190 employees, delivering IT-services and software development

Unico school diagram

Circle diagram of the Unico school in Switzerland

Sociocracy – Top 10 Fast FAQ: John Schinnerer

An FAQ-style tour of ten top questions or issues that arise in learning and implementing sociocracy, collected & condensed from

Democratic education matters

Presenter: Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard https://youtu.be/8wP030A_AtQVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard: Democratic education matters (https://youtu.be/8wP030A_AtQ)

Integrale Tagesschule Winterthur

ITW is a non-profit private school and the main ingredients of the operating culture are Solution Focused Approach, Nonviolent Communication

Manifesto For Wholesome Cooperation. Sociocracy and cooperatives

Humans organize themselves in groups to reach common objectives Sociocracy and cooperativism stem from the premise that humans thrive as

Skills for a VUCA world

SoFA member Laureen Golden on skills that are needed in a VUCA world (VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).

Rounds – different kinds

Different kinds of rounds.

Lean, Agile, Teal…. how does sociocracy fit in? – François Knuchel

Will sociocracy ever become mainstream? François believes it could, or at least the principles of sociocracy could, because it celebrates

Europace

Our mission is to make financing understandable and accessible for everyone. We make products comparable and the process comprehensibly, so

All process roles of a circle

All process roles of a circle.

Sociocracy in informal groups

How can one use sociocracy in informal, less structured groups?

Sociocracy a la carte?

Can one just pick and choose from sociocracy, or is it a package deal?

Pulse

The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) is a community of faculty leaders in the life sciences from higher

Ecovillage: Hart’s Mill

Feedback form

An example of a feedback form

Narara Ecovillage

Narara Ecovillage is a sustainable community based near Sydney, Australia which is managed by the Narara Ecovillage cooperative.

Differences & common ground. Sociocratic Circle Method – Sociocracy 3.0: James Priest

Having been a keen advocate of Sociocratic Circle Method (SCM) since 2001, in 2014 I got together with Bernhard Bockelbrink

IT tools for sociocracy: weaver

Weaver is an IT tool that was designed for sociocratic organizations.

Unicorn Grocery coop

Unicorn is a successful worker co-op grocery in Manchester, England. Established in 1996 by a small group of people committed

Dynamic Governance in intentional communities

Why use Dynamic Governance in intentional communities? First-hand reports about the advantages.

3 tools from sociocracy to use right away, plus magic phrases

Many organizations are intrigued by the idea of self-governance using circle-based frameworks. However, it can be intimidating to implement those

What does self-governance have to do with class?

"When Dynamic Governance comes into an organization, it does bring some challenges to the existing power structure. Those who have

Why Sociocracy? Exploring a deeper vision together

Selection process diagram

Selection process, schematically.

Signs pointing left and right — un-intentional decisions/intentional decisions

To decide or not to decide?

3 decisions every young organization will make — with intention or without

Meet Gerard Endenburg

A webinar with the founder of sociocracy, Gerard Endenburg. Also with Annewiek Reijmer.

Operational meeting

Operational meeting, schematically.

Self-determination – only with co-determination

(By Simona Zäh, Switzerland. Translated from German original) In my last blog entry, I pleaded for more self-determination in schools

Human emotions and their impact on decision-making Linda Cote & Rea Gill

https://youtu.be/xGmHrbFViV4Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Human emotions and their impact on decision-making – Linda Cote & Rea

Feeling safe and brave: Sociocracy, neurospsychology and neuroscience – John Schinnerer

How can we feel safe while also being brave, bold, courageous? Recent research in neuroscience and neuropsychology has offered fascinating

Horseback riding association

A horseback riding association in Poland.

Everyday sociocracy

How can we use sociocracy in everyday life? How is it useful to interactions, for example, with your kids, your

Platform co-op governance: deep democracy on scale

An article about governance of (large) platform coops and the tweaks we'd have to make to use sociocracy successfully.

Meeting sheet from Many Voices One Song

Meeting sheet from the handbook Many Voices One Song.

A theater company

A worker-owned theater company in New York state.

Lean change management – Sociocracy with Jerry Koch-Gonzalez

Graphic — circle of people generating ideas

The myth of natural flow

Why we can’t pretend “just talking” will not be oppressive. Let's talk about structures that truly liberate us.

A facilitator’s guide to keeping meetings on track

Stop overthinking. Start doing. Improve from there.

Cohousing: Pioneer Valley Coho

A sociocratic community in Massachusetts that switched over after almost 20 years of consensus.

Keeping meetings short

Long meetings are a pain. Let’s make them shorter. Here are the tools that sociocracy has to offer.

The story of TREE governance

TREE cohousing in Ithaca Ecovillage in NY in the USA tells about their governance system, how they implemented how they

Storytelling of an action research – Pascale Gaillard-Mompoint

https://youtu.be/t59zHeOrYZwVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Storytelling of an action research – Pascale Gaillard-Mompoint (https://youtu.be/t59zHeOrYZw) Sociocracy in an

Hub: a single-linked connection of organizations

Organizations can be connected by a hub.

Want less authoritarian structures? Not without communication skills!

There are two kinds of people I interact with: those who are convinced that better organizations make better people. And

Homeschool cooperative

LOS school

LOS is a sociocratic school located in the small village of Duerne in the south of the Netherlands.

Hartsmill Cohousing

A cohousing community in North Carolina

What is sociocracy, and do you need it?

What is sociocracy? (19min animated video)

19 min video introduction: circle structure, rounds, decision making, selection process, feedback.

El Roser

We are a mix cooperative school (composed of working members and consumer members). We started working with sociocracy from the

Holma Folk Highschool

This case study features a large permaculture school in Sweden.

Cohousing: Cohabitat Québec

An urban sociocratic cohousing community in Quebec, Canada, that values non-violent communication.

Sociocracy Leadership Training (the first round)

A documentary-style video with footage from our immersion training Sociocracy Leadership Training (SoLT).

Performance reviews (or "Role Improvement") are a way to give feedback to one person or each other in a space

Organizational chart - Nothing (zoomed in)

Peer-to-Peer Governance in a for-profit organization

Design company. The new processes were introduced gradually.

Morey Flextech school

A project-based learning school that just started adopting socoicracy

Selection process

Sociocratic selections (aka elections) are a great way to be intentional about who does what in your organization. Bonus: they

The 3 most typical struggles in sociocratic organizations

What makes sociocracy hard to do - and what to do about it.

Learn to change

A Europe-wide organization supporting democratic education in schools.

Circle structure of Pioneer Valley cohousing

The circle structure of Pioneer Valley cohousing

Pop-up sociocracy

How can you use sociocracy for a small project? How can you use it for a group that is just

General Circle

Leaders and delegates from the department circles, plus the leader of the general circle (from the mission circle) form the

Codento

Codento is a change agent's right hand helping with software development, IT Architectures and Agile Methodologies.

Sociocracy In An Agile World – Leif Hanack and Michael Geiß

From leader to leadership. We formed a cross-functional unit out of 3 teams. Instead of autocracy or anarchy, we use

GRL Permaculture Institute

GRLPI is dedicated to promoting permaculture professional education, practice, and mutual aid through the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois,