Site Admin – The Sociocracy Consulting Group

Whole Body Consent

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012Site AdminUncategorized

The world of business is divided into owners, managers, workers, suppliers, customers and externalities. The story told in business school for the past forty years has been that the job of management is to serve the interests of the owners. The workers are to be controlled or negotiated with by management. Suppliers should be valued…Continue reading

Co-operative Principles

November 13, 2011December 20, 2020Site AdminUncategorized

[Written by Nathaniel Whitestone, cross posted from the DecisionLab blog] I am passionate about economic democracy — not so much in the sense of majority rule voting, but in the sense of the people involved in something controlling it together. Some people have argued that, for this purpose, organising as a sociocratic business is better…Continue reading

The Key

October 11, 2011October 11, 2011Site AdminUncategorized

“I can take one look at an organisational chart and tell you whether they will still be in business in a few years’ time.” Philip smiled at me and raised his eyebrows. I was already deeply impressed with his insight and achievements, but with this he had me hooked.

The Stop Button

August 25, 2011August 25, 2011Site AdminUncategorized

[edit Nov 14 2011: Now it is the USA, and people are getting clear about what they want. Need a stop button!] London is burning. The world saw an Arab Spring, and in London and San Francisco — across Europe and North America — we celebrated other people’s civil discontent as a sign of positive…

Excellent value from training courses

I learned so much from your “Foundations of Sociocracy” and “Facilitating Sociocracy” courses, and I use the skills in every meeting and every organization I’m in...everyone has a chance to speak - that is an important skill I learned in the training. The quieter people often have very useful things to say. I learned how to get people to stick to the subject, rather than going off on tangents during a meeting. Sociocracy has been a huge boost to my abilities to facilitate meetings and lead organizations. I highly recommend these courses.

Deborah Groban Olson, Attorney at Law, PLLC; Board Chair & Governance Committee Facilitator, Once Again Nut Butter; Founder and Retired Executive Director, Center for Community-based Enterprise; Board member, Circle Pines Center.

Productive Give and Take

Sociocracy is very effective at creating a productive give-and-take between the manifold perspectives that exist in any university. The inner core of an organization can express itself more fully once the rigid categories of levels and hierarchies are abandoned in favor of a more integrated model.

Dr. Edward Clift, Dean, The School of Media Culture and Design at Woodbury University, Burbank, CA

High Quality Employee Engagement

Recently, the University of Regina unveiled the results of a survey on employee engagement in its various faculties and units, the second of its kind in two years...the Institut distinguished itself not only by a high level of employee engagement, but especially by a high level of psychological safety, cooperation and individual citizenship behaviour towards their colleagues. We attribute these results largely to the Institut’s decision-making culture: dynamic governance (sociocracy). The sociocracy premise is simple. You do not change the relationships in an organization by changing the leader or the organizational chart, but rather by changing the structure of communication and decision-making.

Abdoulaye Yoh, Director of Finance, Institut français, University of Regina

Feels Natural

Sociocracy is a process that feels natural. It's like getting a new game from the toy store. Some games you're agonizing over the rule book trying to figure it out. Other games you're playing within 15 minutes – sociocracy is like that. A person coming into the company can quickly plug in. And the decision making process speaks for itself.

Joe Garrison, Co-owner, Blue Scorcher Bakery & Cafe cooperative

Creative Solutions & Good Vibes

What a valuable tool sociocracy is. I have been working with Sheella Mierson, a gifted instructor of this process, and she is great! With only one of the techniques I learned from her we were able to cut through a thorny impasse in our Board and generate a creative solution with good vibes all around. WOW.

Rabbi Marcia Prager, P'nai Or Jewish Renewal community of Philadelphia, and Director and Dean of Ordination Programs for ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

Visitor awed by trust and open communication

Sociocracy has allowed us to have open-hearted conversations about emotionally-laden topics and develop policies we were not able to handle before. One visitor, new to sociocracy, was in awe of the trust and open communication in our meeting.

Cynthia Kennedy, Founding Member, Open Floor International