A New Paradigm in Education

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 treat children as miniature adults? How have we come to expect them to be just like us? What makes us believe that children must be educated in a factory-style system?

www.theRSA.org

The fundamental principle behind sociocracy (and for the matter, behind life) is that individuals are equivalent. Without equivalence, systems cannot be sustained forever. Equivalence simply refers to the fact that we have the right to be considered. If my neighbor decides to throw a large outdoor party without taking my objections into consideration, equivalence has been lost, and the system is broken. This will likely lead to conflict. Had equivalence been present, the friendly neighbor would have worked with me in an attempt to find common grounds through a creative solution.

Few people would argue that in the Education System, the principle of equivalence is largely absent. Take the teacher with her students, the principal with the teachers, the school district manager with the principals, the politicians with the managers, etc. Schools are run like a business. Order must be kept, and if a member does not fit, that member has to be shaped in or kept out. This can be overt or covert. In an overt way, we ask students to behave in certain ways, we demand that they respect their teachers even when certain teachers lack respect to their students (far from the majority). Covertly, this can be happening when teachers give a cold shoulder to the new recruit, who is way too motivated and brings in too much energy and ideas. Instead of admitting that the newcomer brings in a different perspective, it is easier to shut him out.

Let's imagine a different system altogether. One where the following four rules supersede everything else:

1. All members are equivalent (not equal, but of value and all deserving to be treated with dignity and consideration).
2. There is a place where important decisions are made, and there are representatives from all related areas present (called the circle).
3. The decisions that are made in the circle are made by consent, meaning that we work at integrating all the objections into the decisions.
4. Every position in the organisation is filled by consent election (an election based on argumentation rather than on campaigning and seduction).

How would this all come together? Rather simply. Given that the purpose of the education system is to educate, we have a wonderful opportunity to change things. We have a dedicated audience (the learners) and much resources to support their learning (staff, buildings, and money). Before we can teach children to treat each other as equivalent individuals, we must teach it to the authority, which in this case are the teachers, staff, and management. A series of 3-day workshops with these people would bring them to a place where they would experience what it truly means to be equivalent. Only practice can allow a person to grasp what equivalence is.

Once a school's management and staff (the hierarchy) have experienced collective decision-making in a system where equivalence is the norm, they will be able to teach those concepts to their students by treating them as such. Unless the staff has been able to live equivalence through experience, it will be very difficult to pass it down to the students.

In order to have a school which is fully organised in such a way would require two years. The first year to train the staff, the second to implement with the students.

What would the results look like? First and foremost, the climate would be one of respect for each other, staff towards staff and students, and students towards students and staff. There would be much less conflict with authority as the authority would feel legitimate. When there is equivalence, individuals no longer feel threatened by authority. We have learned to fear authority because people who possess it can hurt us. They can overpower us. But in a system of equivalence, authority is kept in line. It is naturally controlled by the rules and the elements of the system.

I dream of a sociocratic school. I would bet my house that students going through such a school would outperform others on just about every objective that our system has for them, and more. I bet staff and students would be happier, more productive, and healthier than in other institutions. I hope I get to make that wager one day...

I am back online!

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 is about: the world of Sociocracy!

As I was pursuing my training in Sociocratic Leadership with the International School for Leaders (ecoledeschefs.ca), I met the person I though did not exist. She is my true love, the kind one only hears about in movies or books. But she is there and she is true... and we now live together and are expecting... twins! As if life had not been generous enough already, I am being given such treasures...

I have also resigned from Yukon College this past summer. The work there was no longer giving me enough satisfaction, nor was it meaningful to me. I was starting to become depressed, low in motivation and low in performance. Being a unionized environment, I could have remained there, do the bare minimum, and keep on making good wages. But the cost would toll would have been very high: my pride, my health, and likely my life... So, I chose to live, I chose to dare, and I chose to leave.

The timing was perfect. We wrapped up the first International Conference on Dynamic Governance on June 16th (which was a wonderful success, many thanks to my dear and esteemed colleague John Buck), after which I left for Montreal, my new old home. After ten years in the Yukon, it was time to leave.

Since then, life has gone into hyperdrive. Let me explain: I have been asked to take the lead to set up the new Canadian Sociocratic Centre (more on this in a post to come) as the assistant to the Executive Director. The plan is for me to take over in the coming year. I am also working hard at developing a network to attract student into the School for Leaders. I have moved from the Yukon into a new home in Montreal, and am helping my partner in the transition with her business, as her pregnancy is, well, growing!

So, there is lots to talk about in the world of sociocracy, and as such, inspiration will likely not falter for a while. In one of my next posts, I want to discuss why I think Sociocracy could lead to much better results than the court system when it comes to broken up families. I will also discuss its application to family counselling, to business governance, and other such topics.

Until then, I wish you wonderful and meaningful sociocratic experiences!

Cheers!

Jean-Marc

Consensus vs Consent

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 possible):

1. Consensus/ is a group decision (which some members may not feel is the best decision, but which they can all live with, support and commit themselves to not undermine), arrived at without voting, through a process whereby the issues are fully aired, all members feel they have been adequately heard, in which everyone has equal power and responsibility, and different degrees of influence by virtue of individual stubbornness or charisma are avoided so that all are satisfied with the process. The process requires the members to be emotionally present and engaged, frank in a loving, mutually respectful manner, sensitive to each other; to be selfless, dispassionate, and capable of emptying themselves and possessing a paradoxical awareness of precariousness of both people and time (including knowing when the solution is satisfactory, and that it is time to stop and not reopen the discussion until such time as the group determines a need for revision.)

From A World Waiting To Be Born_ by M. Scott Peck, pg. 291. Copyrighted. / This definition was written by a group, Valley Diagnostic and Surgical Clinic of Harlingen Texas, as part of a community.

My initial reaction to this is: WOW! Sounds great, but how many groups can achieve this? Let me relate a translated version of Gilles Charest's comment in relation to this definition. His words coin the issues related to concensus:

1. Concensus requires too many conditions related to the quality of the people or their intentions.
2. Concensus is not operational. The process for arriving at a consensus decision is unclear.
3. Concensus is based on a more or less idyllic democracy where ultimately the individual must convince the majority of the validity of his arguments, otherwise he must have the generosity to join.

In my next post, I will go over the definition of Consent, and the process to reach it. It is well-defined, very well-structured, and very, very efficient.

Back Online, and So Much More...

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 experience, with many thought provoking concepts and activities. The course was held in Très-Saint-Rédempteur, a small village an hour out of Montreal.



The course was held there due to the fact that the municipality is amazingly progressive and constantly looking at new ways of doing things. One of their great achievements has been to launch an internet Coop a few years ago. That Coop was born as a direct result of the major Internet Providers' refusal to provide high-speed internet to the small 700-resident community (not enough profits to be generated). This was a serious issue for the town, as many residents are young entrepreneurs who cannot do their work without the internet access. The municipality is drawing young people from Montreal who seek life-balance, combining nature with modern-day work. Without internet, many such young entrepreneurs would either not move to Très-Saint-Rédempteur, or worse, some would have to leave.

With that prospect in mind, a small group of people, some part of the city council, others volunteers, got together and founded a Coop, CSUR, with the goal of providing high-speed internet access to all residents of the area. Four years later, with multiple hundred customers, the Coop has been identified by the Québec governement as a potential internet solution model for all of rural municipalities in the province.

Refusing to sit on such praise, the Coop board has taken on to further its development and take on a more active role withing the municipality. There are projects for a green affordable-housing complex, an equestrian centre, a network of trails, and so much more. But with such a major endeavour, there are issues of governance. How should the municipality and the Coop work together? How should decisions that affect many, if not most, residents be made? Is it at all possible to avoid power struggles, personality conflicts, and "small town" politics?

Exploring possibilities, the Coop has decided to attempt an implementation of sociocracy. They have obtained government support for this, and will work with Sociogest, a Quebec consulting firm that specializes in Sociocracy.

It was wonderful to meet these pioneers while on location for the course. These people are dedicated, high-spirited, and have given themselves a life mission of making things better for themselves, their community, and the future. I will keep an eye wide open to see how things develop over the years. I have no doubt they will become a model for the world!

Yukon Conference on Dynamic Governance

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 Governance
June 14-15-16 2010, in Whitehorse, Yukon
View Larger Map

This will be an event you will NOT want to miss! The full web site should be online by mid-July, and i will keep posting information on this Blog.

You can view Yukon College on Facebook


Also, check out this great site relating to self-organization:
Our Next Step Together

Taking the Time to Take Time

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 implementation at the College.

For this last posting, I want to follow up on my last entry, where I discussed how I felt I had let my Implementation Group down by allowing the group to ignore an issue that had spontaneously arisen (around whether to hold the meeting outside or not). As it happens, at our next meeting (which happened a week later) as facilitator I decided to amend the agenda and resolve the issue from the previous meeting.

I decided to do this for a few reasons. First, as people were coming in, I heard the comment being made that perhaps "today, if we are lucky, we could go outside". Second, I felt that for the group to become solid and effective, we had to be able to resolve what appeared to be a simple issue. So I set to steer the group in that direction.

The way we tackled the issue was simple. I explained why I wanted to go back to it, and then I proceeded to ask the group to come up with an idea, a solution, or a proposal. Someone then proposed that we go outside for that meeting. So we treated that proposal as any other, and within about 15 minutes, it was decided that the next meeting would be outside, weather permitting, so that everyone would know in advance and be able to prepare for it.

When I asked for a comment round at the end of that decision, a few interesting comments were brought up. First, many thought that it was great to actually take the time to learn how to work together; second, a few were not too keen on that, rather, they would have preferred to go straight to the business items, but were ok with going along; third (and this one was during the closing round), two people mentioned that they felt I had taken a lot of space in the discussions, especially during the debate over our Vision Statement. The question was whether I took so much space because I was facilitator or because I had drafted the Vision statement.

At that moment it became clear to me that the time had come to have an election for a new facilitator. This will build the capacity of the group and allow the members to get engaged at a different level.

The main thought I will be leaving on holidays with is that Sociocracy is much, much more than an organizational structure and a decision-making process. I will write more on these thoughts once I have had time to rest and wander...

Until then, feel free to post comments or email me. I will never be too far from an internet connection...

From Cognition to Emotion

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 weather, many like to be outside! So, during the opening round, someone made the comment that he would like to be outside for this meeting. Following that, in my role of facilitator, I suggested that the person make that into a proposal. Without having the time to formulate it, another member of the group objected, stating that he did not do well in hot weather, and that if the group wanted to go outside, and that we should just go ahead and get the meeting done.

I then proceeded to explore a possible alternative, such as finding a location with shade, to which the person replied that we could go outside and he would simply go home. What struck me was the immediate rise of tension around the table. It was so thick and people were so uncomfortable that I then proceeded to see if the group could live with being inside (bad move on my part as a facilitator, as I feel I let my guard down and missed a great opportunity to help the group grow as a unit). I saw people's resignation to that idea and we proceeded with the meeting.

So what have I learned with that situation? First, that the role of Facilitator is a tough one that requires a lot of knowledge, experience, leadership, and trust in oneself. Second, that there is a difference between "understanding" DG, "experiencing" DG, and "living" DG. Third, that DG requires a lot more time than I anticipated.

It is one thing to implement a circle structure and to explain what "zero objections" means. But it is entirely different to "experience" it. The tension that is generated through objections can either be avoided by dismissing the issue to be resolved (or by doing a poor job at resolving it) or be harnessed to become a driver or creativity and team development. Teams that allow themselves the privilege to stay in the moment, live the tension, work with it, will become that much stronger, more efficient, and creative. The members will feel connected with one another and feel a greater sense of belonging both to the group and the institution. This all happens when the information gets transferred from the head into the heart.

I am so thrilled by this new group I am feeling hopeful, energized, driven, and giddy!

The Energy of One, the Power of the Many

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 edited by three different individuals! I will be adding some final touches today, send it out to the committee for their final approval and edits, and then the entire Implementation Group will be getting a copy to review before next week's meeting.

This is DG at work! Get people to work together on what matters, and then get them to decide on what gets approved. Once that has been done, the energy is focused, the team spirit is high, and the boat is going strong.

I like where that group is heading. It is completely self-organizing and the proposals that will be presented set the guidelines which will inform the activities of the group for the year to come. Although the document is far from being final, I feel like posting the first of the proposals on the blog. This will allow everyone to see the progression.


Proposal #1

It is proposed that the following Vision and Mission Statements be adopted for DGIG:


Vision Statement
We envision Yukon College as an institution where all staff have a deep understanding of Sociocratic principles and methods, which is reflected by the circle structures in every area of the organization. This results in positive and satisfying relationships, as well as a high level of work quality and productivity.


Mission Statement
For the Academic year 2009-2010, the DGI Group will provide access to Sociocratic learning opportunities and work to support the adoption and use of dynamic governance at Yukon College.

Overall Aims
A. To support the on-going implementation of Dynamic Governance at Yukon College.
B. To reflect on, and develop, tools and strategies to enhance the DG experience at Yukon College
C. To develop and implement an evaluation system for DG Implementation


As I said, this is the second or third draft. I will post the final version once we have approved it, and will post on the process that lead to it... The energy I get from the group is fantastic and I am thrilled to be a part of it!

Stay tuned, there is much, much more to come...

Energy Through the Many

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 these people knew next to nothing about DG, other than the fact that it is happening in one form or another withing the College.

I brought forth a proposal, presented it, and allowed for the process to do its thing. We collected questions, reactions, and objections. We sought consent, and we obtained it. It was amazing! The result is that the group will meet again on Tuesday to begin its self-determination.

I don't know why I did not seek this earlier on... but I am definitely making a clear note with red ink in my personal notebook: when working on a collective endeavour, involve the collective from the get-go!

Interestingly, it appears that there is still resistance within the ranks of management. So the group wanted to stress that its purpose would be one of support of existing circles, and future ones that want to implement. This group is not about trying to bring in more circles. I hope this will relieve some of the fears that may exist higher up.

I would be sad if DG had for an effect to bring us a few years behind, when employees and management were split by an ever widening rift. It seems that over the past year or so, that rift was being filled. It would be a shame to see it being dug out and growing again.

I am always amazed and humbled by the collective wisdom of the groups I am priviledged to work with... it amazes me to see and hear the creativity that abounds all around me. DG seems to be a great conduit to channel it and allow it to blossom.

I can hardly wait until the next Impementation meeting!

Insight on Implementation

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 entering the building phase after being able to state the following:

"Now that the requirements are complete we can move on to implementation" (wikitionary).

Requirement:

1. A necessity or prerequisite; something required or obligatory;
2. (engineering) A statement (in domain specific terms) which specifies a verifiable constraint on an implementation that it shall undeniably meet or (a) be deemed unacceptable, or (b) result in implementation failure, or (c) result in system failure. (wikitionary)

So... how does all this fit in with my insight? Simply put, it appears to me that implementing DG should be tackled like the process of building an actual physical structure. In other words, there are necessities or prerequisites that must be met before going any further:

1. Dream/vision;
2. Plan/research/analyze/prepare/consult/share/train;
3. Implement;
4. Evaluate;
5. Adjust;
6. Re-evaluate;
7. Readjust... and so on...

Looking into the most common complaint/concern I hear from various individuals I highly respect, it is becoming clear to me that it would have been much wiser for me to spend more time preparing the ground before taking the first shovel to the dirt. In other words, I am beginning to see that Edenburg's analogy to mechanical systems is much wiser and much deeper than I ever thought before.

The most common complaint I hear is that DG is taking time, and is not showing clear and concrete results right away... In other words, if DG was actually so good, we should already have short, effective meetings that lead to great results that would not have been attained otherwise.

But there is a fundamental paradox in these statements, and I have just moved from feeling that paradox to being able to identify it: To do things well, it takes time. And if a person/group feels that DG is not leading to anything clear, then it is likely that things were not clearly organized to begin with (and I say this with the utmost respect for all that has been and is being done by all my colleagues).

I remember how John Buck kept repeating that when a group uses DG, the "pink elephants" come out on the table very quickly, be it a personality conflict, a personnel issue, or, in a case I am facing these days, a lack of clearly organized work structures.

DG is many things at once:

1. A decision-making model;
2. A communication structure;
3. A mechanism to organize work within a system;
4. A philosophy of life;
5. A political system;
6. I am sure the list could go on...

So, in setting the path for Implementation, it becomes evident that much work must be done before any construction can begin.

Does this mean Yukon College went about it the wrong way? I don't think so. In fact, I would say that John was right in stating the pink elephants would come out first: in our case, it is becoming apparent that our pink elephant is a lack of clear structures. What I mean by this is that the College is an institution filled with amazing people, individuals who are committed to their work and the students, driven by a passion to do things well. This is set in the context of a bureaucracy, which is essential for the good functioning of any large institution... but, it is becoming apparent that there is a need for work to be done around clarifying the roles, mandates, and responsibilities of various areas of the college, along with the roles, mandates, and responsibilities of various individuals.

Unless we do this, how are we supposed to know what decisions belong within this or that circle? Without a clear description of the "terms of reference" of each area of our institution, how are we supposed to know who should be tackling what issue? Organization and dis-organization are very fluid concepts. An architect never stops looking at a creation without seeing potential improvements. The same should be true of all organizations. Regardless of how good we are (and there is much, so very much to be proud of at Yukon College), there is room for changes that can lead to significant improvements on all fronts: personnel satisfaction, student enrollments, government funding, and so on.

The first Implementation Committee meeting will happen in two days. I can hardly wait I am so excited!

And the Result Is...

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 to work fills me with so many great emotions...

This week the College has been fortunate to have a special guest sharing his experience on Student Recruitment Management. He is quite the guy, with more energy than most and such a contagious drive! I have spent nine hours in his workshops so far, and there are three more tomorrow, and I am eager to get some of the great ideas that have come out into action! It feels so nice to feel like the troops are motivated and feeling like they can make a difference! I cannot wait to see what will come out of all this!

Of course, there are, once again, the nay-sayers... those who claim that everything has been tried before, that we used to do this or that, and it just stopped, or that we are too busy to change, or blah blah blah... I have to say, I just wish we had the systems in place so that these people could really voice their issues... so that we could help then with their needs, and move on as a group. But we are not there yet, so we will have to wait and see. But for the most part, team spirits are running high, and that can only mean good things are coming our way!

I wonder how DG will tie in to Student Recruitment Management. To me, they are a natural fit!

Way to go Yukon College!!!

How Consent Can Defuse Tension

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 much each representative would weigh given the varying size of each organization; and so on.

At one point, it was mentioned that one board actually controlled two organizations (which is the case). One person in attendance then said, with some angst, that both organizations could not sit at the table being created since the board, executive director, and membership were the same... that in effect, that would make it unfair to other organizations by giving the rep two votes...

This is when I brought forth the notion of consent decision-making, decision with zero objection. When decisions are made this way, suddenly, numbers no longer matter. Everyone at the table is equivalent, regardless of how many organizations are being represented. If a board oversees more than one entity, it simply means there may be more objections, but no more power. As soon as this became understood, the entire issue immediately disappeared! And it also took care of the "independence" issue: the table's decisions could not be made without the consent of all its members, and as such, no decisions could be imposed on any organization.

So much energy is spent on trying to control the flow of power: who gets how many votes, who gets to decide what, who gets to veto and who has to follow. Sociocracy takes that entire layer out of the picture and allows for the more important discussions and topics to be worked on. When power is the underlying issue, people are much less willing to be open and honest as that transparency could potentially be used as power leverage. Take power out of the picture and suddenly people's humanity has room to emerge. Remove control dynamics, and empathy seeps into discussions. Allow people to be true, and they will rise up to the occasion and become an active member of their communnity/organization/group/etc.

Even without implementing Sociocracy as a Governance Model, Consent decision-making can be used as a tool and facilitate better, more effective, and way, way more satisfying meetings. Here you see a copy of John Buck's Consent Decision-making flow chart. I find it extremely useful to follow as a guide when I facilitate meetings, and I also find that is is a great reference tool for circle members to keep track of the process when decisions are being made using consent.

It takes a while to train circles to become proficient at using this process, but once it is understood, my experience is that it becomes a part of the common language and culture, and form there, it becomes very difficult to go back! For one, I don't think that I could!

It Is a Long Way from Theory to Practice...

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 why it is happening. And although I will not claim to have the complete answer, I think I have a piece of the puzzle, and I am in the process of placing it within the overall picture.

This piece is me... or, put differently, the absence of others. Let me explain. Dynamic Governance is a paradigm shift from the reign of the individual to the governance by the collective. And I have fallen into the old trap of thinking I could do it on my own, that I could change the College, fix the problems, make it a better place than it already is, in other words, I have been working on my own, reigning over the "collective" experiment. Granted, there has been tremendous support from the top, and many colleagues have been involved in their circle. Even so, I have mostly been working from an outsider's stance.

Now, I will give myself credit by stating that I have done my best to get others' input and have tried hard to get others involved... but in retrospect, I was doing it from my throne. The time has come to step down, join the collective part of the experiment, and start enjoying the part I crave most: teamwork!

So how will this be done? By creating a team of any interested College employee that will get together to think and create together. A team that will take ownership of the process and become more involved and more responsible and more engaged. A friend of mine recently said that from what he had read, most of us can only hope to experience great teamwork where people feel truly connected with one another once or twice in a lifetime... until we begin using DG.

So I hope this initiative will work for the College and for those getting involved. This is but one step towards the greater goal! For one, I certainly look forward to the potential of a great teamwork experience!

There's Something in the Air...

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 just came back from Montreal where I participated in the second of six sessions of Training with the International School of Leaders. This course will lead to a certification in Dynamic Governance through the Sociocratic Centre of Holland. The individuals who built that school have a vision of a world where people feel they are active participants and where meaningful relationships happen in all spheres of life, work being not the least. The cohort of 12 students attending the year-long course come from many walks of life, but all have this in common: they also believe in the vision of the school. The purpose of that school is to train Leaders in the Sociocratic method to be better at managing themselves, groups, and enterprises.

Over the past three days, I have learned many things about myself as a leader. I have also learned a lot about Sociocracy as a tool and as a philosophy. The deeper I dive into it, the less I want to come out, and the more I feel it inhabiting my entire being. I see Sociocracy as a way of life, a way of interacting with others, a way of making life a series of win-win situations.

The technical aspects of Sociocracy are simply the start. Learning how to facilitate a sociocratic meeting is like learning how to walk, or how to count. Once the skill has been acquired, there is no telling where one will go or what one will do. All we know is that walking can take us to wonderful places, but only if we keep on walking...

Quick & Dirty or Slow & Well Done

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 federation of French-speaking organizations. I have to commend all of those who take their time to get together and attempt to make things better for those they represent (in this case, French-speaking Canadians who live in a minority setting outside Quebec). There are many important decisions that need to be made, and the responsibility for these representatives is quite significant.

There were many items that needed to be covered over two days, and the second day was reserved for the official decision-making meeting. The agenda was not too loaded, and so it seemed as though we would manage to get through every item within the set agenda, which we did. But a few things struck me along the way…

Whenever a proposal is put on the table, the people around the table are asked to contribute by either asking questions or stating impressions. Often, it appears quite clearly that one or a few individuals take issue with the proposal at hand. If the discussion lasts for more than a few minutes, a vote is called and the majority settles the question. This is Democracy at its best, a true example of the people speaking up and steering their fate. It is efficient, issues get resolved, decisions are made, and life goes on.

But does it really? What about those who voted against the proposal? What about the objections they had? I for one had a strong objection to a proposal that was presented. I did not object to the overall intention, but I felt it was not clear enough, and that we were missing an opportunity to go further. After I intervened a couple of times on the issue, I started to feel the impatience of the group as well as the facilitator's, and a vote was called.

The result: I felt disrespected, diminished, and left out. I also felt we had not allowed ourselves to really discuss the issue at hand. Of course, I am aware I may have been the one erring, but we did not grant ourselves the opportunity to openly share on the topic at hand.

In sociocratic meetings, objections are sought and welcomed. They are considered essential as a quality control mechanism. When objections arise, it very likely indicates that the proposal at hand is not yet as good as it can be. Objections are valued for the fact that they bring to light potential gaps within a proposal.

The format of a sociocratic meeting also fosters an atmosphere of trust and comfort where circle members seek out each other's objections. Unlike many regular meetings where dissent is frowned upon, sociocratic gatherings make it the duty of each member to voice these objections. As such, people feel welcomed and included when they challenge issues at hand. And with that, the team's capacity and creativity goes up and up and up!

Are We Just Insane?

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 environment can hardly sustain much more of this capitalist system, and still, the "economic recovery plans" all call for a return to what it was before the crash! Of course, there is the question of more regulation on the financial system, but as a whole, the plan is to get the average citizen back onto the stores spending money to roll the economy. Is it just me or that does not sound like much of a sustainable plan? The same seems to often happen with organizations. Results fluctuate over the years, sometimes for the best, sometimes not.

Every now and then, when things are not going so well, Management will call for a restructuring to shake things up in the hope of achieving better results in the future. But one has to wonder why, if such restructuring operations are "good", do they have to be performed so often? Is it the only way to adapt to changing environments? Is it the best approach to affect change in the results of the organization? And what about the negative consequences of such "decisive actions"?

By its very nature, Sociocracy is a dynamic approach that triggers creativity and draws from the wisdom of the collective. At all levels of an organization, various individuals hold varying amounts and various types of information, perspectives, and experiences. Perhaps the greatest challenge for managers is the feat of tapping into that collective wisdom in order to inform decisions that must be made. Dynamic Governance does that through the structure it brings to systems. In many ways, DG removes the impact of personalities by fostering the involvement and contribution of the collective. That ends up being both empowering for the members of the organization, and to the system itself. Once in a while, it is worth trying something different. In such a case, it actually makes sense to expect different results!

Is there a we?

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 fit in the aboves? How can I relate to so much complexity?

One of the things I personally find most rewarding is the results of teamwork. Being the extrovert that I am, an experience is never fully complete unless I can share it with another being. And the closer the other is to me, the better the overall experience becomes once shared.

In life, unless one chooses to live a life of total seclusion, interactions are inevitable. Beyond being mere crossings, these interactions are in fact interdependencies. For example, food that is purchased was produced in a way we trust to be safe.The vehicles we drive were manufactured by others, the bus we ride is driven by someone else, and the bridges we cross were designed and built by men and women we do not even know. So we constantly trust and rely on others.

Yet, when we dive closer into a system's work units, there is often distrust and dislike (which usually go hand-in-hand!). "The meaning behind "socio-" is that the organization is governed by those who "associate together."" (Sharon Villines, from an email on sociocracy@yahoogroups.com posted on Monday, April 20, 2009) As such, Dynamic Governance wires the organization in such a way that it allows (in fact, it actually leads towards) employees working together in structuring the system within which they work.

One of the challenges I face while helping with the implementation is the distrust some employees have with anything that is brought forward. As a long-standing reaction to (sometimes perceived as illogical or ill-reasoned) changes, many employees, including managers, have withdrawn from the "socio" aspect of the organization. The result is that it takes time to build trust and to bring everyone on board.

Patience is of the essence, or so I thought until very recently.... until it dawned on me that patience is irrelevant. Perhaps what is truly needed for this "socio" to emerge is empathy. Patience is but a small aspect of empathy...

POWER

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 can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings".

Power is energy, and as such is essential for life. Systems cannot organize themselves without some form of energy. Of course, how that energy is applied, how the power is used, will have a tremendous impact on the system and its components. In electrical systems, power must be regulated and kept constant. If a surge occurs, there are control mechanisms to shut it off through a breaker switch. This is of paramount importance as without such a control system, the electricity could cause a fire, kill someone, or fry electronic systems.

In human systems, power must also be controlled and managed. history has shown time and again that too much power in the hands of too few individuals can (and I claim usually will) lead to an abuse of that power. Infamous cases include (but are unfortunately not limited to), Nicolae Ceauşescu, dictator of Romania; Kim Jong-il, dictator of North Korea; Augusto Pinochet, dictator of Chile; Adolph Hitler, dictator of Germany; and the list could go on and on and on.

What do these have in common? Power was gathered and accumulated through the control of information. Information is power. <> can mean the difference between life and death in certain situations. In traditional organizations, top managers typically know more than employees at the bottom of the org chart. Because they hold more information, they may begin to think that such knowledge separates them from the people who have less. The fact that power can be used to control people without regard to their ideas, opinions, feelings, and aspirations can easily discourage people. In many organizations unit members feel powerless to bring about change to their working/relational environments. Individuals often feel as though there is nowhere to bring good ideas forward; no process in place to share and create; no forum to enable creative thoughts.

In Sociocracy, knowledge is wisdom. Because every employee works in a different level of the organization, it is therefore assumed that all these employees hold varying types of wisdom, none of which is more important to the system than the others. As such, everyone has the potential, and the means to, bring out proposals that will help steer the organization in the best possible direction.

As soon as an individual, be it a top manager, an elected representative, or a middle manager, so long as the person holds power, it can become destructive. Without the proper structure to harness that power and control it, it can easily fall off the rails and create havoc. The best intentions often have the most destructive consequences unless everyone who is subjected to it can have an equivalent voice.

Power is most constructive when well managed and well contained. A solid structure is required to achieve these. This is exactly what Sociocracy does.

The Rules of Engagement

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 Circle
The Circle is the basic unit in a system. It is formed to perform specific duties that have been clearly identified. It is a sub-system of the organization and is in charge of establishing its own rules of functioning. It operates under the rules of Consent Decision-making and is responsible for self-regulating its processes. That being said, no circle operates independently from the rest of the organization. All decisions are made while considering higher circles (as represented by the circle manager) and lower ones (as represented by the double-link). Managers bring a macro-vision of the organization and its environment; double-links bring a more micro-vision. Together, they offer as complete a vision as possible.

2. The Double-Link
A circle is connected to the circle above it in two ways: the unit manager, and the elected representative. Both persons will sit at the higher circle for all policy-related decisions. The circle is also connected to the lower circle in two ways: the manager of the lower circle sits in along with an elected representative from that lower circle. As illustrated on the org chart on the right, each unit is part of a greater whole. In a typical organization, only each unit's manager sits on the higher unit table. In a Sociocratic organization, the manager is accompanied by the elected rep. That rep participates in the higher circle's decisions in the same capacity as all the other members of that circle.

3. Decision-Making by Consent
Consent refers to the absence of a Paramount (reasoned) Objection. As such, no policy decisions can be made if anyone in the circle has a well-reasoned objection to it. When objections are raised, the group takes on the task of working creatively to address the objection and integrate solutions into an amended proposal. When all objections are gone, the proposal is accepted.

4. Elections by Consent
Sociocratic elections are fun and empowering. Each circle member writes down the name of his/her candidate (it can be oneself) as well as his/her own name on an election ballot. The circle facilitator then proceeds to reveal each nomination out loud, and asks each proposer to voice the reasons of his/her nomination. Once all the ballots and arguments have been openly disclosed, the facilitator proceeds to ask each circle member whether, after having heard all the arguments around the table, they want to change their vote to a different candidate. Once that is done, the facilitator (or a circle member) proceeds to make a formal proposal for one candidate. Objections are sought, and once no objections are left, the nomination is carried through and the nominated is elected.
This process leads to the strenghtening of teams. It builds up trust, creativity, accountability, and openness. I have seen new circles run through elections like a butter goes through warm butter, and I have witnessed other circles get completely stuck over an election, requiring an extra meeting to get through it. In any of these situations, all teams have come out stronger.


When followed, the rules of Dynamic Governance (Sociocracy) enable teams to work more effectively, more efficiently, and much, much more creatively. Each and every single time I have attended and participated in a DG meeting (and there have been many as I am supporting the implementation experiment at the College), I have come out impressed, touched, humbled, and more confident in the process.

Different Place, Same Struggles...

"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, this blog came up and he asked me for more details about the mechanics of Dynamic Governance. He then proceeded to share how his working environment is quite difficult to cope with. The dynamics between management and employees are unhealthy; distrust is running high; grudges abound, frustrations are multiple, and solutions are scarce. So, what is going on here? Is every single member of that unit dysfunctional? Or is this a case of a bad apple having rot the basket? What if we tried to look at it from an entirely different perspective?

Too often, managers move into managerial positions without having had proper training. They have not been taught management or leadership. They have not been prepared to deal with employees in a supervisory role. Essentially, they wing it based on what they think a good manager is and does. They try to consult with their employees at the same time as they try to keep them in line. Mistakes are made. Discomfort abounds. And the downward spiral takes hold of the unit and drags everyone down. Does it mean they are responsible for all the dynamics of the unit? I would claim not. Situations are much more powerful than anyone alone.

So, what is the solution then? Well, for my friend, I do not know what will happen. But I would be keen to try implementing DG as a decision-making model for that unit, just to see what would happen... I have my ideas about that...

Here at Yukon College, I have seen circles engage in discussions that had not happened for many years. Certain groups had not even met as a unit for countless months (and a few for years!). I saw circle members grab on to the new process and allow themselves the space to voice their concerns, ideas, and objections. I saw countless circle members enter their first circle meeting with a negative attitude towards this new process (and voicing that attitude in the opening round) only to leave that first meeting with a tingle in the eyes and a much more positive closing round comment.

So what is it that happens within the span of an hour that can bring people from a place of negativity to a realm of possibilities? I am still not sure as to what it is that awakens people during these meetings... but my strong opinion is that once people are given the space to be within their circle, and once people are openly included in their unit, they naturally blossom and flourish.

As Abraham Maslow so wisely put it, "When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem".