Sociocracy and Communication
Historically, sociocracy has often been practiced with Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and this is a connection that is strong within SoFA as well. For example, the handbook Many Voices One Song meshed sociocracy and NVC on all levels.
Of course, sociocracy can be combined with other frameworks and practices that enhance our awareness of each other and make it easier and more effective to communicate with each other. After all, sociocracy requires a commitment to feedback, and therefore anything that helps being effective in giving and receiving feedback will help governance.
This page is a collection of resources; this is an content area that Sociocracy For All is intending to grow. (Historically, we have focused on sociocracy and taken work on communication skills for granted but we realized that we need to be more active in spreading those as well.)
Online Classes on Nonviolent Communication
All of our Resources and Offers Related to
Communication and Conflict Resolution
Conflict as a tension to steer by
Conflict as a tension to steer by The unwritten rules in many groups are clear: Be nice, avoid conflict at all costs and, if a conflict arises, see it as a “personal problem” of one perhaps problematic individual. In sociocracy, we have the opportunity to see things...
5 Ways you’re already using restorative practices
5 Ways you’re already using restorative practices and how to become even more restorative when using sociocracy “Don’t tell anyone else we’ve trained, but this is by far the most restorative school I’ve ever seen.” I was shocked to hear that from the...
Institutional support for conflict resolution
What can circles and organizations do to prevent and address conflict? What is institutional support for conflict resolution? We look at tools like governance agreements, conflict resolution circles, resolution groups, and how to exclude someone from a circle.
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.
Sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
How similar are sociocracy and NVC? How do they complement each other?
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
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.
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!
Performance reviews: step by step
A schematic few of performance reviews
Feedback form
An example of a feedback form
List of feelings and needs
List of feelings and needs
Overcoming hierarchy
Presentation and conversation with Gregg Kendrick, a consultant working with non-violent communication and sociocracy in workplaces.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Family Heart Camp
This case study features set of family (summer) camps in the US that run sociocratically and live according to NVC principles. This case study is helpful if you have NVC is important to you if you’re a dispersed volunteer team The founders of the Family Heart...
