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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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Read in our free eBook
“Just give me something to read”
Download the free ebook and learn more! The eBook covers the basic aspects and tools of sociocracy – perfect for people who want to read to get a fairly comprehensive overview.
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“I want to talk to a real human being.”
Our free info sessions give you an overview within 60min. They are taught by advanced students and have time for your questions. They happen once a month.
Primer: Learn on your own
“I need something engaging on my own time”
Too busy for a date in your calendar? Learn on your own time with our Primer – a 75min video series. Includes links to examples and deeper reading. Start anytime.
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!
Who Decides Who Decides?
How to start a group so everyone can have a voice!
Let’s Decide Together
The definitive guidebook for practicing sociocracy with children. Children can decide with sociocracy too!
Sociocracy topics
Each of these short summaries gives you an overview of the sociocracy resources for you to learn more.
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.
Explore the language of consent.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for Consent
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.
Sociocracy resources on structure: Overview article on structure
Explore the language of circles and roles.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for circles and roles.
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.
Explore the language of sociocratic meetings.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for sociocratic meetings.
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.
Explore the language of performance.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for feedback and improvement.
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.
Explore the language of the selection process.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for selection process.
Ready to learn?
More sociocracy resources: articles and videos
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Community Values – They’re Not What You Think!
John Schinnerer | 19:00 UTC
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On interpersonal feedback
Language: Español There is no right and wrong Many people are afraid of feedback. “Can I give you some feedback?” is typically followed by criticism, and we don’t do well with criticism. When we face criticism, the most typical reaction is to shut down, get reactive, defensive or withdraw. If you want your feedback to…
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Democratize Your Organization’s Budget!
Erika Sato & Mwende Hinojosa | Sep 28th 16:45-17:35 UTC
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Sociocracy: The Worker Co-op Operating System
Language: Español 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 and into the mainstream of…
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How to run an engaging board meeting
Want a board meeting that is clear and engaging? This article offers a template that helps you prepare and run a refreshing and productive board meeting!
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Practicing co-regulation during Meetings
Language: Español Our reaction to what life brings before us cannot always be predicted but a dose of self-knowledge can help. In this article, I will go through aspects of the nervous system, and how we can support each other in creating safer environments in our groups for practicing co-regulation during meetings Humans are social…
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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.
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Roles, jobs and salaries in sociocracy
On what basis do we decide salaries in sociocracy? Is it based on the sum of all roles? But how does that work? Or are there traditional “positions” in sociocracy too?
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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 these resources well? This article highlights Prosocial’s Core Design Principles with the example of meeting time as a common pool resource and shows how tools from sociocracy help share time in a collaborative way.
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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?
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The Ostrom Principles and Sociocracy
This blog post connects sociocracy, a participatory governance system, to the Ostrom principles for sustainable governance of CPR (common-pool resources). Sociocracy and Ostrom’s principles share very basic values and observations, which makes sociocratic governance a perfect fit for CPR governance.
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Hart’s Mill: Ecovillage and Farm sociocracy case study
Language: Español [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.25.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”] Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and Farm is becoming a reality, and the group is operating on sociocracy already. “It is the most intelligent structure on every level!“ This case study is helpful if you: are…
