"Welcome to the Sociocracy UK community site. I hope you can find some interesting articles here. To be frank, we are not very active on this site at the moment, but feel free to post or interact as you see fit.
I also wanted to ask if you know…"
How-to, community & developing Collaborative Governance in the UK
Francois Knuchel's Discussions
Neighbourhood Parliament System
Saturday, April 1st (no fooling )Father Edwin John, United Nations recognized leader for his work in organizing more than 100,000 "neighborhood parliaments" in southern India that use sociocracy, is…Continue
Started Mar 28, 2017
Various Sociocracy Training September 2016 onwards
So, what's happening with sociocracy in the UK and around the world? Renewed vigour after Brexit? The need for sociocracy could never have been greater. More people want to learn basic skills in…Continue
Started Aug 31, 2016
Opportunity for freelance Organisational Development work - Call for expressions of interest
The Transition Town network have put out a notice calling for freelance OD practioners to put in proposals for working with the TT. Here is the letter (email), further below copied from the TT…Continue
Started Feb 26, 2016
Report from DIANE LEAFE CHRISTIAN - Part 3 -- What else I learned about Sociocracy for intentional communities in Findhorn
Here is the third report from Diane Leafe Christian, sent to me by email, to be shared by all interested in sociocracy: Unfortunately due to new restrictions (max 100,000 characters) by Ning, it is…Continue
Started Nov 25, 2015
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Francois Knuchel's Page
Latest Activity
Various Sociocracy Training September 2016 onwards
So, what's happening with sociocracy in the UK and around the world? Renewed vigour after Brexit? The need for sociocracy could never have been greater. More people want to learn basic skills in consent-based decision-making. Luckily there are plenty of sociocracy courses, training or tele-/webi-nars around. Here are some from September 2016 onwards:Immediately, later today, 1st September 1-hour telenar (teleconference call) with James Priest introducing Sociocracy 3.0 at 4pm UK time: see…See More
Opportunity for freelance Organisational Development work - Call for expressions of interest
The Transition Town network have put out a notice calling for freelance OD practioners to put in proposals for working with the TT. Here is the letter (email), further below copied from the TT website:Dear Sociocracy.co.uk, At Transition Network we are embarking on a three year process of organisational development - to look at our organisational structures and processes, and experiment with more helpful ways of working. We think we may well be seeking a range of contributions and suggestions…See More
"Connect Agile Teams to Organisational Hierarchy: A Sociocratic Solution"
"Source Link left out, sorry: sociokrati.se "
Report from DIANE LEAFE CHRISTIAN - Part 3 -- What else I learned about Sociocracy for intentional communities in Findhorn
Here is the third report from Diane Leafe Christian, sent to me by email, to be shared by all interested in sociocracy: Unfortunately due to new restrictions (max 100,000 characters) by Ning, it is no longer possible to put the whole piece directly on the site (or one would have to split it into 8), so I attach a PDF document of it insteadHello again, This is the third report (one of a planned four reports) for friends and colleagues who teach Sociocracy or are interested in it, and…See More
Report from DIANE LEAFE CHRISTIAN - Part 2 - What I learned about Sociocracy for intentional communities in Findhorn
Here is a report from Diane Leafe Christian, sent to me by email, to be shared by all interested in sociocracy: Unfortunately due to new restrictions (max 100,000 characters) by Ning, it is no longer possible to put the whole piece directly on the site (or one would have to split it into 6), so I attach a PDF document of it instead Hello again, This is the second report (one of a planned four reports) for friends and colleagues who teach or are interested in Sociocracy, and especially…See More
Report from DIANE LEAFE CHRISTIAN - What I learned about Sociocracy for intentional communities at GEN Conference
Here is a report from Diane Leafe Christian, sent to me by email, to be shared by all interested in sociocracy:What I learned about Sociocracy for intentional communities at GEN ConferenceThis report, the first email of three, is for friends and colleagues who teach Sociocracy, and especially those who teach it to intentional communities. I want to tell you, first, what new things I learned at the five-day Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) conference at Findhorn Community in…See More
"More information also available in What is Sociocracy Forum sections:"
Sociocracy 3.0 with James Priest
Tension between management and more flexible units in an organization can prevent a company from truly adapting and gaining from the deeper potential possibl...
Profile Information
- How did you discover this site?
- Through Sociocracy UK, initially via internet
- How are you using sociocratic principles?
- I am a sociocratic practitioner, Using it in my personal or family life, Actively engaging in and supporting the sociocratic networks, Applying it in my business
- Please write a brief description of your experience of sociocracy and a bit about yourself
- Had no experience using sociocracy in its pure form, but had had extensive experience in collective decision-making facilitation, in particular total participitory decision-making and problem-solving as applied across Asia, particularly in Japanese corporate settings. I sincerely believe that engaging the hearts and minds of all in organisations (versus charisma top-down leadership styles still prevalent in many organisations) is the only way forward, in terms of inventing a new form of collaborative "capitalism" for 21st century, which is green, sustainable and community good driven, rather than profit or GDP based. Whereas collective decision-making has been practiced for the last 30 or so years in Japan, I believe Europe is now ready for a more collaborative form of leadership, and sociocracy seems to meet all the needs of the future. Hence I was and am eager to get very involved in sociocracy (statement on joining 2010)
How I came across Sociocracy:
I can’t remember how I stumbled across sociocracy, but I had been looking for “it” for a long time. I had been trying to develop a decision-making process in the workplace which is based on total engagement, empowerment and consensus of ‘social’ groupings (work-teams, companies etc), as I had experienced it in Japan for many years, and yet which was ‘adjusted’ and palatable to Western culture. For lack for a better word I called it ‘democracy in the workplace’ even though it is not based on elections or voting (not even Swiss-style issue-based direct democracy) nor is it country political. So when I stumbled across ‘sociocracy’ I immediately recognised it, not only the method but the word too – and the beauty was I didn’t have to invent the approach, it had already been invented, tried and tested. My amazement is that it took me so long to find it, given I’d been looking for a collective decision-making circle organisation system for so long.
Update 2013:
I have now been practicing sociocracy for a few years now, have taken some of the advanced courses (with John Buck) and have been heavily involved in building and developing Sociocracy UK as a membership network promoting sociocracy in the UK. I am considering becoming a certified sociocratic trainer or consultant. I am developing a number of simulation based interactive workshops in various aspects of sociocracy, and have just created a series of short 1-hour peer-learning teleclass (over the phone) modules each concentrating on one aspect of sociocratic facilitation and based on the sociocratic meeting 'montster' chart (9-step workflow). I am also a lean practitioner (from my years in Japan) and have created an equivalent set of modules in lean management, total problem-solving and hoshin policy deployment. In my view LEAN operations, AGILE development and DYNAMIC governance (sociocracy) complement each other very well, together with a sprinkling of Zen-Jidoka (Total Respect Autonomation).
- Please tell us what you hope to get out of this membership site
- Learning, Exchange and network
- If you have a web-site, blog, twitter, facebook or similar account, please enter url here
- http://open2flow.co.uk
Francois Knuchel's Videos
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Pecha Kucha
Added by Francois Knuchel 0 Comments 0 Likes
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Francois Knuchel's Blog
Sociocracy as a way of bridging Agile & Conventional Hiearchy?
Posted on January 9, 2016 at 19:13 0 Comments 0 Likes
Sociocracy as a way of bridging Agile & Conventional Hiearchy?
Posted on January 9, 2016 at 19:00 0 Comments 0 Likes
This article, written by Jutta Eckstein and Pieter van der Mecche, was published in Infoq.com in December 2015
Connect Agile Teams to Organizational Hierarchy: A Sociocratic Solution
Continue
CREATING LEARNING MODULES
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 16:30 8 Comments 3 Likes
Though it may not be obvious here on the Sociocracy UK Ning site, there is a lot of activity going on behind the scenes. One of the projects being worked on is "Marketing Sociocracy to Business", which is an attempt to introduce collaborative governance to forward thinking businesses, such as SMEs, social entrepreneurships, cooperatives, organisations with democratic mindsets and workplaces seeking new models of… Continue
SOCIOCRACY - FROM OBSCURITY TO MAINSTREAM?
Posted on February 5, 2011 at 17:33 0 Comments 1 Like
Leaders, business schools, politicians, communities and organisations around the country seem to agree that after the 2008 crash the societal system as we know it no longer works, and our way of living and running our organisations is not sustainable. All seem to be grappling to find new ways of doing things, yet in the vacuum everything seems to revert to the status quo. Of course, as Einstein said, you don't solve problems with the same ideas that created them, so our current leaders may not… Continue
Comment Wall (12 comments)
- At 12:42 on February 3, 2014,
Andrew Thornton said…
Francois can we have a chat sometime? My e-mail address is andrewisaacthornton@gmail.com, can you send me some contact details?
- At 20:45 on January 9, 2014,
Azul-Valerie Thome said…
Hello Francois et Bonne Annee to you! Yes I get it!
I am still slowing down until I get back on Monday 13th Jan to jump into a new river...
- At 22:39 on January 5, 2014,
Ruth Cristina Menks de Andrade said…
Hi Francois,
Thank you for the welcome. I will write soon asking for possible opportunities for Sociocracy practice in the UK in the summer of 2014. I will also share the events as soon as I have the flyers. Exciting times!
- At 23:24 on November 28, 2013,
Thank you Francois for your kind welcome and may the adventure begin! :-)
- At 13:15 on November 20, 2013,
Christine Lines said…
It's great to find this site, thanks for the welcome. Yes the workshop with Diana and John was great and I'm enjoying exploring DSG more.
- At 19:13 on July 29, 2013,
Peter Jadinge said…
Great to be here - thanks
- At 14:01 on July 9, 2013,
Ruth Strauss said…
HI Francois, thank you for welcoming me here, and for alerting me to the workshop with John Buck this October! What a strangely auspicious day - 18th of October .. the main reason why I am getting active here is in the hope a process of Sociocracy Learning can be started here in Scotland in preparing for the 18th October 2014 Scottish Referendum. Unfortunately I did not know about Sociocracy or J.B.'s last workshop up North last April (2012), as it would have been a better timing to get people trained from then on.
Have looked round yesterday on www who from the network here says something on Sociocracy and Civic Governance, and came across a post from Sharon Villines (March 2010) on https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/congenialist/bLNayc9Tt5s, which got me curious to find out whether she could be invited here to Scotland round about the 18th October this year. Now I see John is up North that time anyway, so I am wondering could his stay be extended and both can be persuaded to do a workshop funded by means available through Citizenship learning orgs here...
Looking at Sociocracy through a wider national democracy lens is something different from looking at it through the lens of a business or small alternative community. If Sociocracy is to be made known here in Scotland, I feel now is the time, and - unfortunately - not through workshops in Findhorn or solely through other alternative initiatives alone.
Could it be possible to arrange something that can bring people together from all walks of life here now, in the wake of the urgency of education for decision making in something as big as the Independence Referendum?
If so, who are the people connected already with (and if poss. established in) sociocratic practise who could be engaged to take Sociocracy to the next level?
best wishes and looking forward to hear from you
(and yes, maybe post on the wider forum here, have had a look, and as it is so quiet right now there, I think person to person linking here might work faster?)
Ruth
- At 6:24 on October 2, 2012,
Martin Roche-Nishimori said…
Thanks.
- At 9:59 on September 30, 2012,
Thanks Francois. This reply is rather late. I have just become a father and all of a sudden I am struggling to keep up with any thing. So, just to say thanks and I will still stay connected but somewhat in the background.
- At 6:58 on October 29, 2010,
- Hi Francois. I meant about your experience of sociocracy. sorry I did not have time to talk with you at facilitation camp. look forward to seeing you on 4th November. best wishes Sue
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