This page is also available in: 
Español (Spanish)
Sociocracy articles and videos
What are you interested in?
Anything that makes positive change in the world
Groups often struggle with basic questions: Who decides? How do we decide? Was did we decide? Was everyone heard? What it someone disagrees? Sociocracy helps.
Sociocracy – basic concepts and principles
Brief overview of sociocracy: basic concepts and principles, history, its use in organizations, its limits and differences to voting, consensus and hierarchical forms of organizing.
The tragedy of the meeting: Meeting time as an example of a common pool resource
Meeting time is lifetime shared with others. How do we share this resources well? This article highlights Prosocial's Core Design Principles with the example of meeting time as a common pool resource and shows how sociocratic tools help share time in a collaborative way.
Leadership in sociocracy
What is leadership when it's not command-and-control? Why are there leaders in sociocratic circles, and what do they do? How can I be a good sociocratic leader? A presentation by Ted Rau.
The ABCDE of culture change
"I remember the first time I noticed meetings there were different. It was one of those moments when you say something and then notice it is true when I heard myself say: “I am leaving the meeting more refreshed than I came, more inspired and feeling more connected to everyone in this group.” That was the moment I realized this is much bigger than just a way to make decisions. Feeling more connected and getting things done, that was new to me."
How could Sociocracy help us reinvent our world in a context of complexity?
Never had there been so much complexity in our world, even before Corona. Running organisations was proving increasingly difficult due to the complexity they were operating under. Partly this was because the methods we were using were never designed to run organisations in complexity. Leadership in complexity requires a completely different set of tools from conventional leadership. VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) also demands a completely different mindset.
Case study: Børns Vilkår
Børns Vilkår: based in Copenhagen, Børns Vilkår is dedicated to stopping child neglect in all its forms. They were born with this purpose in 1971 and have continued to grow and expand the way in which they support children. Currently, they run a number of services including phone line and online support, as well as working with schools and government to address the root issues.
Theory U and Sociocracy: Presencing in sociocratic circles
Presentation by Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard. How do the principles of Theory U (O. Scharmer/M. I. T.) relate to those of Sociocracy? How do these technologies meet and mesh? What are the areas in which their serve each other to create profound and meaningful experiences? This session is for all, including participants who have not yet engaged with Theory U.
Integrating Sociocracy into a Political Mandate
Presentation by Henny Freitas. The Permacultural Collective Mandate of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil, was born with transparency, equivalence, efficiency and a dynamic structure to look for unity within diversity. As a movement which seeks to keep the culture of the people alive through caring for the Earth, caring for each other, and sharing knowledge and resources (human, natural and financial) fairly, there was no more appropriated governance to adopt then Sociocracy.
The “four necessary requirements” for intentional communities to use sociocracy effectively
In my years teaching sociocracy for ecovillages, cohousing communities, and other intentional communities and member-led groups, I realized they need to meet what I call “the four necessary requirements” to succeed and thrive with sociocracy — to use it effectively and avoid the unintended conflict from not meeting the requirements. They are: (1) Everyone learns it (rather than only some people knowing it), (2) You use what I call “all seven parts” (rather than only some parts), (3) Use it like your sociocracy trainer taught (rather than creating a hybrid with consensus or voting), and (4) Get periodic review trainings, consultations, advice, and/or guidance from a sociocracy trainer/consultant to avoid "governance drift." We'll look at success stories as well as cautionary tales about communities who do (and don’t) meet these requirements and field-tested, effective ways you can help a group meet them and experience the best of sociocracy.
Hierarchy, power and sociocracy
A presentation by Kristina Čelke. Description: As H. Froyd said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” In this presentation, I talk about how sociocracy and coaching skills can create bigger value for organisations and teams and that they could/would be able work with ease. Also I am representing the Revive model, as a diagnostic tool in order to diagnose organisation in more holistic approach.
Increasing Collective Intelligence through Sociocracy
A presentation by Sheella Mierson and John Schinnerer. In the same way we measure general intelligence for individuals, we can measure “collective intelligence” for groups of people. Research shows that “collective intelligence” comes from different factors within a group than we might expect or imagine. Sheella and John explore how these factors are either already present in sociocratic practices, or suggest beneficial adaptations and complementary systems.
Decision-making in a Northern European Historic Perspective
A presentation by Kåre Wangel & Tobias Jørgensen. Before the enlightenment era gave way for the modern democratic state, governance in the northern European countries had several resemblances with sociocracy, both on a transnational level and on a local level. Still today there is a latent democracy-critique in rural danish culture that stems from considerations brought forth during enactment of the danish constitution in 1848. Perhaps sociocracy in many ways is a rediscovery of more natural ways to govern which was common in premodern times, and maybe the sharp distinction between democracy and monarchy keeps us from seeing the otherwise obvious downfalls of modern democracy.
Sociocracy and Art of Hosting
Presentation by Bolette Nyrop. Description: The dance between Sociocracy and the Art of Hosting: Where do they strengthen each other? How do they complement each other? Where are they at odds?
Getting it Built with Sociocracy
Presentation by Cate de Vreede. The case of Treehouse Village Ecohousing. Treehouse Village's first decision may have been its best: choosing to use sociocracy. Hear how members of this developing cohousing community are using sociocracy to design their physical and social community.
Antipatterns – Solutions for common problems that tend to make them worse
A presentation by Tanya Stergiou and Nara Pais. This presentation focuses on anti-patterns that emerged during a year long consultancy. An anti-pattern is common response to a recurring problem that is usually counter productive, creates bad habits and makes matters worse. Identifying anti-patterns and substituting them for sociocratic patterns helps to create a culture based on responsibility and autonomy.
Sociocracy in Extinction Rebellion New York City
Presentation by Jesse Marshall. Description: Extinction Rebellion (XR) used a hybrid of Holacracy and sociocracy to become the fastest growing environmental movement in the world in 2019. Jesse is one of four SoFA members serving on the governance circle of XR New York City, the largest chapter in the US. In this session, he'll reflect on their experience, including mass sociocracy trainings, circle restructuring, and the challenges of maintaining coherence in an all-volunteer organization intent on exponential growth.
How Conduct a Probe, a Report From The First Narrathon
Presentation by John Buck. How do you deal with complexity? Have you heard of probing it to try to make sense? This presentation will talk about how to develop and launch experimental probes.
Sociocracy and Holacracy through a human organization lens
Presentation by Emanuele Quintarelli. Description: Sociocracy and Holacracy, so similar and so different! Is there any lesson Sociocracy may learn from Holacracy? How can we look at both of them to be more intentional in organization design?
Sociocracy as a solution for succession and organizational effectiveness – NGO case
Presentation by Irena Kaszewska. Description: Szarża is a horse riding association with a 35-year history. It has always based on volunteer work, creating a unique community, inclusive and active. With a growing scale of operations, the ad-hoc and intuitive management style of volunteers started to be insufficient. Sociocracy, piloted on a small scale, proved to be just the right solution. We are now at the brink of full-scale implementation, aware of many challenges, and full of hopes.
Sociocracy and Permaculture Design in a School Setting
A presentation by Andreas Jonsson. How can we integrate Sociocracy with Permaculture Design to get things done effectively and sustainably, and at the same time learn a lot? Andreas is a Permaculture Designer & Teacher. He works as a selected School Head Master at Holma - a school for Adult Education, which is run with Sociocracy and built on the Permaculture Ethics & Principles. It caters to around 200 students over the year.
Sociocracy and Prosocial
Presentation by Paul Atkins and Ted Rau. Prosocial is a first change method based on evolutionary science to enhance cooperation and collaboration for groups of all types and sizes that’s effective at a global scale. It It dovetails beautifully with sociocracy - in this talk, Paul and Ted will show how the two frameworks enhance each other.
Case study: 10pines
10Pines is a 10-year-old software development company headquartered in Argentina with agile manifesto values and a peculiar way of working at its roots. With 85 employees, 10pines has more than $3M in sales and it serves both startups and large clients such as Starbucks, Burger King, Turner, Claro, Teespring in North and South America. Due to its culture and rituals, employees at 10pines are happy and turnover is less than 5%, compared to a 25-30% average value in the industry.
Codento
Codento is a Finnish consultancy company based on sustainable software development where customer satisfaction is the most important, even if that means to recommend other companies to potential clients. They grow up together with customers helping those on achieving their goals and expectations.
Case study: Our Journey Investigating Scalability in For-Profit Organisations
When the Swiss design and development agency Nothing AG spun-off one of their internal products into an independent business called Peerdom, the Peerdom team initially started by replicating their mother company’s implementation of sociocracy.
Non-Profit Law and Sociocratic Governance
A presentation by MIke Haber. The presentation describes different ways that NGOs and non-profits have used sociocracy in their corporate governance structures. Based largely on Prof. Haber’s experience in representing U.S. activist organizations, he discusses different non-profit governance structures that embrace sociocracy within the context of the legal limitations on non-profits and NGOs.
Adaptive Organisations: How to turn the two fragilities of sociocracy and Holacracy into antifragilities
Presentation by Graham Boyd. Both sociocracy and Holacracy are superb at harnessing tensions to drive change at the task and role level in an organisation.
Fragility 1: if you incorporate with governance only with one or two of the stakeholder groups, you build in a fragile power-over dynamic, incapable of harnessing the value in the tensions between any and all the stakeholder groups. Fragility 2: without effective dialogue scaffolding to harness human tensions between and within each, human tensions and task/role tensions get conflated; but cannot be addressed at the task / role level.
How sociocratic organizations respond and adapt to crises
Presentation by Zujeil Flores. What allows an organization to be resilient? In this presentation, Zujeil looks at how Sociocratic organizations from different sectors and countries have responded and adapted to the current crisis and what we might want to pay attention to in our organizations to strengthen their resilience and prepare for future uncertainties!
Working with Flow: Sociocracy in the Funeral Industry
Presentation by Gina Price and Kevin Hartley. Earth Funerals is a brand, a trading model and a blueprint for sustainable practice in the end-of-life sector. The ambitious mission of establishing a national network of natural burial grounds across Australia called for a governance and planning system capable of meeting the demands of a complex, dynamic project. In an industry where ‘failure is not an option’, sociocratic workflow design is being embraced to ensure the delivery of professional, innovative funeral services, and products.
Applying sociocracy in my small business
A small mail-order business in the natural health field. I was amazed at how much value the process brought into so many areas of the business as we gave each one its particular focus, and many valuable new initiatives were instigated as a result.
Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN)
Case study of sociocracy in SCCAN. Its mission is “To inspire and promote, connect and support community-led action in Scotland to address the Climate Emergency.”
Holacracy and sociocracy
Holacracy and sociocracy, how are they the same, how are they different?
Sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
How similar are sociocracy and NVC? How do they complement each other?
What I learned about sociocracy in crisis mode
Are sociocratic organizations more responsive than top-down hierarchies? Read a case study of two sociocratic organizations - a community and an NGO workplace - and their responses to the covid crisis.
Sociocracy Introduction (presentation and Q&A)
This webinar is giving an overview of sociocracy.
- better listening
- consent decision making and circle structure
- examples from real life!
The day I consented to a proposal I hated
It was yet another Thursday morning 7.30am - our weekly support circle meeting in Sociocracy For All with 3 staff people present. We were all stretched thin. The last few months had been a phase of wild growth, and although exciting and wonderful, the constantly evolving roles and processes had been wearing on us.
Sociocracy and virtual meetings – engaging, clear and fair
I'm in virtual meetings every day. Here is what I love about them!
How we decide matters
The way we come to a decision has a lot of influence on how people behave, how many voices can be heard, how they feel about the group they are a part of and what quality decision is going to be made. This video highlights the pros and cons of autocratic decision-making, voting, consensus and puts consent on the map as a better alternative.
Could sociocracy be used to a self-govern a country?
Sociocracy is a way to govern organizations in a way so everyone’s voices are valued and heard, while still moving forward together. Given the divisiveness and bipartisanship in our societies, doesn’t that sound desirable?
Comparison of decision-making methods
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Relationship magic
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Policy vs. operations
Understanding the difference between operations and policy is key to making fast and good decisions. The idea in sociocracy is to empower operational decisions (so they can be made by anyone who is authorized) and to make policy decisions to guide and improve those operational decisions.
Many Voices Sing One Song
SoFA members and sociocracy singing a sociocracy song!
What needs to go into a governance agreement? (workshop recording)
In this webinar, Jerry Koch-Gonzalez is walking the audience through a sample governance agreement (aka “constitution”) that is needed to safely implement sociocracy in an organization.
Is sociocracy ‘teal’?
Many of us have been and continue to be inspired by Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. While there is reference to Holacracy in Reinventing Organizations, there is not much direct reference to sociocracy. So, where does sociocracy fit in?
You only need _________ to fix how organizations are run
What do new organizations need? Better structure, better mindset, better communication?
Group decision making, and how sociocracy helps
A brief read on why governance matters and how sociocracy improves decision making in groups.
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.
Pop-up sociocracy
How can you use sociocracy for a small project? How can you use it for a group that is just starting out and not ready to adopt a whole system?
Sociocracy: The Worker Co-op Operating System
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)Sociocracy: The Worker Co-op Operating System (By John McNamara. Originally posted on workersparadise.) Over the last couple of years, I have had the incredible opportunity to work with Sociocracy For All (SoFA). This organization has worked diligently to bring the concepts of sociocracy out of the “best kept secret” category […]
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.
IT tools for sociocracy: holaspirit
Holaspirit helps self-managed organizations keep track their circles, roles, tensions and documents.
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 by Pete Burden (SeeStep, East Sussex) and Kirsty Warren (Greencity Wholefoods, Glasgow). All provide their practical views using the techniques in their organisations and how it supports governance systems. From https://www.uk.coop/resources/webinar-talkan-introduction-sociocracy
Sociocracy & Montessori
What do Sociocracy and Montessori have in common?
The Holy Grail of Self-management
Still looking for the perfect governance system? Stop overthinking. Start doing. Improve from there.
The sociocratic meeting format
The sociocratic meeting format
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.
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 those who are convinced that better people make better organizations. The answer is probably — as usual — somewhere in the realm of both-and.
3 tools from sociocracy to use right away, plus magic phrases
Many organizations are intrigued by the idea of self-management using circle-based frameworks. However, it can be intimidating to implement those methods. What's an easy thing to start with that will show immediate results?
To decide or not to decide?
3 decisions every young organization will make. They will happen either way, either consciously with a good and inclusive system, or unconsciously with old biases kicking in. Which would you rather do?
Sociocracy a la carte?
Can one just pick and choose from sociocracy, or is it a package deal?
How to design a new circle structure (for existing organizations)
This is a step-by-step guide to designing a circle structure for small and medium-sized self-governed organizations.
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!
Everyday sociocracy
How can we use sociocracy in everyday life? How is it useful to interactions, for example, with your kids, your partners, your neighbor?
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 a human organism, so is a change in governance. Recognizing that is key to understanding pitfalls in implementing sociocracy.
Skills for a VUCA world
SoFA member Laureen Golden on skills that are needed in a VUCA world (VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity).
Dragon Dreaming (Session 1 & 2)
We need boldness and creativity to implement self-management models that create a regenerative culture with distributed power. Dragon Dreaming and Sociocracy are methodologies that help us make this transition.
Self-determination – only with co-determination
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)(By Simona Zäh, Switzerland. Translated from German original) In my last blog entry, I pleaded for more self-determination in schools – and only in passing did I mention that one of the basic conditions for self-determined learning is participation. In the following, I would like to explain why […]
Sociocratic tools
Incremental implementation often add depth to their sociocratic tools.
Diagram: Understand – explore – decide
Understand, explore, decide: different forms of agenda items.
Sociocracy tools and principles and natural systems
Tools from sociocracy, principles in sociocracy, human needs/values and characteristics of living systems
All process roles of a circle
All process roles of a circle.
Meeting sheet from Many Voices One Song
Meeting sheet from the handbook Many Voices One Song.
Is inclusive & saves times
A Venn diagram showing the balance of inclusivity and efficiency/effectiveness of sociocracy.
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 and conferences.
Meeting poster: meeting format
A poster showing the sociocratic meeting format
Meeting poster: consent
A poster on the consent process for policy
Magic phrases for meetings
Magic phrases for meeting that can move a conversation along.
Sociocracy and the brain
When, and why is learning fun? How can we create a meeting where everyone is addicted to learning together?
BOSSAnova
Jutta Eckstein and John Buck presenting their BOSSAnova framework: a combination of agile, beyond budgeting, sociocracy, Open Space.
Meet Gerard Endenburg
A webinar with the founder of sociocracy, Gerard Endenburg. Also with Annewiek Reijmer.
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 better systems!
Sociocracy. Governance as Equals
Ultrashort (50 seconds) overview of sociocracy and Sociocracy For All
Many Voices One Song
A video about the book Many Voices One Song.
Heaven on Earth
An interview with the founder of the Children's and Neighborhood parliaments in India.
What is sociocracy? (19min animated video)
19 min video introduction: circle structure, rounds, decision making, selection process, feedback.
Sociocracy. The operating system of the New Economy.
4 min video (introduction into sociocracy)
Children’s parliaments
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)Presenter: Gnanasekar Dhanapal
Why Sociocracy? Exploring a deeper vision together
Why Sociocracy? Exploring a deeper vision together
The 3 most typical struggles in sociocratic organizations
What makes sociocracy hard to do - and what to do about it.
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" aiming for good enough can be a matter of respect and
Sociocracy Starter kit
You want to implement sociocracy but you don't know how to go about it? This article walks you through the different phases - plus resources you can use in each stage.
ArboLife
Arbolife was founded by Morli and Marc Mathys because they wanted to take a road to better care about themselves and the planet.
Sociocracy: The Movement
Curious about one of the roots of Holacracy? This overview of past and current also conveys the values and emotional flavor of this distributed-decision-making systems
Peer-to-Peer Governance in a for-profit organization
Design company. The new processes were introduced gradually.
Rocky Corner cohousing
Rocky Corner is a cohousing community being built in Bethany, Connecticut in the USA.
Another School is Possible Association
A movement striving for a childcentered, playfocused, nonprofit primary education.
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 to support educational transformation for the benefit of building sustainable democratic societies.
A Time bank in Massachusetts
Valley Time Trade is a volunteer organization that tracks hours of service offered by members to other members, referred to as a time bank. It is located in the north-central part of the Pioneer Valley, a western region in the state of Massachusetts.
Mindfulness first
Mindfulness first is a nonprofit that promotes mindfulness in schools and beyond.
A theater company
A worker-owned theater company in New York state.
Community of eco villages: Casa Latina
Casa Latina is the Latin American part of the Global Ecovillage Network, an association of ecovillages
Sociocracy and Holacracy – a comparison. Christian Rüther
What are the main differences between sociocracy and Holacracy?
Deepening Our Practice of “Both/And” Thinking – Laureen Golden
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) In a world of increasing complexity, a “both/and” mindset provides significant competitive advantage. Those who value the ways Sociocracy supports “both/and” thinking will likely find Polarity Management™ to be a useful tool. Polarity Management™ helps groups discern if an issue is a “problem to be solved” or […]
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 over six years of online and in-person training & consulting experience.
Sociocracy and Bio-inspired Organizations – Ruth Andrade
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) What can we learn from the principles of healthy living systems that we can apply to our organisations and how does Sociocracy fit into that? What other patterns can we use for designing our organisations that can help create systemic health?
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, emotions & feelings, cautions, the plus side, creative options, to big picture).
Sociocracy and the New Economy
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)We have been calling sociocracy the “operating system of the New Economy”. We say that sociocracy could be at the heart of the New Economy. Before we describe how sociocracy and collaborative paradigms go together, let’s look at the New Economy. The New Economy For us, the new […]
LOS school
LOS is a sociocratic school located in the small village of Duerne in the south of the Netherlands.
Cohousing: Eden community
Eden Community is a Christian cohousing community.
For Profit: KittenTech
This case study features a proposal for a for-profit in the UK.
Cohousing: Instituto Bioregional do Cerrado
IBC’s purpose is to raise awareness and increase sustainability in bioregional communities.
Cohousing: Pioneer Valley Coho
A sociocratic community in Massachusetts that switched over after almost 20 years of consensus.
Cohousing: Cohabitat Québec
An urban sociocratic cohousing community in Quebec, Canada, that values non-violent communication.
Cooperative: Blue Scorcher
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
For purpose: Galgael
A social enterprise giving people more opportunity.
For Profit: Europace
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
IT Business
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Ecovillage: Hart’s Mill
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Family Heart Camp
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Homeschool cooperative
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Residential Care Facility
This case study features a residential care facility in Vermont that has been using sociocracy for many years in combination with a holistic care approach.
The Ostrom principles and Sociocracy
Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom studied the successful governance of shared resources and found several principles that seem to make it work. This article compares those principles with practice from sociocracy.
Holma Folk Highschool
This case study features a large permaculture school in Sweden.
What does sociocracy offer towards ending classism?
Webinar with Anne from ClassAction on governance and classism.
Permaculture, transition and sociocracy
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) An interview with Permacultura and Transizione, Italy. Hello Ted and Jerry, good to meet you and to have a little chat with you. The first question is of course: who are you? We are the founding members of the non-profit Sociocracy For All. We teach sociocracy and […]
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 compromise just because you're just starting out. What do you need to know about decision making?
“The trouble with majority vote”
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)Majority rule creates winners and losers. It breaks us apart rather than bringing us together. Majority rule becomes a game. The focus is on winning not on the ideas. The focus is on who is ahead in the race not on what is healthy for the people. False […]
Sociocracy in large groups?
Sociocracy was developed with small groups in mind. When and how can we apply it to large groups?
Organizational structure in sociocracy
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
IT tools for sociocracy: maptio
An IT tool to display circles and roles for self-managed organizations.
IT tools for sociocracy: peerdom
An IT tool to display roles and circles with their holders and attached descriptions.
Making of the agenda: past, present and future of the circle
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) Preparing the agenda with all aspects of the circle. Diagram from the handbook Many Voices One Song.
Double linking
Double linking between two circles.
A complete and generic circle structure
All circle types in one diagram.
Circular hierarchy
Circular hierarchy: information flows freely through the organization.
Hub: a single-linked connection of organizations
Organizations can be connected by a hub.
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).
General Circle
Leaders and delegates from the department circles, plus the leader of the general circle (from the mission circle) form the general circle.
Delegates to the General Circle
Delegates represent the Department Circles in the General Circle.
Organizations as sub-circles
Organizations itself can be subcircles of a larger organization
Basic circle structure
Basic circle structure with GC and one example role
Support system
The inherent support system in sociocracy circles.
Overcoming hierarchy
Presentation and conversation with Gregg Kendrick, a consultant working with non-violent communication and sociocracy in workplaces.
Unico school diagram
Circle diagram of the Unico school in Switzerland
Performance reviews
Performance reviews (or "Role Improvement") are a way to give feedback to one person or each other in a space of psychological safety.
There is no hierarchy in sociocracy… right?
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Process Roles
Leader, delegate, secretary and facilitators have roles that help the circle function.
Using Sociocracy for Decision-Making in Social Services and Medical Care
Presentation by Norma Wassel Medical and human services are routinely delivered in a hierarchical system with rigid roles of authority. This results in a process that often disempowers staff as well as the individuals and families receiving assistance. How can we implement Sociocracy in these systems? With case examples!
Getting to consent
A presentation about what consent decision making is, how to get there and what to do if there is no consent.
Meeting clip: accepting a new member
A consent process accepting a new member into a circle with clarifying questions, quick reactions and consent.
Meeting clip: circle report
Example of a quick report to a circle from its parent circle
Meeting clip: selection process
Example of a selection process
Meeting clip: writing a proposal
Picture forming and proposal shaping and - almost - towards a decision. Also shows how to formally postpone a decision.
Meeting clip: ADMIN phase
A quick checklist to make sure the circle is ready to start a meeting
See a selection process during a training
Jerry Koch-Gonzalez leading a group through a selection process.
Saying yes! to working and no! to stumbling blocks
What's an objection, and what do we do with it? The good news is that objections are a good thing!
Decision Making through conflict
SoFA colleague Chen explaining not only feelings, needs and strategies but also the harder part - overcoming the adversarial story and expanding willingness
A facilitator’s guide to keeping meetings on track
Stop overthinking. Start doing. Improve from there.
How decision-making affects our behavior
We don’t tend to think of decision making methods as affecting our behavior. And yet, they do, maybe even a lot. No decision-making method is free of bias!
Keeping meetings short
Long meetings are a pain. Let’s make them shorter. Here are the tools that sociocracy has to offer.
Sociocratic elections of a class representative
A booklet for teachers who want to try out sociocratic elections with children. By Lisa Praeg
Performance reviews: step by step
A schematic few of performance reviews
Preference, range of tolerance and objection
Difference between unanimous and consent decisions
Diagram: different kinds of rounds
Different kinds of rounds.
Policy process
Policy process, step by step
Operational meeting
Operational meeting, schematically.
Selection process diagram
Selection process, schematically.
Decision making sheet
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)Click to open a high-resolution sheet!
Range of tolerance overlap
Different ranges of tolerance overlap and give more room for common ground.
Range of tolerance
An infographic on preferences, range of tolerance and objections based on the aim
Meeting clip: Generating a proposal
A recording of an improvised demonstration of the entire process of picture forming/ proposal shaping, consent process and integrating an objection looks like.
Meeting clip: check-in round
A clip from a real-life meeting: check-ins
Meeting clip: objections
Recording from a practice session on integrating objections. This is a fully improvised example.
Meeting clips: Consent to the agenda
A recording of a real-life meeting.
How to make a an agenda and a minutes sheet
Screencast on our agenda and meeting minutes format and how to use it.
Consent. How to invite, welcome and integrate objections
Webinar recording on consent and objections
Consent process: decision-making in sociocracy
An explainer video on the consent process in sociocracy.
How to make a proposal in sociocracy
Picture forming and proposal shaping in an example
Participatory proposal writing
Picture forming, proposal shaping and synthesis - a 3-step process to turn everyone's ideas into a good proposal!
Strategies for integrating objections
What are the strategies to understand and integrate objections? Read about the options in this article - the more options you are familiar with, the more relaxed you can be as a facilitator or circle member.
Consent decision making
Making decisions by consent - step by step! Everything is clear, everyone has a chance to get on board.
Simple formats, first sociocratic steps to objections – Pierre Houben
How can I teach consent starting with just enough theory, invite to practice and improve after with feedback? Answering this question, this is what I'm experimenting
Selection process
Sociocratic selections (aka elections) are a great way to be intentional about who does what in your organization. Bonus: they are fun!
On rounds
Using rounds helps giving everyone a voice without losing track of time. This article is a celebration of rounds!
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 almost), they can learn what it means to be heard and taken seriously. If you have never tried it, give it a shot!
Sociocracy enhancing psychological safety on a team
By Francine Proulx-Kenzle. Think of psychological safety as creating a safe space, a safe bubble, where a team member feels confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question or offering a new idea. Psychological safety helps individuals feel safe enough to broaden their minds and explore new ways of looking at the world at their own pace and style. Fostered by the Sociocratic Circle Method, this feeling of safety shows up in positive mental health and well-being for each team member.
Relational Mode: Creating Space for People in Self-Management
A presentation by Nara Pais and Tanya Stergiou. At Sociocracia Brasil, we soon found out that implementing Sociocracy entails a cultural change and a special attention to people and relations within the organization. Thus, for the past 4 years or so, we have been developing what we call Relational Mode, side-by-side to Governance and Operational modes. Check out how we have evolved in this ongoing research.
What to do when emotions get high
A presentation by Karen Gimnig. Sociocracy has lots of tools for supporting good communication and most the time this keeps folks steady and participating well, but not always. We humans are driven more by feelings than anything else and occasionally there are meetings when those feelings show up in ways that threaten the psychological safety in the group. Karen talks about what to do to welcome these emotions into the process while keeping everyone safe and the group whole.
Feedback form
An example of a feedback form
List of feelings and needs
List of feelings and needs
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 helps us?
Non-violent communication in organizations
A webinar on NVC (non-violent communication) and its use in organization.
Intentional feedback in organizations
Making it a habit to ask for and give feedback will make every organization stronger on all levels.
On interpersonal feedback
No feedback, no improvement! Without hearing from others how they perceive what we do or say, we will never hear how we can improve. Bonus: an brief and simple introduction into NVC.
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 insights into how our brains, minds, and bodies interact with and respond to one another and our world at large.
Human emotions and their impact on decision-making Linda Cote & Rea Gill
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) This talk highlights the importance of and the reasons for including intentional and explicit education and ongoing training in cultivating emotional balance and emotional intelligence within a group that is embracing sociocratic governance and consent decision-making. The talk also includes some examples of or sample processes that […]
The fulfillment of basic human needs in self-managed organizations – Denis Côté
In this presentation, Denis is building a bridge between self-management practices and Self-Determination Theory in psychology. The goal is to show how specific self-management practices are key in feeding people's intrinsic motives and needs.
Holma – a permaculture folk high school
A permaculture folk high school in Sweden with a full mission circle.
A permaculture school in Sweden
Andreas Jonsson is showing us around in a sociocratically run permaculture school in Sweden.
The perfect complimentary edge (sociocracy and permaculture)
An interview with Rakesh on how sociocracy and permaculture and complement each other.
Sociocracy and Permaculture
A comparison of the concepts of permaculture with the concepts of sociocracy. Erin Young and John Schinnerer.
Sociocracy in informal groups
How can one use sociocracy in informal, less structured groups?
GRL Permaculture Institute
GRLPI is dedicated to promoting permaculture professional education, practice, and mutual aid through the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Org structure of the Greek sociocratic center
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Pittsfield Listens!
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Learn to change
A Europe-wide organization supporting democratic education in schools.
Casa latina
An association of (associations of) ecovillages in Latinamerica.
Horseback riding association
A horseback riding association in Poland.
Imago Relationships Worldwide
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
The Art of community
A presentation and interview with Gregory Rouillard on his take on sociocracy.
Jefferson House
Jefferson house in Charlottesville, Virginia, it is a small boutique facility built around an historic home with a warm, family environment.
Integrale Tagesschule Winterthur
ITW is a non-profit private school and the main ingredients of the operating culture are Solution Focused Approach, Nonviolent Communication and Spiral Dynamics integral extended by elements of Teal practices.
Pulse
The Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) is a community of faculty leaders in the life sciences from higher education institutions.
Imago relationships
Imago Relationships Worldwide is a network of Imago Relationships professionals and supporters in 17 countries, with the founders and majority of members in North America.
Mindfulness and Sociocracy – Stephanie Luz Cordel
Sociocracy supports collaborative management in the nonprofit sector and is in line with many mindfulness values.
Building Sociocracy into Morey Flextech High School
A presentation by Will Gowen. Two years of building student agency at a small public charter school in rural Michigan, USA. Learn about the first two years of a newly started public charter high school that attempted to utilize different democratic methods to give students voice and choice in their schooling. Eventually landing on sociocracy, this high school utilizes sociocratic methods both in the classroom and for school governance. Hear about our successes, challenges and opportunities for growth!
Sociocracy in Schools
Presentation by Hope Wilder. Case study from Pathfinder in Durham, NC. How does consent decision-making work on the ground with ages 5-14? What does sociocracy look like when including the whole school community? Hope Wilder will discuss implementation of sociocracy in a self-directed learning community with Board, Staff, Parent, Community, and Member's (children's) circles.
Enkindle Village School
Enkindle Village School is the first independent democratic school in North Queensland, Australia. Egalitarian in nature, the school is founded on democratic principles, with the belief that everyone affected by a decision should have a voice in that decision.
Pathfinder
A school in North Carolina (USA)
Morey Flextech school
A project-based learning school that just started adopting socoicracy
Sociocracy in schools (webinar recording)
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Democratic education matters
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)Presenter: Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard
El Roser
We are a mix cooperative school (composed of working members and consumer members). We started working with sociocracy from the very beginning of the foundation of the cooperative.
Enkindle Village School
We are a new democratic school opened in Townsville in 2019. We use a sociocratic school circle model from the ground up, from the development of the school through to initial implementation.
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 produce grown in the school garden. All students, including kindergarten and pre-primary, participated in at least one of the nine circles which formed a 3 tier structure.
Storytelling of an action research – Pascale Gaillard-Mompoint
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) Sociocracy in an international online community of education professionals for a democratic culture. Action research has been a powerful tool to develop Kaizen, a reflective stance, presencing and dialogue working with teachers, teacher educators, school heads and policy makers to transition towards a sociocratic organization while improving […]
Case study: Grobund
Three years ago, in a Town named Ebeltoft people started to gather, they began having conversations within the Community, they started organising themselves and gradually formed an organisation of around 30 people.
SoLaWi
Solawi Bodensee is a German association with around 90 members. Solawi is an acronym for “Solidarische Landwirtschaft” which is translated as “solidary agriculture” and meaning “sharing the harvest”. It is similar to the US-concept of CSA, Community Supported Agriculture.
Blue Scorcher worker-owned bakery
A worker-coop bakery in Oregon.
El Semillero
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Scorcher Bakery in Oregon
A worker-owned bakery in Oregon that implemented sociocracy years ago.
Blue Scorcher Bakery
We seek out small producers and bring you their heirloom varieties of everything from apples to beans to tomatoes. Being a cooperative means that stewardship of the business is spread out among the workers.
Unicorn Grocery coop
Unicorn is a successful worker co-op grocery in Manchester, England. Established in 1996 by a small group of people committed to social change, we set out to create an alternative to supermarket shopping - to provide affordable, fresh and wholesome food to our local community, run by motivated worker-owners with a shared social and environmental agenda.
Sociocracy and you
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)https://www.buzzsprout.com/179250/706701
Tips for more effective meetings
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
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 where one person in the group hardly had any chance to speak?
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 characteristic trait as living beings.
VoxelGroup: Sociocracia en un “Great Place to Work®“ (Adrián Perreau)
Adrián Perreau. Voxel Group es una empresa tecnológica del sector turístico que nace en 2001 y que ha crecido orgánicamente desde entonces. En 2017 había llegado a superar los 150 empleados y se encontraba con dificultades. Voxel quería mantener el ritmo de crecimiento y no sabía cómo estructurarse. Mandó a varios directivos a hacer un MBA, pero los modelos clásicos de gestión no acababan de encajar con su cultura. Ellos querían seguir siendo como la start-up de antaño.
Conscious Business Assessment
Presentation by Roberto Bonino. Assessing the soft-skills needed to thrive in a self-managed organization.
Coaching skills and sociocracy in our business
Presentation by Kristina Čelke. Description: As H. Froyd said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” In this presentation I will talk about how sociocracy and coaching skills can create bigger value for organisations and teams and that they could/would be able work with ease. Also I am going to represent Revive model, as a diagnostic tool in order to diagnose organisation in more holistic approach.
Agile Coaching Network. Building an octopus organization and supporting sustainability
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)https://www.buzzsprout.com/657931/2305352-building-an-octopus-organization-and-supporting-sustainability
Nothing – a design company
Nothing's aim is designing a future where technology is used as a tool for humanity, not as a weapon.
IT department at DTU in Denmark
The Technical University in Denmark has an IT department that is running sociocratically.
10Pines
10Pines is an Argentine Software company founded with the Agile manifesto values in mind. It is an open, participative, self-organised and trust-based company.
Codento
Codento is a change agent's right hand helping with software development, IT Architectures and Agile Methodologies.
Nothing AG
We are a digital design company (for-profit) based in Switzerland. Our overall purpose is simple: we want to create products which matter.
Mediagenix
MEDIAGENIX has chosen to implement their version of sociocracy (more precise S3) based principles and patterns.
Europace
Our mission is to make financing understandable and accessible for everyone. We make products comparable and the process comprehensibly, so that customer can make the right decision: anytime and with trust and confidence.
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 to the Universities 6000 employees and 12000 students.
Lean change management – Sociocracy with Jerry Koch-Gonzalez
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish)
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 and respects both diversity as well as convergence through consent, enabling new perspective to emerge, all conditions for living organisations.
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 sociocracy to foster alignment and autonomy, while taking our long-time agile software development practices into account.
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 tactical to strategic - sometimes successful, and sometimes not - but always offering valuable lessons.
Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy (not SoFA but great)
A book by our colleages John Buck and Jutta Eckstein
We the people. Consenting to a deeper democracy (not SoFA but great!)
A book by our colleagues John Buck and Sharon Villines
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.
Sociocracia en la Nueva Era (Diego Cuadra)
Diego Cuadra. Estamos viviendo tiempos extraordinarios, tiempos de grandes cambios. Muchas tradiciones y pueblos, Hindúes, Incas, Mayas, Mapuches, muchos pueblos nativos americanos, Judíos y también está escrito en la Biblia, han hablado durante siglos del término de un gran ciclo y el inicio de otro de mayor armonía y paz. Hoy en tiempos de Cornonavirus hay por un lado un cierto optimismo y/o esperanza de que pronto volveremos a la "normalidad" perdida.
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.
Integrando la Sociocracia en un Mandato Político (Henny Freitas)
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) El Mandato Colectivo Permacultural del Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brasil, nació con transparencia, equivalencia, eficiencia y una estructura dinámica capaz de buscar la unidad dentro de la diversidad. Como un movimiento que procura mantener viva la cultura de las personas a través del cuidado de la Tierra, […]
Estallidos Sociales y Sociocracia (Sebastián Zulueta)
Sebastián Zulueta. En diversos países del planeta se están dando “estallidos sociales” en los que millones de personas “indignadas” se movilizan al sentir que no se cumplen lo que consideran los mínimos tolerables de justicia. Esto ocurre en medio de una crisis de legitimidad global de los actuales sistemas de gobierno -tanto democráticos como autoritarios-, dejando ver la violencia subyacente y explícita de éstos. Algunas conquistas alcanzadas tras estos estallidos sociales han sido, más bien, el reflejo irónico del mito de Sísifo, donde la “roca vuelve a caer, una y otra vez” hacia sistemas autoritarios y violentos. ¿En qué medida la Sociocracia ofrece una alternativa viable para contrarrestar las tensiones sociales que detonan los estallidos sociales? ¿Cuáles son las oportunidades y desafíos para la sociocracia en estos procesos? Desde la experiencia del activismo sociocrático en Chile, y de diversos esfuerzos que se impulsan en el mundo, abordaremos estas preguntas.
Estallidos Sociales y Sociocracia (Sebastián Zulueta)
Sebastián Zulueta. En diversos países del planeta se están dando “estallidos sociales” en los que millones de personas “indignadas” se movilizan al sentir que no se cumplen lo que consideran los mínimos tolerables de justicia. ¿En qué medida la Sociocracia ofrece una alternativa viable para contrarrestar las tensiones sociales que detonan los estallidos sociales? ¿Cuáles son las oportunidades y desafíos para la sociocracia en estos procesos? Desde la experiencia del activismo sociocrático en Chile, y de diversos esfuerzos que se impulsan en el mundo, abordaremos estas preguntas.
Cómo las organizaciones sociocráticas responden y se adaptan a la crisis actual (Zujeil Flores)
Zujeil Flores. ¿Qué permite que una organización sea resiliente? En esta presentación veremos cómo las organizaciones sociocráticas de diferentes sectores y países han respondido y se han adaptado a la crisis actual y a qué deberíamos prestar atención en nuestras organizaciones para fortalecer su resiliencia y prepararse para futuras incertidumbres.
Cómo las organizaciones sociocráticas responden y se adaptan a la crisis actual (Zujeil Flores)
Zujeil Flores. ¿Qué permite que una organización sea resiliente? En esta presentación veremos cómo las organizaciones sociocráticas de diferentes sectores y países han respondido y se han adaptado a la crisis actual y a qué deberíamos prestar atención en nuestras organizaciones para fortalecer su resiliencia y prepararse para futuras incertidumbres.
La Sociocracia como herramienta para la transición a un nuevo sistema operativo (Allan Rhodes)
Allan Rhodes. La Sociocracia como herramienta para la transición a un nuevo sistema operativo organizacional en organizaciones no gubernamentales: Una perspectiva de consultoría/coaching.
La Sociocracia como herramienta para la transición a un nuevo sistema operativo (Allan Rhodes)
Allan Rhodes. La Sociocracia como herramienta para la transición a un nuevo sistema operativo organizacional en organizaciones no gubernamentales: Una perspectiva de consultoría/coaching.
¿Cómo liderar equipos y generar compromiso gracias a la sociocracia? (Olivier Gesbert)
Luego de un evento familiar difícil que impactó su empresa en Perú, Olivier tuvo que regresar a Francia liderando sus equipos a 10.000 kilómetros de distancia. Tres años después con un negocio al borde de la quiebra, Olivier decidió confiar en las personas apoyándose en Sociocracia. Hace 6 años que la empresa reinventó su modelo de gobernanza, es autogestionada, no tiene jefes y los colaboradores lideran el mercado en su rubro
Recupero mi poder con la Comunicación No Violenta (CNV) y lo comparto con la Sociocracia (Tatiana Monroy Pardo)
La charla "recupero mi poder con la Comunicación No Violenta y lo comparto con la Sociocracia" tiene el objetivo de explorar en las nociones del Cambio de Paradigma cultural (al que nos convoca la Comunicación No Violenta) las formas en que hemos aportado a la dominación y a la colaboración en nuestras relaciones y desde esas comprensiones posicionar a la Sociocracia como una de las herramientas que contribuye a la cultura organizacional colaborativa cuidando de la gente, la vida y los propósitos evolutivos.
Sociocracy for short term projects and events
A presentation by Rakesh Rootsman Rak. How to set up effective sociocratic decision making for short term projects such as intensive residential courses, events, activist actions, etc. Ever been in a situation where you need to deliver on a project and you can see people are not in sync with the same vision and you can see sociocracy could help, but you just do not have the time to train everyone in sociocracy? This presentation explores how we can handle this.
When no-one hears or gets whats being said
Presentation by Kim Scott. All chat for me is around transformation; embodied experiences; heart space; emotional intelligence; and well much more.... as I am sure many people could add more things prevelent and alive today especially around critical thinking/consciousness. In this session I will offer clear ideas and discussion looking at heart-head-hand embodied experience; useful tools building respect and a shared knowledge; and introduce a letting go process which can be quick and offer clear calm, self led results.
Cybernetics revisited
Presentation by Frands Frydendal. What does it take for a Sociocracy implementation to be "Good enough for now and safe enough to try"? Cybernetic support for conflict resolution and personal and organisational maturing.
Sociocracia en la Nueva Era (Diego Cuadra)
Diego Cuadra. Estamos viviendo tiempos extraordinarios, tiempos de grandes cambios. Muchas tradiciones y pueblos, Hindúes, Incas, Mayas, Mapuches, muchos pueblos nativos americanos, Judíos y también está escrito en la Biblia, han hablado durante siglos del término de un gran ciclo y el inicio de otro de mayor armonía y paz. Hoy en tiempos de Cornonavirus hay por un lado un cierto optimismo y/o esperanza de que pronto volveremos a la "normalidad" perdida. Sin embargo, quizás estamos siendo testigos activos de la caída de una forma de habitar el mundo al mismo tiempo que emerge una nueva, ya que en lo que coinciden las antiguas tradiciones es que para que lo nuevo pueda emerger debe haber una liberación o desapego de lo antiguo, de lo obsoleto.
Integrando la Sociocracia en un Mandato Político (Henny Freitas)
Henny Freitas. El Mandato Colectivo Permacultural del Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brasil, nació con transparencia, equivalencia, eficiencia y una estructura dinámica capaz de buscar la unidad dentro de la diversidad. Como un movimiento que procura mantener viva la cultura de las personas a través del cuidado de la Tierra, el cuidado mutuo y el intercambio de conocimientos y recursos (humanos, naturales y financieros) de manera justa, no había una gobernanza más apropiada para adoptar que la Sociocracia.
Meeting clip: consent process
A consent process with an objection that gets resolved.
Meeting clip: exploring ideas
Gathering ideas in rounds
Meeting clip: updating the backlog
Example of how to give the backlog a quick update to capture new information before closing the meeting
Meeting clip: meeting evaluation
Example of a meeting evaluation: worked well, what could be improved?
Meeting clip: opening round
An example of an opening round - personal and sweet
A full meeting clip!
An entire meeting including opening round, ADMIN, consent to agenda, several consent decisions, picture forming and picture forming, an election, updating the backlog and closing round.
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 teams to support sociocratic implementations.
IT tools for sociocracy: weaver
Weaver is an IT tool that was designed for sociocratic organizations.
IT tools for sociocracy: using Sharepoint for sociocracy
How one can use sharepoint for sociocratic organizations
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 are running now.
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 to a consensus-run community.
Sociocracy in communities
Governance in intentional communities (cohousing and ecovillages) - what do they struggle with? How can sociocracy (aka Dynamic Governance) be of use?
Dynamic Governance in intentional communities
Why use Dynamic Governance in intentional communities? First-hand reports about the advantages.
Narara Ecovillage
Narara Ecovillage is a sustainable community based near Sydney, Australia which is managed by the Narara Ecovillage cooperative.
Aldeafeliz
Aldeafeliz is an ecovillage, an association of people with the same vision. We have been using sociocracy since 2014 and we love it, so we also have a group of study and teach it
Dreamocracy: Dragon Dreaming and Sociocracy – Tanya Stergiou
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) Presenter: Tanya Stergiou In 2011, the Dragon Dreaming methodology for designing collaborative projects hit Brazil with a bang. People easily connected to its love in action philosophy, and the step by step dream, plan, do and celebrate phases of the methodology tapped into the very creative and […]
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 to create a body of free learning resources for people working in tech to pull in elements of Sociocratic Circle Method.
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 that can be used in any kind of organization to clarify existing domains or describe new ones.
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 into proposals right at the beginning of their learning process.
What does S3 bring to Sociocracy? Bernhard Bockelbrinck
This page is also available in: Español (Spanish) This session is a gentle introduction to Sociocracy 3.0. In this presentation, one can discover the driver behind S3, the basic ideas and concepts, and in what way it is it different from SCM and Holacracy.
Example meeting minutes
Sample meeting minutes of a meeting
Circle structure of Pioneer Valley cohousing
The circle structure of Pioneer Valley cohousing
Permatopia
A community in Denmark
Woodard Lane Cohousing
Woodard Lane CoHousing
Middesex cohousing
A community in Massachusetts preparing to build
Treehouse cohousing
A cohousing community in Nova Scotia (in formation)
Eden cohousing
A Christian cohousing community in Texas.
Cohabitat Quebec
Cohabitat Quebec (cohousing in Canada)
Hartsmill Cohousing
A cohousing community in North Carolina
Albuqueque Cohousing
A forming community in New Mexico (USA). Note the outside consultants/stakeholders connection.
