Swaraj University and the Swapathgami Network
invite you to a 5 day residential workshop on
'Sociocracy – design for collaborative governance'
Dates: 24 to 28 January, 2016
Venue: Swaraj University, Udaipur
What does this gathering offer?
Around the world, people in communities, organizations, corporations, and political parties are looking for:
• A spirit of co-creation, co-responsibility and collective ownership of the decision-making
• Efficient and meaningful ways to make collaborative decisions.
• Communication and integration between different parts of your organization.
• Full transparency with safety and trust between team members.
Sociocracy is a design system that makes these goals achievable. Its dynamic governance principles involve everyone in the organization's decision-making processes; their voices matter equally. It is inspired by the Quakers, Cybernetics and nature's way of operating.
It was developed in The Netherlands, first at an alternate school where the children's learning space was governed in the spirit of partnership, and later at an electrical engineering company set up as an intentional management science laboratory. Since then, for-profit corporations, NGOs, schools, religious groups, communities, and networks in Europe, North and South America, and a few places in Oceania, Africa and Asia, including India, are using it successfully.
About the Facilitators
John Buck
A certified Sociocratic Organizational Consultant, John heads The Sociocracy Group operations in the United States. His career includes an extensive for-profit management experience. As a consultant he has led dozens of Sociocracy implementation projects for a variety of organizations, resulting in greater effectiveness and increased employee engagement. He believes that basic values such as equality, liberty, and transparency can make our work places dramatically more sustainable, elegant, and profitable.
He excels in customizing sociocratic principles to each organization's particular concerns, work schedules, and professional focus. John has translated numerous documents from the original Dutch and is co-author (with Sharon Villines) of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy. He has also been instrumental in bringing Socioracy to the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) and had collaborated with Marshall Rosenberg and various NVC trainers to successfully implement it in their organization. To know more about John and Sociocracy, visit www.sociocracyconsulting.com.
Prem Pavitra
With a B.A in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, Canada, Pavitra lives in Findhorn, a sustainable community in Scotland. She began practicing 5 Rhythms Dance and later moved into conscious embodiment through Open Floor Movement over these last four years. Pavitra follows a unique path bridging knowledge in inner and outer sustainability, anthropology, and mind-body-emotion awareness. She is working towards certification in Sociocracy, and aspires to do the same for Open Floor when the moment is ripe.
Here's what people who have learnt and practiced Sociocracy, have to share about their experience.
"Sociocracy supports transparency and clarity in roles and responsibilities. It offers efficient and speedy ways of taking decisions with full consent of the team, which nurtures the spirit of co-creation", says Shammi Nanda who works on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Sustainable Living.
"We wanted to bring in a more inclusive and collaborative work culture in Green Souls. Sociocracy is helping us bring in equivalence, transparency and effectiveness in our work together", remarks Sabita Rajendran, coordinator at Green Souls, Mumbai.
"Sociocracy is unique in the way it uses intelligent processes to bring people together with an eye for effectiveness and equality like no other model that I have ever seen so far in this world", adds Ashok Subramanian, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) trainer, Shinota Consulting, Bangalore.
"I've been using Sociocratic consent decision making process in group meetings. I found it to be an effective way to get all voices heard and I appreciate the idea of embracing objections from any member as a gift, bringing wisdom to the group", observes Mona Patrao, an organic farmer sharing NVC & sustainable living.
Contribution:
Like many spaces across India and around the world, Swaraj University and the Swapathgami Network are experimenting and working with rethinking our lifestyles and our relationship with ourselves, our work, our resources and our communities. We are questioning, challenging and experimenting with our set notions of money.
So we welcome you to join our experiment and explore your relationship with money.
By participating in such workshops you are in a non-monetary way, supporting and encouraging such learning spaces to stay alive. You are, in a beautiful way, taking forward the larger movement of reclaiming our learning. However, it is important that we all contribute to take care of the needs of the facilitators and meet the actual expenses of hosting such a workshop.
The financial contribution for this workshop is on a sliding scale from ₹ 5,500 to ₹ 12,500 or more. Please choose your preferred contribution in the registration form.
Your contribution will support to pay for the food and stay expenses of the workshop at Swaraj University. It will also help us to fund those who cannot pay the minimum amount.
We would like to accommodate everyone who is interested in this field of work and we understand that some of us might find it challenging to contribute the minimum amount. If so, please feel free to speak or write to us so that we can look for ways through which we can support each other.
If you think this workshop is for you then please go ahead and register by clicking this link.
For further queries and in case you are unable to register through this link, please write to us at swarajuni.events[at]gmail.com. You can also call us on 08764279302.
Looking forward to your presence,
Swaraj University and the Swapathgami Network
