Language: Español
Sociocracy combines consent decision-making, a decentralized system of authority and intentional processes to improve our decisions and processes over time into a governance system that supports effective and efficient process while increasing connection, listening and co-creation among members.
Sociocracy is used in businesses, communities, nonprofits, cooperatives, grassroots groups and in education. See the sociocracy resources on this page to get started.
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Books from Sociocracy for All
Many Voices One Song
The practical sociocracy handbook written by the co-founders of Sociocracy For All. 300 pages full of real-life support!
Let’s Decide Together
The definitive guidebook for practicing sociocracy with children. Children can decide with sociocracy too!
Sociocracy topics
More: Selection process | Writing proposals | Implementation
Making group decisions: consent
Consent is the default decision-making method in sociocracy. In consent, a decision is made when no circle member has an objection. Every person will consent if they can accept the proposal, and object if the proposal has negative implications with respect to the circle’s shared aim.
A group moves to consent in the consent process: presenting the proposal and clarifying questions, quick reactions and a round of consent/objections.
Different from blocking a proposal in consensus decision-making, objections are welcomed as valuable information and they can be integrated by modifying the proposal, its term or its measurements.
Circles and roles: who decides what?
Decisions are made in circles, a defined team of people working together towards their circle’s aim. Circle members make collective policy decisions in their domain and they define operational roles to empower individuals to take on responsibility and circle roles to self-manage their circle.
Circles are connected through parent circle/sub-circle relationships of nested domains, leading to a system where everything can be decided locally in the system, without centralizing power at the center. To make sure two circles are connected, we double-link them with two people as members in both circles.
Meetings with sociocracy
Sociocratic meetings are inclusive and efficient with a clear format:
- Opening: check-in and ADMIN
- Content of the meeting
- Consent to agenda
- Agenda items
- Review
- Check-out (meeting evaluation)
Facilitation is a focus of sociocracy. Rounds – the practice of speaking one by one – are commonly used in meetings to keep equivalence and focus. Rounds also make it easy to run virtual meetings in video calls.
Performance
All sociocratic processes are built on the basic idea of continuous improvement. Feedback is a way to improve what we do, both by creating feedback-rich organizations, a commitment to interpersonal feedback and formal, peer-oriented performance reviews. Other practices are: meeting evaluations in meetings, reviews for all policy decisions and for role selections.
Leadership in sociocracy is peer-oriented and based on accountability to own commitments and to the circle. Many people also combine sociocracy with restorative justice or Nonviolent Communication to align their practice with their values and to improve their effectiveness and communication.
Selection process
A sociocratic circle chooses together who will fill an operational or circle role. The most common process to choose that person is the selection process with nominations, change round and consent.
More concepts
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Writing proposals together
Policy proposals are always approved by a circle, but they can even be written together using the process of picture forming and proposal shaping.
See it done
Implementation
How hard or easy it is to implement sociocracy in your organization highly depends on your size, culture, current set-up and commitment.
One distinction you need to know. While training talks about sociocracy, an implementation changes the power structure of the organization.
- Training is about knowledge of how sociocracy works in general, potentially with practice on examples.
- Implementation is the application of sociocracy to a specific organization
Do you need a consultant to implement sociocracy? It depends!
- SoFA supports “self-implementations” without external help, for example through organizational membership with groups of peer support and discounts on training.
- But we also offer coaching and consulting for any desired level of hand-holding through the process. The help of a consultant is only useful when you already know that you want to implement and all decision-makers are on board.
- We also offer classes, and we are accredited by the International Certification Board.
More sociocracy resources: articles and videos
Pittsfield Listens!
Language: EspañolPittsfield Listens Pittsfield Listens is an organization in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, that works to build community, inform on civic issues, solve problems through community conversations, and to award individuals, groups […]
Case study of Treehouse Ecohousing
Treehouse Village Ecohousing is a project to build a cohousing community, the first in Atlantic Canada. It officially launched on Sept 29, 2018 with a first public meeting.
Manifesto For Wholesome Cooperation. Sociocracy and cooperatives
Sociocracy and cooperativism stem from the premise that humans thrive as social animals. We need each other. No human effort, made by a lone individual, succeeds. See how sociocracy and coops are a natural fit.
Sociocratic Governance in Unicorn Grocery Co-op
Language: EspañolWhat is Unicorn Grocery?Unicorn Grocery is a thriving worker-owned, values-driven grocery co-op using sociocracy for its governance in Chorlton, Manchester, UK. They consist of 71 members who all work […]
On rounds in sociocracy
Speaking in rounds is an essential tool of sociocracy. Rounds promote equivalence and every voice being heard.
Rocky Corner cohousing
Rocky Corner is a cohousing community being built in Bethany, Connecticut in the USA.
Case study: Prairie Hill Cohousing
Prairie Hill is a cohousing community on an 8-acre site in Iowa City, Iowa. It got its start in 2009, and they started construction in 2017. At this time (spring, 2020) they have built their common house and about 30 of their 36 units.
The sociocratic meeting format
The sociocratic meeting format featured on Sociocracy For All streamlines meetings into three distinct phases: opening for readiness, content for agenda handling, and closing for evaluations. This method enhances meeting efficiency and decision-making.
Relationship magic
Language: EspañolSometimes people tell me that what sociocracy does to groups is “magic”. I agree that it’s not uncommon that people who had never met before create meaningful connection and […]
Sociocracy or Holacracy?
We are observers and participants of a paradigm shift in management. More and more attention is focused on dynamic governance, which slowly, but inevitably replaces the so-called traditional management, hierarchical in the power-over meaning of the word. Different names are being used to describe organizations operating under the new model.
5 Strategies for Combining Equity with Sociocracy
The key promise of sociocracy is that all voices matter. In reality our current sociocracy practices are not enough to overcome the way society systemically oppresses the voices of people from poor, non-white, transgender, disabled, et cetera, backgrounds. In this article I define equity, make an argument for why combining equity and sociocracy is so…
