Permaculture, Homesteading, and Community Building // An Introduction to Sociocracy

Hi everyone! As I've started to dive into the world of ecovillages, I've also started to learn about different governance models for intentional communities. One such governance model that keeps on popping up is Sociocracy. Sociocracy.info defines this type of governance as:

"Sociocracy is a whole systems governance method that makes collaboration, self-organization, and distributed authority both practical and effective. It is based on transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability."

My wonderful friend just sent me a 70 page info booklet on sociocracy, which I'm excited to dive into. However, I wanted to get a general overview of sociocracy before reading about all the details of its governance practices. I headed over to youtube and found a wonderful video titled "Dynamic Governance (aka Sociocracy) introduction" by Jerry Koch-Gonzalez. You can find the video here.

I guess I'm still in student mode, because I made notes of the entire video, and want to share them with the Steemit community in case you were ever curious about sociocracy.

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Introduction to Sociocracy

• Sociocracy means governance by those who associate together
• It is also known as "dynamic governance"
• Based on equal power of all members
• Begin with the aim in mind - express the group’s mission statement
• With a mission commonly agreed upon, every decision should be in support of that mission
• For intentional communities, what defines its aim?
  a) Housing only or also business and education?
  b) Social change model?
  c) Relationship to surrounding ecology?
  d) Finances/affordability of housing?
  e) Governance method?
  f) Controversial issues, ex possession of firearms on site?
• Dynamic governance - how are we going to govern ourselves?
  a) Organizational structure - circles
  b) Decision making - consent
  c) Continual adaption - feedback

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Decision making

• While working in a group, the practice is to have a circle facilitator and everyone else is a circle member
• The typical practice is to go around in the group, and let everyone have a chance to speak
• First step is “picture forming” - present the issues, identify the dimensions of the issue, agreement that the list of dimensions is complete
• Second step is “proposal shaping” - come up with proposal ideas, organize ideas into complete proposal, agreement that the proposal deals with all dimensions of the issue
• Third step is “consenting to a proposal” - proposal is presented, a round of clarifying questions occurs, a second round occurs of quick opinions, based on this second round there may be some adjustments on the proposal, final round is the consent round, if there are no objections in the consent round then the proposal is announced, if there are objections in the consent round then there are multiple potential paths (facilitator or original proposer amends the proposal, new round of discussion about how to amend the proposal, bring in an ad hoc helping circle)
• Why should we consent to a proposal or not?
  a) Does this proposal support the group’s mission?
  b) Does anyone in the circle have a reasoned objection to the proposal?
  c) Is this proposal within everyone’s range of tolerance (ex if we are deciding on communal meals and someone prefers vegetarian but will eat meat, then it is tolerable that the communal meals will include meat; however, if someone is strictly vegetarian, then it is not tolerable that the communal meals will include meat)

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Roles in a circle (leader, delegate, facilitator, secretary)

• Must define role, term, and qualifications (ex facilitator, 1 year, listener)
• Then, everyone in the group submits a nomination form
• A round occurs, in which everyone states who they nominated and why
• A second round occurs, in which people are able to change their nominations if desired
• The facilitator will, after hearing everyone’s reasonings, propose a candidate and explain why
• A consent round occurs, asking if there are any objections to this person filling this particular role, with the candidate being asked last
• If there are objections, same cycle occurs when there are objections to a proposal (facilitator or original proposer amends the proposal, new round of discussion about how to amend the proposal, bring in an ad hoc helping circle)

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Consensus vs consent

• Is there a difference between consensus and consent?
• Consensus asks if you agree, consent asks if you object
• In sociocracy, consent is used because not seeking what is perfect for everyone, but “what is good enough for now”

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Organizational structure - circles

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• Department circles - staff and manager of a particular working group are circled together and have equal voice
• General circle - managers of department circles and CEO are circled together and have equal voice, they are accountable for getting things done within the policies set by the general circle
• Top circle - CEO, general circle delegate, and board are circled together and have equal voice
• Top circle - advantage of having outside people on the board that are experts in their fields, as well as the voice of the CEO and general circle delegate, therefore the board and the organization are not separate decision making powers
• Some examples of experts could be legal governmental expert, social organization expert, financial economic expert, aim expert
• Top circle selects the CEO
• Double link -

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• Authority for policy decisions is delegated to functional circles, with distinct aims and domains
• Every circle has members and a delegate (selected by the lower circle) and a leader (selected by the upper circle)
• Each circle is connected to the higher up circle through their delegate and leader
• Each functional circle can have sub-circles

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Continual adaptation/ feedback loops

• Make a plan, carry out the plan, then measure how effective the plan was
• There is also feedback for people carrying out certain roles —> select a person to role for a term, that person carries out the role, and then midterm their role and how they performed in that role is reviewed and improvements are suggested
• There is also feedback for policies —> consent to policy with term, carry out policy, measure the effect of the policy, amend the policy if needed, consent to the amended policy, carry out amended policy, and so on
• If a question arises, then it goes to a work circle
  that circle may make a decision, or it may first seek help in coming to a decision via the general circle, ad hoc helping circle, and/or a community conversation

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• Policies are never set in stone, they always have a term
• At the end of the term they will be reviewed and amended

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Examples

• Examples of people actually practicing sociocracy - PULSE, Austin Waldorf School, Creative Urethanes, Rainbow Mountain School, Sojourns Community Health Clinic
• Examples of intentional communities practicing sociocracy - Pioneer Valley Cohousing Community, Champlain Valley Cohousing, Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, Cohabitat Quebec, Columbia Ecovillage, Rocky Corner Cohousing, Ecovillage at Loudoun County, Windsong Cohousing

Does anyone in the Steemit community know of other intentional communities practicing sociocracy?

Perhaps you know another governance method that an intentional community has succesfully used? If so I'd love to hear about it!

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