Sociocracy

Rights of Condo Owners

3 September 2011

I have a Google Alert set up for “condo governance” that flags some interesting articles and the daily list of titles is revealing even if I don’t click through to read the articles. As would be expected, the current economic crisis aside, most are about delinquencies, condos going under because of bad management or foreclosures, [...]

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Lost Valley Intentional Community, Eugene, Oregon

10 August 2011

A video has been posted on YouTube that talks about using sociocracy at Lost Valley Intentional Community. This is a nice video for residential communities — cohousing, cooperatives, condominium, and intentional — because it talks about the values and benefits of creating a sociocracy without the corporate/business vocabulary and concerns. It is also set on [...]

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DecisonLab, Sussex, England, UK

8 August 2011

A consulting practice that offers facilitation, training, coaching, and consultancy services to organizations and leaders who share common visions of bettering the world. Since January 2010, DecisionLab has been governed and operated along sociocratic and cooperative principles. In March 2010, DecisionLab incorporated as Sociocratic, Ecological and Economic Development (SEED) Ltd, which is a registered member of Co-operatives UK. Their [...]

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Aptivate, Cambridge, England, UK

8 August 2011

An NGO and not-for-profit organisation that provides IT services for international development. Works on both grant funded projects and direct partnerships with NGOs. Mission Aptivate believes in the power of knowledge and communication to alleviate poverty, suffering and conflict, and in the right of every individual to inform and be informed. We are dedicated to [...]

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What Is Power?

5 April 2011

In physics, power is the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted. As people, we have personal power, the ability to accomplish tasks and achieve goals; power with, the ability to engage with others to accomplish tasks and achieve goals; and power over, the ability to control others to accomplish tasks and achieve goals. Without [...]

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Positive Power Over

5 April 2011

Power over is not always about forcing, coercing, pressuring, manipulating etc. It can be as engaging as power with. In terms lazy subordination and undeveloped personal power, power over can be an engaged relationship between the autocrat and the subordinate. Some people want to be dominated and to do so is engaging them, even if [...]

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Round Pyramid, or Rounding the Pyramid

3 January 2011

Used by Ricardo Semler in Maverick to describe the circular hierarchy created at Semco in Brazil. (Chapter 24, “Rounding the Pyramid,” pp. 187-196.)

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Terra Viva, São Paulo, Brazil

28 December 2010

Terra Viva is an agribusiness centered in São Paulo, Brazil begin by the Schoenmaker family in 1959 to grow gladiolas. Though not mentioned on their website, Gerard Endenburg consulted with the owner in the 1970s to develop the company using sociocracy. They now have more than a thousand workers and focus on bulbs and plants for [...]

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Semco, São Paulo, Brazil

28 December 2010

Throughout Maverick, Ricardo Semler’s book on the development of his corporation Semco, he expresses and implements ideas that are hauntingly similar to those of Gerard Endenburg. Semler calls his method “open management” and refers to democracy for workers. He never mentions Endenburg’s “sociocratic-circle-organization.” What was the connection between the ideas of Semler and Endenburg? Between [...]

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The Love Assumption

12 December 2010

There is a persistent assumption in cohousing and other consensus communities that lack of love is the cause of conflict. That conflict arises when we allow ourselves, our ego, our self-centeredness to isolate us from others, from understanding their needs, from caring. If we confront our isolation and commune with our neighbors, we will “feel [...]

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