Learning & practising Sociocracy

I support a practice-based approach. Are we thinking about doing this in a Zoom-type session? Anyone aware of any text-based digital tools out there that build on sociocratic methods/models? As the bulk of my interaction with the cooperatives that I'm involved in is digitally mediated, and this is likely to be a growing feature, it strikes me as a critical piece of the jigsaw if sociocracy is going to gain traction.

Hi Graham. Have done some of this kind of work before online, using both Zoom and Gdocs - the latter for shaping proposals in real time. Any text tool that allows synchronous updates should work though...

I'm happy to be involved but have limited time at the mo, so I might be more of an observer at times, but I'll definitely contribute when I have time. I can see the value in using sociocracy in co-ops, we recently used it with a client in a five day workshop and it was really valuable.
Thanks for initiating this @katewhittle and happy to see enthusiasm from lots of people.

I support the zoom idea. I find it's much easier to engage face-to-face than contributing to loomio discussions - it takes so long to read it all and reflect properly on what people are adding. Or some sort of mixture of the two perhaps? I guess the tricky bit will be finding a time everyone can make for an online meeting.

There is a scheduling tool in Loomio and we can use the Development Co-op Zoom account so we're not limited in numbers and time. I suppose a simple exercise in that Zoom to begin this (building on Pete's suggestion around sharing where we are) might be to agree the purpose of the circle.

Yes I think a practice based approach using Zoom would be great & as @graham2 says, if we can find some text-based digital tools all the better. BUT how can we build an action learning resource based on real life models? Any thoughts @peteburden ? :slight_smile:

Oh and P.S. i don't know if it came across in my post, but my idea was to kill two birds with one stone: (a) resolve or minimise the SolidFund Loomio DDD & (b) get some practical experience of using Sociocracy tools & methods. Is that too ambitious? Should we instead focus only on (b) ?? :thinking:

Can you explain DDD @katewhittle ? I would definitely like to get some hands-on experience of using tools and principles in a real situation.

I think focus on b) first. a) requires investigation IMO. DDD is @katewhittle short-handing what I called Digital Democratic Deficit. i.e. an some members in an organisation have less access to democratic participation by virtue of differing levels of access (for whatever reasons) to the digital tools by which decisions are made.

We need ADD then, Analogue Democratic Deficit, only those who make it to the pub at 7.30 on Thursday get to decide!