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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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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Showcases: Sociocracy Implementation in Westwood Cohousing and Cathedral Park Cohousing
Linda Giltz and Abby Braithwaite | 19:00 UTC
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Sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
Language: Español Sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) are often used together. For a good reason! The essence of Nonviolent Communication is “Everyone’s needs matter”. The essence of sociocracy is “Every […]
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3 tools from sociocracy for better decision making
Language: Español Many organizations are intrigued by the idea of self-management because they hope to have better decision making while creating a power-with culture and structure. Sociocracy is one of […]
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Christian Cohousing: Eden community
Eden Community is a Christian cohousing community.
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ArboLife
Arbolife was founded by Morli and Marc Mathys because they wanted to take a road to better care about themselves and the planet.
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A case study of a community-based research program: The Hawai’i Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This article explores the ambitious implementation of sociocracy within the Hawai’i Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities Program (HiCSC), an initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Climate Smart Commodities Program involving a broad consortium of university academic and community-based organizations across Hawai’i.
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Sociocracy is democratic and self-managing: What are the benefits?
Democratic workplaces and self-management
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Collaboration Shapes Education and Young Leaders
Language: Español by Lisa Praeg Strengthen youth leadership – Open election of class representatives as initiative Do you remember the last time you participated in a democratic election? What did […]
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Robert’s Rules and Sociocracy: A Comparison
The word democracy comes from the Greek “demos”, and is the shared rule of the people. The original meaning of democracy is a very large umbrella, of which majority rules is only one subset. Sociocracy, on the other hand, derives from “socios,” and means “the rule of the associates.” Sociocracy is one form of democracy…
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A Project-Based Approach to Introducing Sociocracy
Gina Price, Julie Demholm, Jessie Barber, Olly Watkins
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Selection process
Language: Español In this article: What is the sociocratic selections process? One of the richest processes in sociocracy, the selection process is sociocracy’s tool for electing people into leadership and […]
