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We believe, and neuroscience shows, that people are inherently cooperative and have the ability to set common goals and make good decisions together. However, time and again we have seen stagnation and frustration as the same ideas, challenges, disagreements and questions keep surfacing and receding without being addressed and decided on. Sometimes no decision is made, or the loudest or most senior person wins, other times it’s not even clear what’s being decided on or who gets to decide.
To help people cultivate their natural ability to cooperate, we work with sociocracy. Sociocracy is the best peer-governance framework we know. It’s based on a few simple principles that work better the more we practice them and give each other feedback.
Every organization has some form of governance, whether implicit or explicit. Governance has to do with
How we make decisions about the organization of our activities
Agreements on who decides what with whom
How results are ensured
How we improve over time
Sociocracy is based on the simple idea that people and groups that associate with each other should decide together rather than administrators deciding and operators doing.
Case studies show that organizations who adopt sociocracy spend an average of 20%-30% more time with useful activities, such as producing or providing services, than command-and-control organizations.
Sociocracy takes place
In meetings
In teams
Between teams and organizations
It delegates as much decision-making authority as possible to individuals and teams, thus minimizing the need for coordination and centralized control. This makes it ideal for trustful collaboration in large organizations or between independent organizations. It does this through a few roles and principles that can only be learned through practices, much like you would learn to play and instrument, a new sport or a profession.
Sociocracy creates an atmosphere of relaxed, open curiosity as people slow down to listen to each other, ask questions, consider the concerns and experience of others, and then build better ideas and solutions. For some people, the gamechanger is knowing they’ll be heard, for others it’s the realization that they can trust the wisdom in the room and thus share responsibility with others.
Sociocracy is not a form of governenance where each individual can decide everything or where the whole organization has to agree to every decision. Sociocracy comes with clear decision-making authority, roles and responsibilities. Decision-making involves those effected by a decision and is based on the principle „good enough for now, safe enough to try.“
