Francois Knuchel

Male

London (West)

United Kingdom

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

Comment Wall: