Hello there!
The Sociocracy Implementation Peer Support (SIPS) community of practice gathers monthly for 1.5 hours.
For me this often feels too short, considering all the different topics that we potentially could explore, discuss, and learn from. Therefore, to broaden the space and time in which we can connect and share our challenging experiences with the implementation of Sociocracy, we decided to use the SoFA Forum.
So there we are 
As a first post on the forum in the SIPS channel we would like to share the learning points we captured during our third SIPS session, in which we, among other things, had very interesting discussions about the following two topics.
Note: all notes are anonymous and everything confidential will not be captured nor shared.
Learning Points SIPS Session #3
First Topic:
How to keep sociocracy inviting when some members are resistant to some aspect of sociocracy- without becoming the sociocracy police.
Group consent obtained to discuss this topic
- Challenge of implementing sociocracy- what has worked for one participant is sharing the sociocracy tools- “as the group needs them”
- For example, just starting with rounds, then starting to name the rounds, then building to the different rounds for different purposes
- Notion of “sociocracy spoonfuls” but some regret and caution about not conveying the full potential of all of the sociocratic processes and structures
- Observation that people prioritize outcomes rather than “the way we work” and do not like taking the time or do not put value to processes
- Notion of sociocracy as the Trojan Mouse rather than the Trojan Horse- (sneaking up and taking over the city)
- Reflection on “robust systems- the most resistant to change”- when a system is already in place and working “well” for those who are involved perhaps…means it is harder to suggest an alternative
- A common blind spot might be to convey a sociocratic process without enough understanding of why it is done this way- for example, selections and roles
- Pro-social mentioned in reference to focusing not in the indidivudal personalities but the shared space between them- promoting inter-relationships book below by David Sloan Wilson Prosocial – David Sloan Wilson Archive
- Focus on what is working well in sociocracy- be willing to let some things go for the sake of the overall organization
- John Buck session at Global Soc. Conf. mentioned cognitive biases and referenced the wikipedia article. It iis useful to remember how we can mis- frame things that happen in our groups and how reframing can help
- A yearning for the “Retrospective” of Agile- would be a great addition- a set aside time and process to review how everything went at the conclusion of a segment or project- “During the retrospective, the team reflects on what happened in the iteration and identifies actions for improvement going forward”
- The problem of “feeling rushed” in meetings creates- disallows so much
- Discussion of what is uncomfortable: facilitator that is too empathetic with participants, selection process- people often seem uncomfortable with this- recognized the need to ask people to be open to learning and the importance of people being open to personal development
- How to motivate people to learn sociocracy? Stimulate interest/curiosity about how decisions are being made, for eg. where is the power balance and how do you get equity
- Implementing sociocracy can be a “rich process even when you get push back”
Second Topic:
If you had to pick one value from sociocracy to share what would it be?
Group consent obtained to discuss this topic
- Inclusion- or maybe even better than inclusion Participation
- Rounds/Rounding- really an attractive tool
- Difficult to say as values are all intertwined- “ no voice is ignored”, equals in decision making, autonomy
- Balance between group and individual- paradox that this is a good tension as need both group and individual- and right balance of both- this is something sociocracy does really well
- Clarification of the question above: is it What is most important to spread about sociocracy? OR… What is the most likely aspect of sociocracy to spread the quickest/have the most impact?
- Transparency- clarity on who makes the decisions/what decisions have been made, inclusion of all in the processes in their own group and others
- Dangers of not being transparent are great- many people are not transparent nor do they feed information where it needs to flow. Can we post the bullet points on social media- generally not a lot of support for this due to distraction