Dynamic Governance - Sociocracy

Sociocracy is a participative-democratic, dynamic governance method that brings cooperation capacity, commitment and empowerment to the people. It works within any decision-making processes, in teams, in organizations, as well as in the entire society.

“Structure creates behaviour. Changing structure changes behaviour.” Gerard Endenburg.

In a sociocratic circle, this means in every meeting of a sociocratic organised group, every person is equal in decision making. The meeting-structure of SCM* changes immediately the behaviour of the circle-members. The core of our program firstly, is to gain competence in facilitation of sociocratic meetings to ensure that every voice matters. Collective wisdom comes up with each agenda-item, at the same time effectiveness and efficiency are developed, so the group accomplishes their tasks/goals as trust increases.

The “Four Basic Principles”

  1. The “Consent principle”
  • Meeting-structure and consent decision- making, practice with examples and cases by the participants.
  • Four (4) phases to create a solution, picture-forming, opinion-building and consent-forming.
  • Participants learn in practice how to make meetings effective with the distinction of policy (basic) decisions and executive decisions.
  1. The “Circle Structure”
  • Participants practice working in a sociocratic organization with shared responsibilities in different “circles” with clear “domains”.
  • Real projects as examples will be worked out in sociocratic exercise-circles using a circle-aim, an aim-realization-process and distribution of tasks.
  1. The “Double Linking”
  • We implement a sociocratic circle structure with two levels in the hierarchy, connecting the circles with two roles, the “circle-leader” and the “delegated” to practice equality and shared power among two levels.
  • In the exercise-circles participants implement the four process-roles for shared leadership, near “Circle-leader” and “Delegator”; “Facilitator” and “Secretary” will be implemented and participants will gain experience with these roles.
  1. The “Open Election”
  • This is the task of the Facilitator. A well-designed sociocratic procedure that includes appreciation and realistic feedback helps each circle-member build their potential.
  • We practice the open election of functions and roles for distributing the tasks in order for participants to realize the aim of the circle.

 

Some Applications
  • Builds capacity
  • Creates vision, mission and aim/offer of a circle (team)
  • Distribution of tasks
  • Usage of “Development-talks” as a sociocratic performance review
  • Provides transparency inside the organization with a Logbook-System
  • Aim-realisation process
  • Measurements – KPIs
facilitation
Bennefits

Sociocracy practicioners gain knowledge and skills as well as behavioral changes for them and their organization. The cooperative meeting-structure creates new experiences and behavior for all. They are able to:

  • implement a sociocratic teamwork in their NGOs and professional settings.
  • significantly increase the effectiveness of their decision-making structures  in their own organization. Shared decision-making also creates a shared responsibility in these organizations.
  • identify their potential, increase their confidence, minimize their friction losses, and thus the productivity of these organizations grows.
  • develop personal competences, process-leading, equality, tolerance and trust. Participatory and cooperative values will be strengthened.
  • ultimately through these sociocratic decision-structures become co-entrepreneurs, share in the cooperation and enjoy success.
Why Sociocracy

Sociocracy is a tool for every person who works with groups of people to achieve common goals.

The method creates ownership and fosters leadership for every member of the circle, as everybody who is a member of an organization will benefit from the tool. “Getting things done” is a need of every organization.

It is ideal for organizations and all types of not-for-profit or NGOs

  • team-leaders and process-managers
  • professionals, human-resources-managers,
  • governance-organizations and professional networks.

Sociocracy is also for people from the educational sector, trainers, students, and anyone who works in a team.