Facilitation in sociocracy
“Hey, my name is Ted and I teach facilitation in sociocracy. Good meetings are core and center because skilled facilitators can help the group be equals and move forward. Being heard and understood matters and creates a healthy and safe team culture.
Whether you’re preparing the agenda for a board meeting, your community or your team meeting, meeting facilitation is essential for any group.”
Facilitation sheet!
A sheet for facilitators
– everything on one page!
Spanish | Chinese | Danish | French | Polish | Swedish | Hebrew | Portuguese | Italian
Want to translate it? Contact [email protected] for an editable version.
See a real meeting
Opening round
ca. 5 min
Check-in round. Everyone shares how they are entering the meeting
(A good chance for people to get to know you better!)
ADMIN
ca. 1 min
Making sure the circle is ready for the meeting:
- Attendance (Who is here/absent? Roles filled?)
- Duration (How long is this meeting?)
- Minutes (Last meeting’s minutes ok?)
- Info (any announcements outside of the circle’s domain?)
- Next meeting (When are we meeting next? Or, who schedules?)
Consent to the agenda
ca. 1 min
- Understand the agenda proposal
- (Asking for reactions/additions if desired)
- Consent/integrate objections to the agenda proposal
Agenda items
- Reports →
e.g. reports from sub-circle or parent circle, reports on metrics - Explorations →
e.g giving feedback, brainstorming, generating proposals - Decisions ↓
e.g. policy decisions, selections processes, possibly significant operational decisions, policy reviews
(examples)
Update backlog
ca. 2 min
Check-out
ca. 5 min
- content of the meeting
- interpersonal dynamics
- process
Facilitation classes online!
For people with experience, or for those who would like to observe sociocracy in practice. Join us to play with facilitation scenarios. Find an upcoming session!
Meeting Posters
These posters are useful for meeting rooms to remember the basic patterns of Sociocratic meetings.
The transparency of a visible poster creates shared understanding and accountability to an agreed-upon format.
If you’d like to print them all at once, use this pdf: high resolution posters.
Oh, and you can say thank you with a little donation.
Do you want to translate them? Send an email to [email protected] and receive a no-text image to add your translations.
Integrating objections
1. Understand
2. Explore
3. Synthesize
Allow for clarifying questions
How do you relate to the objection?
Do you have ideas for amendments?
Possible strategies:
- modify the proposal
- shorten the term
- measure the concern (more info)
and go back to consent round
(full process)
Featured Resources on Meeting Facilitation
“What if people don’t cooperate?” A systemic view of meetings
We understand difficult situations in meetings better if we take a systemic view of organizations and see incidents as indicators for the whole culture. Find a list of what’s underneath the moment you see.
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!
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.
Sociocracy in large groups?
Sociocracy was developed with small groups in mind. When and how can we apply it to large groups?
Sociocracy and virtual meetings – engaging, clear and fair
I’m in virtual meetings every day. Here is what I love about them!
Getting to consent
A presentation about what consent decision making is, how to get there and what to do if there is no consent.
A facilitator’s guide to keeping meetings on track
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.
Keeping meetings short
Long meetings are a pain. Let’s make them shorter. Here are the tools that sociocracy has to offer.
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!
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.
Diagram: Understand – explore – decide
Understand, explore, decide: different forms of agenda items.
Diagram: different kinds of rounds
Different kinds of rounds.
Meeting sheet from Many Voices One Song
Meeting sheet from the handbook Many Voices One Song.
How to make a an agenda and a minutes sheet
Screencast on our agenda and meeting minutes format and how to use it.
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
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
Participatory proposal writing
Picture forming, proposal shaping and synthesis – a 3-step process to turn everyone’s ideas into a good proposal!
Consent decision making
Making decisions by consent – step by step! Everything is clear, everyone has a chance to get on board.
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!
