tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63833954201512962682011-07-08T04:50:04.497-07:00This blog is about Sociocracy as a governance model. I write about sociocracy as applied to organizations, communities, families, and individuals. Sociocracy is my passion... please do not hesitate to comment!Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-87022161117479004772011-04-20T11:33:00.000-07:002011-04-20T11:33:58.665-07:00

Ok. I admit to being a flawed blogger. I write on a less that regular basis. My mind is filled with ideas and yet I seem to lack the time to put them down in my blog. Shame. I just finished watching a wonderful video about our current Education Paradigm, and I think it is fully worth watching: http://wimp.com/educationparadigms/ This is triggering a lot for me. First and foremost, why do we

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-32461140747588453142010-09-18T21:47:00.001-07:002010-09-19T20:36:02.069-07:00

Well, all I can say is, "It's been a while"! And although there is no excuse to be produced other than a complete lack of inspiration, I can state for a fact that it has changed.It has been well over a year already since my last post. And so much has happened in that time, both personally and sociocratically. I shall provide an ever-short version of the personal, and then focus on what this blog

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-5121129224081118822009-07-30T09:30:00.000-07:002009-07-30T09:30:00.946-07:00

A common misconception is that Consent and Concensus are the same. I have been given this some thought for a while, and just as I had more or less let the topic wander off the fringe of my attention, I received a few emails directly relating to it, so I decided to post a summary of what has come my way.First, I will copy a few definitions of Concensus (and attempt to cite as accurately as

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-77797400414584093332009-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:002009-07-29T09:36:31.046-07:00

Well, after one month on the road vacationing and attending leadership and Sociocratic training, I am glad to be back to work. My mind is full of fresh thoughts and ideas, and I am eager to get working on the implementation at the College and the International Conference for next June.During my travels, I attended my third 3-day sociocracy training session (out of six). It was a wonderful

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-76990292333743909882009-06-22T10:27:00.001-07:002009-06-22T10:36:27.368-07:00

The web site is finally online, albeit in a limited version.Yukon College and the Centre for Sociocratic Governance - North America are co-hosting an International Conference on Dynamic Governance:The River Flows Both Ways - A New Era of Organizational GovernanceJune 14-15-16 2010, in Whitehorse, YukonView Larger MapThis will be an event you will NOT want to miss! The full web site should be

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-68750205838250332692009-06-11T13:00:00.000-07:002009-06-11T14:00:09.478-07:00

Well folks, I have suddenly come up with a Paramount Objection to most of my extracurricular activities, and the reason is that I am simply in need of a break. A real one!So, this will be my last posting for the next few weeks. It will allow me to collect my thoughts, process much of what has happened over the past year, and hopefully obtain better clarity over Dynamic Governance and its

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-1719442381170217622009-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:002009-06-05T08:00:03.157-07:00

I had a neat experience during a circle meeting not too long ago that taught me a lot about group dynamics, and also about some of the challenges around implementing DG. About a dozen of us were meeting for an hour to do some planning for a workgroup, on a spectacular day of sun and warmth. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the Yukon, we get long winters, and when we get nice

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-61889234672875892282009-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:002009-06-04T08:29:40.191-07:00

The Implementation Group had its second meeting this week. Fewer people showed up, about ten total. But what a productive and energetic hour that was! We brainstormed on the Mission of the group, and set up a committee of four to work on a few proposals for next week's meeting. This is where Google Docs comes in handy. In less than 24 hours, we had a solid draft of three proposals that had been

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I don't remember feeling so nervous at the onset of a meeting for a long time. The jitters I was feeling today were reminiscent of my early teaching years, when I still felt on shaky grounds. Thirteen colleagues came to the Implementation meeting today. Wow! And another ten said they wanted to come but could not make it. I felt such a fresh breeze of energy! And I should mention that some of

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-71913445089587677872009-05-25T20:00:00.000-07:002009-05-25T21:47:30.634-07:00

Implementation: The process of moving an idea from concept to reality. In engineering and other fields, implementation refers to the building process rather than the design process (wikitionary).So, in terms of Governance, Implementation should be the phase when an organization is actually ready to build a new system, what engineers call the building phase. But an engineer would only consider

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-90477439328265104922009-05-21T21:05:00.000-07:002009-05-21T21:16:26.307-07:00

Well, I am impressed. No more than two days after having sent a general email to staff seeking participants for a general circle, I already have received well over half a dozen very interested replies. People want to get involved! And this brings me so, so much relief! To think that there are others who actually want to get together and work collectively to make our College an even better place

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-14641727616922145732009-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:002009-05-20T22:00:57.673-07:00

I just came back from a meeting between various leaders and members from a small community whose task was to come up with a plan to establish a process to ensure that the various organizations from that community would work more closely together. You can imagine some of the issues/concerns brought up: independence of each board; decision-making processes; how binding such decisions would be; how

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-416272536249172692009-05-19T21:00:00.000-07:002009-05-19T22:55:07.804-07:00

Sociocracy is simple and yet, for some reason that I feel I am close to grasping, it is difficult to implement. The College experiment is still happening... but lately, circle meetings have been canceled, certain people's resistance to the experiment has been weighing more, and the overall energy around the overall project has diminished. So I have been in deep thought about this and the reasons

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-13350622287622252902009-05-02T21:22:00.000-07:002009-05-03T19:21:40.298-07:00

History is made up of pivotal moments that define generations and even eras. Sometimes such moments are localized, others they are widespread. And it is often difficult to see the importance and significance of a moment while it is happening. I think of Obama's election only a few months ago... Only a generation or two from now will the full effect of such an important event be truly understood.I

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-56435692634871476222009-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-27T07:41:44.954-07:00

One of the first concern I hear during early sociocratic meetings is the impression that using that format will lead to longer, less efficient meetings. In such cases, I feel like I must ask the question: What is efficiency?People often think of efficiency in terms of how many agenda items a group can cover over the span of a meeting. I was recently attending meetings for a pan-Canadian

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-88849333152926414952009-04-22T10:00:00.000-07:002009-04-22T19:33:47.597-07:00

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Einstein -Hence the title of this post. It occurs to me that our society is not very quick at realizing the wisdom of that statement. One simply has to look at the current economic and environmental crisis to see how "insane" we have collectively become. The markets came crashing down, the

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-16277543584782424062009-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:002009-04-20T10:04:49.077-07:00

Society. Collectivity. Group. Gathering. Team. Unit. Band. Party. Troop. System. Contingent. Aggregation. Set. Faction. Bunch. Club. Corps. Detachment. Gang.And then there is me. A group of one. A single unit, a link in the chain, an individual, unique, important, paramount, with ideas, aspirations, ambitions, drives, fears, limitations, incentives, talents, and so, so much more! So, where do I

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-91516110977527318642009-04-18T22:00:00.000-07:002009-04-18T22:41:20.915-07:00

Power is a loaded term. It is anything but neutral. Some love it, others crave it, many fear it, and most are subjected to multiple forms of it.As one can read on Wikipedia, "Power is a measure of an entity's ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-84437789926151245232009-04-15T15:00:00.000-07:002009-04-17T10:39:51.777-07:00

Sociocracy is effective. It works. And the reason it works is because it has a clear set of rules that make sense to people. These rules were not drafted at random. They were carefully crafted to be in line with the laws of Nature.The four Rules of Sociocracy are as follow (as taken from sociocracy.fr):1. The CircleThe Circle is the basic unit in a system. It is formed to perform specific duties

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-73454214329761648032009-04-14T09:00:00.000-07:002009-04-14T13:23:08.726-07:00

"Currently, for one enterprise that bathes in multiple intelligence, there are a dozen more that sit in a culture of conflicts and madness" (Karl Albrecht, loosely translated by myself, and how well illustrated by the Dilbert Cartoon!)I recently had a wonderful conversation with a great friend of mine whom I had not seen for a while. In chatting and catching up,

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-5184844987572276692009-04-13T06:00:00.000-07:002009-04-13T08:30:24.770-07:00

Ever heard of the foot in the door phenomenon? It is the notion that complying to small requests makes one more likely to comply to larger ones after. In Milgram's experiment, it is unlikely anyone would have administered the highest shock at the onset of the experiment; rather, participants went from a seemingly harmless 15 volt shock, up to 30, then 45, then 60, and so on... every time going up

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-54247923082583042012009-04-09T14:52:00.000-07:002009-04-11T09:56:57.452-07:00

Social Psychology has always been one of my favourite topics in University, and later on as an Instructor of Psychology. I love the ingenuity behind the research, and find the results fascinating!My all-time Social Psychology Hero is without question Stanley Milgram. His research has revolutionized both the field of Social Psychology and the way we think of the power of social systems/situations.

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-81215259618723623232009-04-08T10:00:00.000-07:002009-04-08T16:11:09.332-07:00

Revolutions take on many forms. Some were violent, others not. The American Revolution (1775-1783) was bloody, whereas the French-Canadian Quiet Revolution (1960-1970) was a cultural shift without any bloodshed (unless the October Crisis gets counted in).In the workplace, revolutions can also occur in both forms. Looking at the following headline: "It's okay to lock up your boss, says nearly half

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-86249061673379344062009-04-07T07:30:00.000-07:002009-04-07T09:01:30.223-07:00

Simple answer: Because it works (or that doesn't)!And also because it is SO needed... Just take a moment and reflect on what is currently happening on the world stage: The economy is sinking... all the while top executives are receiving massive bonuses, regardless of the fact that businesses are not performing! Employees are laid off, while managers get raises and bonuses. Employee satisfaction

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-32254033328156843652009-04-06T10:16:00.000-07:002009-04-06T15:02:35.195-07:00

The more I read and explore, the more I notice how very distinct walks of life converge towards the same conclusion: the circle is a powerful setting. Musk Ox use it to defend their youngsters. American settlers used the exact same technique to protect their families during the western colonization of the 19th century.I have practiced Aikido for about five years, and it struck me that the circle

Sociocracy bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02458417903089378315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6383395420151296268.post-52150164713586109142009-04-03T15:52:00.000-07:002009-04-05T19:55:28.742-07:00

A widely-spread belief I often encounter when I travel South (of the 60th parallel) is that the winter in the Yukon must be so difficult to live through in the dark. If summers have near 24 hours of daylight, then surely winter must have near 24 hours of darkness. Bzzzzzzzt! Wrong! Winter solstice brings with it 5.5 hours of sunlight (in Whitehorse that is... further north, it is less). Add to

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How wonderful that a simple and unremarkable event in time can lead to such important consequences. Thinking back to where Sociocracy began for Yukon College, I am reminded of this concept many of you will be familiar with: The Butterfly Effect. Quickly put, it is "the idea that one butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent historic events" (taken from Wikipedia).

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Well, let me first welcome myself to the 21st Century! This is my first Blog. I am ashamed to admit I resisted this for so long. It took the wisdom of many colleagues before I accepted my fate and actually went through the motions of setting this up (and that only after months of internal struggles and overt resistance). As I write this entry, I am left wondering how the page will look after I

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