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!

Open in full resolution (color)

Open in full resolution (black/grey)

See a real meeting

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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

(examples)

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

Facilitation classes online!

Online facilitation classes (3 x 2 hours).

Join an open class or book a facilitation class exclusively for your organization.

Find a facilitation class

The same level but in a video-based, self-paced format for groups. Groups of 4-8 people can practice together with a variety of scenarios and practice tips.

Group class with videos + exercises

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!

Deep practice - advanced workshop

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.

Magic phrases: clarity, more ideas, forward motion, encourage rounds

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 info@sociocracyforall.org and receive a no-text image to add your translations.

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

A facilitator’s guide to keeping meetings on track

Stop overthinking. Start doing. Improve from there.

Decision-making methods: a comparison

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. The pros and cons of autocratic decision-making, voting, consensus and consent.