## Metadata - Author: [[Ted J Rau and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez]] - Full Title: Many Voices One Song - Category: #books ## Highlights - Sociocracy is a set of tools and principles that ensure shared power. ([Location 334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=334)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The assumption of sociocracy is that sharing power requires a plan. Power is everywhere all the time, and it does not appear or disappear – someone will be holding it. We have to be intentional about how we want to distribute it. ([Location 335](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=335)) - Tags: [[blue]] - One can think of a sociocratic organization as a complicated irrigation system, empowering each team to have the agency and resources they need to flourish and contribute toward the organization’s mission. We avoid large clusters of power, and we make sure there is flow. Water that is allowed to flow will stay fresh and will reach all the places in the garden, nourishing each plant to flourish. ([Location 343](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=343)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Power does not have only one source. In that respect, power is different from an irrigation system. All members of the organization feed their own agency and resources into the organization, in each team. Everyone contributes their power and relies on each other’s power. ([Location 347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=347)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We want to live in a world where people support each other, consider each other and help each other meet needs. A collaborative world. ([Location 361](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=361)) - Tags: [[blue]] - No one and nothing can be ignored if we want to honor connection. ([Location 366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=366)) - Tags: [[blue]] - when we experience ourselves as one person within a well-connected organization, it can increase our sense of belonging. Connection and belonging are essential needs for all human beings. A decentralized, tight-knit community is more resilient, than a loose system or a rigid hierarchical system. ([Location 394](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=394)) - Tags: [[blue]] - when there is tension, it is not because someone is to blame but because there is lack of clarity on domains, about roles or about someone’s needs. ([Location 421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=421)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We define equivalence as “everyone’s needs matter”, regardless of that person’s role or status. ([Location 437](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=437)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Honoring everyone’s needs is wonderful, but what do we actually do? If we spend too much time talking, our work is not getting done and needs are going unmet. Inefficient process ultimately disregard needs, like the need to contribute to our clients, our students, or our community. What sociocracy does is to create integration between the commitment to action/agency/forward motion and the promise to hold everyone’s needs in consideration at all times. ([Location 443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=443)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Sociocracy breaks down the many binary principles that do not serve us: individual vs. group, workers vs. management, us vs. them. ([Location 448](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=448)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Sociocracy overcomes the misconception that effectiveness has to be at the expense of equivalence and that more equivalence has to slow down an organization. ([Location 454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=454)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Be aware that in a sociocratic meeting one might not see anything amazing. Good governance is invisible. Good governance means getting everything out of the way that distracts us. Distracting feelings can be generated when our needs for connection, integrity or shared reality are not met. That means we want to create a context of clarity for our work, for emotional safety amongst all team members and for process. What exists then is flow. Flow happens when a group is fully and creatively immersed in their process. ([Location 462](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=462)) - Tags: [[blue]] - To us, running organizations in alignment with principles is more important than a particular strategy. For example, running an organization where all needs are considered is more important than performing a consent round ‘by the book’ – even this book! The consent round is only a tool to ensure the principle of equivalence. ([Location 473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=473)) - Tags: [[blue]] - To us, sociocracy is a mindset: the mindset that all needs matter, always. The needs of those who we serve, the needs of those who work together, the needs of all interdependent life on the planet, and the needs of the generations to come. ([Location 477](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=477)) - Tags: [[blue]] - By consent, a group can decide to do anything. We often jokingly say, you want a dictator for your organization? We can decide that by consent. (We recommend that the dictator role have a term end, however!) ([Location 512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=512)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The term “sociocracy” was brought into common use by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in the 1850’s. The word began to take its current meaning in the 1940’s in a Quaker school in the Netherlands. ([Location 528](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=528)) - Tags: [[blue]] - There are other movements that we call the ally movements, in which, organically, sociocracy has been growing in the last years: Permaculture design as a way to approach stewardship with the flora and fauna (especially the social aspect of permaculture, “people care”) Non-violent communication as a way to communicate (for the shared value that everyone’s needs matter) Agile software development (focus on short cycles with continuous improvement, empiricism and semi-autonomous teams) The cooperative movement (shared value: shared ownership and equal voice for every worker), along with the new-economy movement ([Location 585](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=585)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The most touching experience for us has been to hear how tens of thousands of children in India change their immediate situation through their neighborhood-based parliaments and elect leaders using the sociocratic election process. ([Location 601](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=601)) - Tags: [[blue]] - The mindset behind sociocracy dovetails with a vision so much bigger than governance: a world based on integration and cooperation. ([Location 606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=606)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Governance is tricky to teach. The biggest challenge is that one has to know everything at the same time. Practitioners have to know the meeting format, all processes, understand consent, know what a helping circle is, how to do a round, be aware of feedback, have emotional literacy and needs consciousness and more at once – oh, and be aware of operational roles! Sociocratic governance works best if practitioners master it all. ([Location 608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=608)) - Tags: [[blue]] - What do we need to make something happen? We need to have a clear understanding of what it is we are getting together to do; the aim is the invitation. We need the authority and resources to get it done ( domain), and we need to be clear who is a part of the effort (members). ([Location 719](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=719)) - We phrase missions as to-infinitives. Aims tend to be expressed in -ing forms, ([Location 754](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=754)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Think of the aim as the invitation: this is what we are doing; and if you like what we are doing, please join us. The more specific the invitation is in the beginning, the less disappointment and friction there will be in the future. ([Location 807](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=807)) - Tags: [[blue]] - We have given circles power, and the power is purposefully distributed outwards to the most specific circles – the most localized level possible. Authority has to go along with that so those circles are free to act. Aims and domains always parallel each other indivisibly. ([Location 829](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=829)) - Tags: [[blue]] - a circle has a budget which is agreed upon by the next-higher circle. Within the limits of their own budget, the circle has full authority over how to spend the money and allocate labor hours. ([Location 836](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=836)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Domains are pivotal for the entire governance system as they guide not only how power is distributed, but also how smoothly the organization will run. This has an implication that sometimes catches new students of sociocracy by surprise. If a domain affects everyone in the organization, a small circle will have authority to make decisions that affect everyone in the organization. A circle makes decisions about their domain, and that can be organization-wide, depending on the domain. ([Location 872](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=872)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Distributed power requires trust. Trust can be earned by gathering feedback from a wide range of people outside of the circle, by transparency and good quality work. ([Location 877](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=877)) - The advantage of small group mandate is focus: not everyone in the organization has to take care of everything. With distributed autonomy and flow of information, more can be accomplished than one person’s mind could hold. ([Location 879](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=879)) - Aims and domains of a sub-circle (child circle) come from the parent circle . If a circle forms a new circle, then that parent circle brings the circle to life by coming up with a way to populate the circle and by defining what the new circle’s aim and domain will be. A circle cannot change its aim unilaterally, but it can propose a revised aim to its parent circle for consent. When a circle’s aim and/or domains are changed,both parent and child circle must consent. ([Location 951](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=951)) - Tags: [[blue]] - When switching an existing organization to sociocracy, we recommend that the group consent to a governance document that identifies the circles the organization is starting out with, and their aims and domains. ([Location 955](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=955)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Hierarchy in sociocracy is not a hierarchy of people. Since every circle comes with a piece of the overall aim and domain, and aims and domains are nested, it is not people that are in a hierarchical relationship to each other but it is aims and domains that stand in hierarchical relationships to each other. Those aims and domains are tied to circles which are filled by circle members and holders of roles. ([Location 993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=993)) - Tags: [[blue]] - Some circles are operations-heavy (more time spent doing work, less time spent in policy meetings), some circles are policy-heavy (more time spent in meetings, less on concrete tasks). ([Location 2004](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2004)) - policy helps create “islands of authority”, like roles or other policy, that makes it easy for people to make operational decisions without having to check back with the circle. ([Location 2031](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2031)) - Policy and the clarity and empowerment it brings supports individuals by giving them freedom to act. Then again, too much policy can feel like being part of a clockwork with no choice or trust. ([Location 2033](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2033)) - policy is both constraining and freeing: it frees people by creating a clear frame in which they have freedom to act, and it constrains the options of how things can be done. ([Location 2034](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2034)) - This might be an enlightening question to ask our circle in an evaluation: are we operating within the sweet spot between limitation, clarity, trust and choice? ([Location 2036](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2036)) - We sometimes call policy decisions “bulk decisions” because instead of making a case-by-case decision, a policy sets a frame for all similar decisions falling under that policy. ([Location 2047](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2047)) - Operations and policy are not a binary distinction but two ends of a continuum. If we make policy for only a small number of situations, or case-by-case decisions for a set of situations, then the difference between operational decisions and policy decisions can blur. ([Location 2057](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2057)) - the deep listening practices and transparency in sociocracy help to build rapport and trust within a group over time, causing the range of tolerance of members to expand over time. As we hear each other, we become willing to accept other people’s preferences and to let go of our own. ([Location 2119](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2119)) - Objections also change culture. Knowing that objections can be integrated encourages members to speak up. We can ease into a place of knowing that our concerns will be taken seriously. If the group can remain in a constant mindset of improvement, there will be more decisions over time, each creating and maintaining a work environment that supports us in making our best contribution possible. ([Location 2185](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2185)) - In our experience, consent shifts the energy towards doing, instead of convincing others of our own viewpoint. ([Location 2200](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2200)) - If we raise a “concern” instead of an objection, we are putting the decision whether or not to integrate our concern on the circle. We prefer for circle members to take responsibility whether or not they would like to integrate their concern. ([Location 2211](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2211)) - Every circle member is 100% responsible for the business of the circle. ([Location 2231](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2231)) - Note that by consent, we can decide to use any other method of decision making. For example, we can, by consent to take a vote. By choosing to vote, one would intentionally accept that some voices might be ignored, for example for the sake of saving time. Having more variety in our decision making is useful if we are intentional about our choices and its advantages and disadvantages. ([Location 2235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2235)) - Any circle member can withdraw their consent even if they consented originally. ([Location 2265](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2265)) - Overall, sociocracy practices “lazy” policy-making (like lazy loading in software programming where an item is only loaded once it is requested); we only make policy if the needs cannot be met effectively in any other way. Policy takes time to make, and it requires maintenance over time so do not produce policy if it is not necessary. ([Location 2502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07HGKP31K&location=2502))