Language:
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.
Go one step deeper:
We have options for all learning styles and schedules:
Read in our free eBook
“Just give me something to read”
Download the free ebook and learn more! The eBook covers the basic aspects and tools of sociocracy – perfect for people who want to read to get a fairly comprehensive overview.
Monthly free info sessions
“I want to talk to a real human being.”
Our free info sessions give you an overview within 60min. They are taught by advanced students and have time for your questions. They happen once a month.
Primer: Learn on your own
“I need something engaging on my own time”
Too busy for a date in your calendar? Learn on your own time with our Primer – a 75min video series. Includes links to examples and deeper reading. Start anytime.
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!
Who Decides Who Decides?
How to start a group so everyone can have a voice!
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.
Explore the language of consent.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for Consent
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
Explore the language of circles and roles.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for circles and roles.
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.
Explore the language of sociocratic meetings.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for sociocratic meetings.
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.
Explore the language of performance.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for feedback and improvement.
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.
Explore the language of the selection process.
Deepen your understanding by viewing the Visual Thesaurus map for selection process.
Ready to learn?
More sociocracy resources: articles and videos
-
Sociocracy and NVC at a Dutch Democratic School
Cordelia Addison
-
-
Holistic and Regenerative Accounting Principles
Ingrid Edstrom | Sep 29th, 16:45 – 17:35 UTC.
-
Platform co-op governance: deep democracy on scale
An article about governance of (large) platform coops and the tweaks we’d have to make to use sociocracy successfully.
-
Circle roles in sociocracy (process roles)
Leader, delegate, secretary and facilitators have roles that help the circle function.
-
Circle Structure Introduction
Language: Español What is a circle in sociocracy? A circle in sociocracy is a working group with defined membership that has authority to make decisions in a certain domain. In organizations with more than one circle, circles are nested in a way so that each has clarity over their domain and can do its work while still being…
-
Participatory proposal writing
Picture forming, proposal shaping and synthesis – a 3-step process to turn everyone’s ideas into a good proposal!
-
NVC Feelings and Needs List
Language: Español What are nonviolent communication’s universal feelings and needs? Everyone experiences similar basic human feelings and needs. Nonviolent Communication (also known as NVC or compassionate communication) centers around identifying our feelings and needs. In NVC, it is thought that feelings arise from met or unmet basic universal needs. Marshall Rosenberg, the originator of Nonviolent…
-
You only need _________ to fix how organizations are run
What do new organizations need? Better structure, better mindset, better communication?
-
The Legal Documentation of Sociocracy
Language: Español The Three Essential Documents To start a legal entity using sociocracy, it is essential to understand legal documentation. In creating an organization there are three foundational and inseparable questions that must be answered. Too often organizations are created without clarity. If you create an organization and you have not decided how decisions will…
-
A cooperatively-owned theatre company: Will Kempe’s Players
A worker-owned theater company in New York state.
-
Family Heart Camp a Sociocracy case study
Language: Español [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22.3″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.25.1″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”] Interested in Non-violent communication and building strong community structures? Family HEART Camp (FHC) provides children and adults with a week-long summer camp experience at various camping locations in the U.S. Founded off of the principles…
