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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How to have quick meetings that don’t waste time
Meeting time is precious, so it’s a matter of respect to be clear about our intentions first. And the good news is there’s a framework that makes this easy.
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Six Tips to Facilitate a Meeting Like a Pro
Do you remember being confused about the purpose of a meeting? Facilitate a meeting like a pro today with these tips.
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Sociocracia en la Nueva Era (Diego Cuadra)
Diego Cuadra. Estamos viviendo tiempos extraordinarios, tiempos de grandes cambios. Muchas tradiciones y pueblos, Hindúes, Incas, Mayas, Mapuches, muchos pueblos nativos americanos, Judíos y también está escrito en la Biblia, han hablado durante siglos del término de un gran ciclo y el inicio de otro de mayor armonía y paz. Hoy en tiempos de Cornonavirus…
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Showcases: Sociocracy Implementation in Westwood Cohousing and Cathedral Park Cohousing
Linda Giltz and Abby Braithwaite | 19:00 UTC
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Decision-making methods: a comparison
Language: Español Decision-making methods help groups make decisions. There are different decision-making methods – but none of them fell from the sky. Think for example, about parliamentary procedures. They are […]
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What is nonviolent communication (NVC)?
Nonviolent communication is a method of communicating based on universal human feelings and needs.
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Weaving Global Governance from Below: Neighbourocracy and Children’s Parliaments in India
Language: Español A Case Study The Dream, the Web “Imagine a [… ] spider’s web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection […]
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Experiments with The Ready
Ashley Reid Smith | Sep 29th, 16:00 – 16:20 UTC.
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Sociocracy in large groups?
Sociocracy was developed with small groups in mind. When and how can we apply it to large groups?
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Decisions, values, and uncertainty. What can one say no to?
Ted Rau | 20:00 UTC
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The Wellbeing Protocol – Creating a Community Wellbeing DAO
Mark Pascall | Sep 29th, 16:25 – 17:10 UTC.
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The Difference Between Whole-Group Consensus and Dynamic Governance/Sociocracy
Language: Español A recurring question in our teaching is to describe the difference between consensus and consent, and between whole-group consensus and Dynamic Governance (sociocracy) used in a community or […]
