Sociocracy 3.0
What is sociocracy 3.0?
Effective collaboration at any scale, be it in families, communities or organisations.
The idea behind Sociocracy as an organisational format resp. form of governance is based on the concept of “decision-making among equal individuals” and has its origins in the 19th century tough, was mainly shaped throughout the 20th century (read here more about its history). It is based on a set of principles, such as consent which means decisions are being taken in the absence of strong and reasoned objections - compared to majority decision-making or consensus - or the idea of organising in circles.
Sociocracy 3.0 (S3) is a body of Creative Commons licensed learning resources, synthesising ideas from Sociocracy, Agile and Lean. It offers a practical guide for evolving agile and resilient organisations of any size. Its aim is to make everyone feel engaged and accountable, be it within small start-ups and large international networks and nationwide, multi-agency collaboration.
S3 provides a coherent collection of principles based patterns for collaboration, to navigate complexity, adapt and evolve. It helps organisations to make the best use of the talent and collective intelligence present and to grow flexible organisational structures to align the flow of information and influence to the flow of value.
At collaboratio helvetica, most of our structures and processes, such as organisational circles (we call them domains) and decision-making and proposal making processes are organised according to Sociocracy 3.0. Through these processes, we ensure fairness, engagement and accountability among the team members and the different domains.
Our connection with the institution
S3 has been the go-to collaboration and governance approach for all work done within collaboratio helvetica since its beginnings.
We hosted a Sociocracy 3.0 Training in 2017 and again in 2019 together with our friends at e7°.
Our Community Member (incl. Practitioners Circle members) have been part of various trainings and are applying the tools in day to day work and life.
Toolbox & articles
Find descriptions of tools and our experiences with them in our open-source toolbox:
Practice examples and personal experiences:
James Priest, Co-Developer of Sociocracy 3.0
"Lasting relationships are built through shared experience, and motivation to collaborate with others arises when we share a common purpose to preserve something precious or to make important changes in the world.
Collaboratio helvetica provides a container, facilitation and resources that enable people to do both: preserving what is precious and working to catalyse initiatives that contribute toward a future we can be proud for our children to inherit."