Language: Español
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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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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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More sociocracy resources: articles and videos
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5 Strategies for Combining Equity with Sociocracy
The key promise of sociocracy is that all voices matter. In reality our current sociocracy practices are not enough to overcome the way society systemically oppresses the voices of people from poor, non-white, transgender, disabled, et cetera, backgrounds. In this article I define equity, make an argument for why combining equity and sociocracy is so…
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Could sociocracy be used to self-govern a country?
Sociocracy is a way to govern organizations in a way so everyone’s voices are valued and heard, while still moving forward together. Given the divisiveness and bipartisanship in our societies, doesn’t that sound desirable?
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Christian Cohousing: Eden community
Eden Community is a Christian cohousing community.
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How to design a new circle structure (for an existing organization)
This is a step-by-step guide to designing a circle structure when you want to transition your existing organization to sociocracy.
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The Living Well Group: A residential care facility sociocracy case study
This case study features a residential care facility in Vermont that has been using sociocracy for many years in combination with a holistic care approach.
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Otherness
We are the other
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Benefits of feedback processes and employee voice in sociocracy
Creating psychological safety is important to ensuring a safe environment for employees to voice concerns without fear of negative consequences. Read this article about how check-ins and shared leadership lead to more psychological safety.
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Relationship magic
Language: Español Sometimes people tell me that what sociocracy does to groups is “magic”. I agree that it’s not uncommon that people who had never met before create meaningful connection […]
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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 […]
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Sociocracy’s Magic Number 3
Language: Español Sociocracy’s Magic Number 3: A Tripartite Triad Tradition Introduction It has been stated time and again that every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. I […]
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Participatory proposal writing
Picture forming, proposal shaping and synthesis – a 3-step process to turn everyone’s ideas into a good proposal!
