The Sociocracy Consulting Group

In recent weeks, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and numerous local and regional Occupy actions in the USA have brought ideas of “horizontal” governance into more common awareness. Occupy groups have mostly modeled themselves on the original OWS model, where “General Assemblies” that operate through a form of active, often large-group consensus are a primary means of decision-making. Inclusiveness and equality are commonly stated values of these processes. The term “leaderless” is also used by Occupy organizations to identify their mode of operation. In theory, there are no leaders of General Assemblies, or the groups they are used by. There are … Continue reading →

[Cross posted from the DecisionLab blog]

I am passionate about economic democracy — not so much in the sense of majority rule voting, but in the sense of the people involved in something controlling it together.  Some people have argued that, for this purpose, organising as a sociocratic business is better than organising as a co-operative business.  Sociocratic businesses allow their members to participate in decision-making regardless of the size of their contribution to the business’s capital; sociocratic businesses do not get torn apart by the Scylla of majority-rule politics or sucked down by the Charybdis of interminable and impotent meetings.  However, many co-ops do not suffer from these problems either — and a co-op can remain a co-op while becoming a sociocratic business.  The opposition between co-op and Sociocracy is a false one.  Let me show you why. Continue reading →

“I can take one look at an organisational chart and tell you whether they will still be in business in a few years’ time.”  Philip smiled at me and raised his eyebrows.  I was already deeply impressed with his insight and achievements, but with this he had me hooked. Continue reading →

On the last day of August 2011, high-tech photovoltaics manufacturer Solyndra abruptly shut down. The cutting-edge solar power technology company announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Employees were turned away when they arrived for work that morning; in total, 1,100 full and part-time personnel were laid off overnight. Based in California, Solyndra was touted as an example of cutting edge American solar technology design, and was actually manufacturing their products in the United States rather than offshore. The deck seemed stacked in their favor early on – in 2009, Solyndra received a $535 million federal loan guarantee … Continue reading →

[edit Nov 14 2011: Now it is the USA, and people are getting clear about what they want. Need a stop button!]

London is burning. The world saw an Arab Spring, and in London and San Francisco — across Europe and North America — we celebrated other people’s civil discontent as a sign of positive transformation. Why are we not celebrating our own civil unrest? Continue reading →