Meetings
“Hey, my name is Ted and I teach facilitation. 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.
Sociocratic Meetings:
Clear, Efficient, Personal
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
All agenda items, falling into one of the below categories
- 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
Update backlog
ca. 2 min
What needs to be added to the backlog for future meetings?
Check-out
ca. 5 min
Meeting evaluation, e.g. with regard to
- content of the meeting
- interpersonal dynamics
- process
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.
The resolution for these posters is right for printing on A4 (or letter) or slightly bigger.
If you’d like to print very large, use high resolution posters.
Oh, and you can say thank you with a little donation.
Facilitation classes online!
Integrating objections
1. Understand
2. Explore
3. Synthesize
Ask the objector to state the objection
Allow for clarifying questions
Reaction round(s):
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)
Synthesize amendments into the proposal
and go back to consent round
Fictional examples
(full process)
Featured Resources on Meeting Facilitation
