Books – Articles – Links

Books

We The People - second edition by John Buck and Sharon Villines
This comprehensive book explains the what, where, and how of sociocracy, and why it produces such dramatic results. Available from your local independent bookseller.

Case Studies

Sara's Story by Tena Meadows O'Rear - this short narrative story illustrates how sociocratic principles and methods can be used by an experienced facilitator even when the group has little knowledge of sociocracy and is not organized sociocratically.

Distributed Leadership Changes Everything in a Manufacturing Company by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - Once Again Nut Butter changes its culture with distributed leadership.

Collaboration and Trust Among Departments by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - Woodbury University School of Media, Culture, and Design.

Healthy Transformation in an Eldercare Facility by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. and Elana Kann - Living Well Care Home and the Sociocratic Circle-organization Method.

Distributed Leadership by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - improved patient care at a mental health care treatment facility - Mondriaan for Mental Health, Netherlands.

Articles

ABC's of Virtual Meetings that Rock by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - Remember in-person meetings? When we would be in the same physical room with in-the-flesh people? How do we keep some of the spirit and function of those effective meetings while working virtually? And even improve them from there?

5 Pitfalls of a Top-down Hierarchy and What to Do About Them by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - The structure of a top-down organization is ill-suited to a world of fast-paced change. The Sociocratic Circle Method alternative is a whole-systems approach to decision-making, governance, and project management that creates more inclusive, resilient, and effective organizations where all stakeholders have a voice in the policies that affect their work.

Dynamic Leadership: Getting Around Blind Spots - by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - What if you could use a decision-making process to make your organization smarter than any one leader or even a small leadership team?

Three Tips for Meetings that Sizzle! by Sheella Mierson, Ph.D. - Practical tips you can use right away for more energizing and productive meetings.

Dynamic Governance: A New System for Better Decisions by Sarah Lozanova - part one of a three-part series at TriplePundit focuses on how using sociocracy helped a plastics manufacturing company survive the economic crisis of 2008.

How This Residential Care Home Bumped Employee Engagement Into Overdrive by Sarah Lozanova - part two of the TriplePundit series looks at a real-world implementation of sociocracy. Reprinted by NonprofitQuarterly as Dynamic Governance: Kicking Employee Engagement Into Overdrive.

What Can a School Teach Us about Organizational Agility? by Sarah Lozanova - the third article from TriplePundit's series looks at sociocracy in an educational context.

Sociocracy: An Organizational Structure for Distributed Leadership by Sarah Lozanova - this TriplePundit article outlines the basics of the Sociocratic Circle Method.

Consent Decision Making: The "Dynamic Governance" Model by Michael Kelrick, Ph.D. - from BoardSource comes this look at an organization of academic leaders exploring the benefits of sociocracy.

US Employee Engagement a Mere 32%, But The Sociocracy Consulting Group Finds It Can Be Raised by Sarah Lozanova - an outline of how sociocracy can improve employee engagement.