Facilitating Sociocracy – The Sociocracy Consulting Group

Understanding facilitation and the facilitator role in sociocracy is vital to success. This course focuses on the essentials of excellence in facilitation, from advance preparation to dealing with challenging situations.

Rave reviews!

"This course has given me much deeper appreciation for sociocratic facilitation. Each week offered a step-by-step grounding in the circle meeting process. My ability to successfully navigate a meeting has grown significantly, and our community’s meetings are much more productive now. It was great to have a small class with such skilled, experienced, and responsive instructors. I received a lot of help and suggestions specific to my real-world responsibilities. This is the first time in an online class that I felt so engaged, learned so much, and received so much value and personal attention. I highly recommend this class for anyone who wants to improve their understanding, experience, skills, and enjoyment of sociocratic facilitation."

- Hope V. Horton, Hart’s Mill Ecovillage, North Carolina

In this class you will

Explore facilitation structures and processes.
Plan and prepare for meetings and facilitate sociocratic decision-making processes, with coaching.
Practice handling challenging facilitation situations in role-plays and simulations.
Get support in facilitating in your own organization.
Get to know others who are using and learning sociocracy.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of Foundations of Sociocracy or equivalent training or experience. Contact us if you have questions about prerequisites.

This training is offered online as a series of six 2 1/2 hour classes combined with between-class assignments. Online contact time is a minimum of 15 hours and instructor feedback and support between classes is included in the class fees.

See our events calendar for dates and times of upcoming trainings.

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Additional information:

There will be approximately two hours of between-class homework assignments, with instructor feedback.
In addition each student will practice facilitation with a group outside of class time. If you do not already have a group with whom you can practice, we will assist you to set one up.
We will record all sessions so that you can listen if you miss a class.
Students who attend at least four classes and provide evidence that they have made up the other two classes will receive a certificate of participation.

In-House Facilitating Sociocracy Option
We will conduct the Facilitating Sociocracy training "in-house” by special arrangement. The required workshop contact time and between-class assignments can be scheduled to meet your organization’s needs and objectives. In-house training is an excellent method for building facilitation capacity and effective leadership within your organization.

To learn more about our in-house training option or to set up a program at your organization, please contact us.

Better Workload Balance

We are deeply concerned...about work/life balance...using sociocracy, I led an effort to start cutting back on workload... As a result we work more effectively. Our enrollment this year is up 10%, much better than the rest of the university is doing, and we've just landed a $7 million dollar grant that will let us set up two more departments in the school.

Dr. Edward Clift, Dean, The School of Media Culture and Design at Woodbury University, Burbank, CA

Creative Decisions that Last

We used a sociocracy consultant to facilitate our Steering Council meeting and an annual Community meeting for our religious congregation, where we dealt with some emotionally-charged issues. She did a skillful job. We were all glad that we were able to arrive at creative decisions, and those decisions have lasted.

Elyse Seidner-Joseph, Chairperson, Steering Council, P’nai Or Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Increased Profits the First Year

Sociocracy has made a big difference in Creative Urethanes’ ability to withstand the economic downturn. We saw increased profits within the first year of using the method. Over time we have applied it to many areas of the company. As a result we have better communication throughout the company, lower employee turnover, more energy in staff members due to increased involvement, more creative ideas that help us thrive in our industry, and continuous improvement within the organization. Best for me is I have more assistance—having everyone’s help during hard economic times has lifted some weight off my shoulders.

Richard Heitfield, President, Creative Urethanes, Winchester, Virginia

Ready to Use

The ideas have been cleverly worked out for a very long time and are at the point of being ready to be taught and used. We were well-trained and it is usable NOW. For 12 hours training this was a stunning achievement. Fantastic! Best bunch of new ideas I have heard for a long time.

Dave Burrows, Director, AIDS Projects Management Group

Moving Through Problems Together

Our community faced daunting financial and personality challenges on its path to getting built. Sociocracy helped everyone get over their problems by getting together. We now have a happy, thriving community and sociocracy is the basis of our governance system.

Founding member of a Vermont cohousing community

A Collective Effort Like no Other

When we set up the International Conscious Movement Teachers Association we wanted to create a genuinely inclusive organisation run on a less hierarchical model. It’s been quite a journey - learning new ways of being - transparency, equivalence...passing decisions off to those responsible for the area of work - and letting them get on with it! We ended up with a lot more than we had bargained for...a collective effort like no other, and intelligent decision-making that genuinely stems from collaboration and creativity. The biggest surprise for many of us is how heart-warming the process is - and how it supports the making of bonds between us.

Tim Foskett, Director, International Conscious Movement Teachers Association