A Practical Guide for Evolving Agile and

Resilient Organizations with Sociocracy 3.0

Bernhard Bockelbrink
James Priest
Liliana David

v2020-05-08
Contents

I. Introduction 6

1. What is Sociocracy 3.0? 7

2. How does Sociocracy 3.0 help? 8

3. Influences and History of Sociocracy 3.0 10

3.1. The Sociocracy 3.0 Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4. Why Sociocracy 3.0? 13
4.1. The Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2. The New Model of Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3. The Evolution of the Sociocratic Circle Organization Method 14

5. Patterns and the Seven Principles 18

5.1. Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.2. The Seven Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6. Key Concepts for Making Sense of Organizations 22

6.1. Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.2. Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.3. Objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.4. Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.5. Governance and Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

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II. The Patterns 31

1. Co-Creation And Evolution 32

1.1. Respond to Organizational Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.2. Navigate Via Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.3. Describe Organizational Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.4. Consent Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
1.5. Test Arguments Qualify as Objections . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.6. Resolve Objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
1.7. Evaluate And Evolve Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
1.8. Those Affected Decide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1.9. Co-Create Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1.10. Proposal Forming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
1.11. Role Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
1.12. Driver Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2. Peer Development 57
2.1. Ask For Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.2. Peer Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2.3. Peer Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.4. Development Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3. Enablers Of Collaboration 61
3.1. Artful Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2. Adopt The Seven Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3. Agree On Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.4. Governance Facilitator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.5. Breaking Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.6. Contract For Successful Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.7. Transparent Salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.8. Support Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.9. Bylaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

4. Building Organizations 75
4.1. Delegate Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

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 4.2. Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.3. Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4. Linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.5. Double Linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.6. Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.7. Helping Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.8. Open Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.9. Open Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5. Bringing In S3 85
5.1. Adapt Patterns To Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.2. Create a Pull-System For Organizational Change . . . . . 85
5.3. Be The Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.4. Invite Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.5. Open Space For Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.6. Continuous Improvement Of Work Process . . . . . . . . . 88

6. Defining Agreements 90
6.1. Record Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.2. Develop Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.3. Clarify Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.4. Clarify Intended Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.5. Describe Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.6. Evaluation Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.7. Logbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.8. Logbook Keeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

7. Focused Interactions 101

7.1. Governance Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2. Retrospective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.3. Daily Standup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.4. Planning And Review Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
7.5. Coordination Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

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8. Meeting Practices 109
8.1. Rounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.2. Facilitate Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8.3. Prepare For Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
8.4. Check In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
8.5. Evaluate Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8.6. Meeting Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
8.7. Governance Backlog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

9. Organizing Work 116

9.1. Backlog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
9.2. Prioritize Backlogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.3. Visualize Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.4. Pull-System For Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
9.5. Limit Work in Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
9.6. Timebox Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
9.7. Align Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9.8. Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

[Link] Structure 123

10.1. Service Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
10.2. Delegate Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
10.3. Peach Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
10.4. Double-Linked Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
10.5. Service Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
10.6. Fractal Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

III. Appendix 134

1. Changelog 135
1.1. Changes 2020–05–08 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
1.2. Changes 2020–04–29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
1.3. Changes 2019–12–22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
1.4. Changes 2019–11–29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

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 1.5. Changes 2019–06–27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
1.6. Changes 2019–05–03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
1.7. Changes 2019–03–08 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
1.8. Changes 2018–08–17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
1.9. Changes 2018–03–21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
1.10. Changes 2017–11–16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
1.11. Changes 2017–11–10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
1.12. Changes 2017–10–21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

2. Links 146

3. License 147
3.1. Attribution of derivative works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

4. The Intentional Commitment for Practitioners and Teach-

ers of Sociocracy 3.0 (ICPT) 149
4.1. Full Text of the ICPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

5. Acknowledgments 151

6. Authors 153

7. Glossary 155

8. Pattern-Index 160

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 Part I.

Introduction

6
1. What is Sociocracy 3.0?

Sociocracy 3.0 — a.k.a. “S3” — is social technology for evolving ag-

ile and resilient organizations at any size, from small start-ups to large
international networks and multi-agency collaboration.
Inside this practical guide you’ll discover a comprehensive collection of
tried and tested concepts, principles and practices for improving
performance, engagement and wellbeing in organizations.
Since its launch in 2015, S3 patterns have been helping people across a
diverse range of organizational contexts to get the best out of collabora-
tion. From start-ups to small and medium businesses, large international
organizations, investor-funded and nonprofit organizations, families and
communities.
Using S3 can help you to achieve your objectives and successfully
navigate complexity. You can make changes one step at a time, without
the need for sudden radical reorganization or planning a long-term
change initiative:
• Simply start with identifying your areas of greatest need and select
one or more practices or guidelines that help.
• Proceed at your own pace, and develop both your skills and a more
sociocratic and agile mindset as you go.
Regardless of your position in the organization, you’ll find many
proven ideas that are relevant and helpful for you.
Sociocracy 3.0 is free, and licensed under a Creative Commons Free
Culture License.

7
2. How does Sociocracy 3.0 help?
S3 is a transformational technology for both individuals and the whole
organization that will help you figure out how to meet your organiza-
tion’s biggest challenges, take advantage of the opportunities you face
and resolve the most persistent problems.
Sociocracy 3.0 is designed to be flexible and supports experimentation
and learning. You can take whatever you need, adapt things to suit your
context and enrich your existing approach.
S3 integrates core concepts and practices found in agile methodologies,
lean management, Kanban (and KMM), Design Thinking, Teal Organi-
zations and the family of sociocracy-based governance methods (SCM/
Dynamic Governance, Holacracy® etc.). It’s complimentary and com-
patible with any agile or lean framework, including but not limited to
Scrum and its various scaling frameworks.
Inside this practical guide book you’ll discover:
• Useful concepts that will help you make more sense of your
organization and communicate effectively about where change is
needed.
• An organic, iterative approach to change that meets people
where they are and helps them move forward at their own pace and
according to their unique context and needs.
• Seven core principles of agile and sociocratic collaboration
• A coherent collection of 70+ practices and guidelines to help
you navigate complexity, and improve collaboration:
– Simple, facilitated formats that support teams in drawing
on the collective intelligence of the group and incrementally

8
 processing available information into continuous improvement
of work processes, products, services and skills.
– Group-practices to help organizations make the best use of
talent they already have, through people supporting each
other in building skills, accountability and engagement.
– Simple tools for clarifying who does what, freeing people
up to decide and act for themselves as much as possible, within
clearly defined constraints that enable experimentation and
development.
– Patterns for growing organizational structure beyond
hierarchies into flexible, decentralized networks where the
flow of information and influence directly supports the creation
of value.
• A glossary with explanations for all the terms you might be unfa-
miliar with.
This practical guide to Sociocracy 3.0 is written and published by the
three co-developers of Sociocracy 3.0.
True to the mindset behind S3, this book will always be a work in progress
that grows and changes as we learn from people who are experimenting
with S3 in organizations around the world. Since we started out 5 years
ago, we have released several updates per year and we’ll continue to do
so in the years to come.
Even though several sections in this book are brief and may still be rough
around the edges, the content and explanations have been sufficient for
many people to get started with S3 and achieve positive change in their
organizations. We hope you’ll find it useful too.

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3. Influences and History of
Sociocracy 3.0

Figure 3.1.: Influences and history of Sociocracy 3.0

The literal meaning of the term sociocracy is “rule of the companions”:

socio — from Latin socius — means “companion”, or “friend”, and the
suffix -cracy — from Ancient Greek ฀฀฀฀฀฀ (krátos) — means “power”, or
“rule”.
The word sociocracy can be traced back to 1851, when Auguste Comte
suggested applying a scientific approach to society: states states would
be governed by a body of scientists who are experts on society (which

10
he termed “sociologists”). In his opinion, this future, although not yet
achievable, would be inevitable.
A few decades later, Lester Frank Ward, used the word ‘sociocracy’
to describe the rule of people with relations with each other. Instead
of having sociologists at the center, he wanted to give more power and
responsibility to the individual, he imagined sociologists in a role as re-
searchers and consultant.
In 1926, the Dutch reformist educator and Quaker Kees Boeke, es-
tablished a residential school based on the principle of consent. Staff
and students were treated as equal participants in the governance of the
school, all decisions needed to be acceptable to everyone. He built this
version of sociocracy on Quaker principles and practices, and described
sociocracy as an evolution of democracy in his 1945 essay “Democracy
as it might be”.
Gerard Endenburg, also a Quaker and a student in Boeke’s school,
wanted to apply sociocracy in his family’s business, Endenburg Elek-
trotechniek. He created and evolved the Sociocratic Circle Organisation
Method (SCM) (later becoming the “Sociocratic Method”), integrating
Boeke’s form of sociocracy with engineering and cybernetics. In 1978
Endenburg founded the Sociocratisch Centrum in Utrecht (which is now
the Sociocratic Center in Rotterdam) as a means to promote socioc-
racy in and beyond the Netherlands. Since 1994 organizations in the
Netherlands using SCM are exempt from the legal requirement to have
a worker’s council.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several non-Dutch speaking people
came across sociocracy, but it wasn’t until 2007 when Sharon Villines
and John Buck launched their book, “We the People”, that sociocracy
became widely accessible to the English speaking world, and from there
has began to migrate into several other languages.
Sociocracy has proven to be effective for many organizations and com-
munities around the world, but it has yet to become viral.
In 2014 James Priest and Bernhard Bockelbrink came together
to co-create a body of Creative Commons licensed learning resources,

ebook.2020.0509.1501 11
synthesizing ideas from Sociocracy, Agile and Lean. They discovered that
organizations of all sizes need a flexible menu of practices and structures
– appropriate for their specific context – that enable the evolution of a
sociocratic and agile mindset to achieve greater effectiveness, alignment,
fulfillment and wellbeing. The first version of Sociocracy 3.0. was
launched in March 2015.
Liliana David joined the team soon after. Together they regularly col-
laborate to make S3 available and applicable to as many organizations
as possible, and provide resources under a Creative Commons Free
Culture License for people who want to learn, apply and tell others
about Sociocracy_3.0.

3.1. The Sociocracy 3.0 Movement

As interest in Sociocracy 3.0 grows there is a fast growing community of

people from a variety of backgrounds — pioneering consultants, coaches,
learning facilitators, and people applying S3 into their various contexts
— who share appreciation for the transformational potential of Socioc-
racy 3.0 to help organizations and their members thrive. Many kindly
dedicate some of their time to experimenting with and sharing about S3,
and who collaborate to learn from one another and document experiences
to inform the ongoing development and evolution of the framework and
its various applications.

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4. Why Sociocracy 3.0?
Sociocracy as a form of governance has been referred to since 1851. Sub-
sequently it has been developed and adapted by many different people
and organizations, including Gerard Endenburg, The Sociocracy Group
(TSG) and Brian Robertson (HolacracyOne).
Yet, outside the Netherlands sociocracy has until recently remained
largely unknown.
We love sociocracy because we see organizations and their members thrive
when they use elements of it to enrich or transform what they currently
do.
We also love agile, lean, Kanban, the Core Protocols, NVC, and many
other ideas too. We believe that the world will be a better place as more
organizations learn to pull from this cornucopia of awesome practices
that are emerging into the world today, and learn to synthesize them
with what they already know.
Therefore we decided to devote some of our time to develop and evolve
Sociocracy, integrating it with many of these other potent ideas, to make
it available and applicable to as many organizations as possible.
To this end, we recognize the value of a strong identity, a radically dif-
ferent way of distribution, and of adapting the Sociocratic Circle Orga-
nization Method to improve its applicability.

4.1. The Name

The name “Sociocracy 3.0” demonstrates both respect to the lineage and

a significant step forward.

13
It also helps avoid the perception of us misrepresenting the Sociocratic
Circle Organization Method (SCM) as promoted by The Sociocracy
Group.

4.2. The New Model of Distribution

Sociocracy 3.0 employs a non-centralized model for distribution. This is
a paradigm shift in the way sociocracy is brought to people and organi-
zations, and one that many people can relate to.
We support “viral” distribution through two key strategies:
• Sociocracy 3.0 is open: We want to encourage growth of a vi-
brant ecosystem of applications and flavors of sociocracy, where
people share and discuss their insights and the adaptations they
are making for their specific context. To this end Sociocracy 3.0
puts emphasis on communicating the underlying principles and ex-
plicitly invites the creativity of everyone to remix, extend and adapt
things to suit their needs.
• Sociocracy 3.0 is free: To eliminate the barrier of entry for peo-
ple and organizations we provide free resources under a Creative
Commons Free Culture License to learn, practice and teach So-
ciocracy 3.0. Everyone can use our resources without our explicit
permission, even in a commercial context, or as a basis for building
their own resources, as long as they share their new resources un-
der the same license. We expect and support other organizations,
consultants, coaches, learning facilitators and trainers to follow our
example and release their resources too.

4.3. The Evolution of the Sociocratic Circle

Organization Method
Maybe we need to make this explicit: Sociocracy 3.0 is not targeted
specifically at the existing community of people exploring the Sociocratic

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 Figure 4.1.: Three variants of sociocracy

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Circle Organization Method, or at The Sociocracy Group (TSG). The
Sociocratic Circle Organization Method (SCM) is already well developed
and many people appear to be mostly happy with it.
Yet from our direct experience, even for those organizations that have
heard about sociocracy, there are many obstacles to actually become
invested. With Sociocracy 3.0 we actively work on addressing and elim-
inating what stands in the way.

Reducing Risk and Resistance

Sociocracy 3.0 meets organizations where they are and takes them on

a journey of continuous improvement. There’s no radical change or re-
organization. Sociocracy 3.0 provides a collection of independent and
principle-based patterns that an organization can pull in one by one to
become more effective. All patterns relate to a set of core principles, so
they can easily be adapted to context.

Shifting Focus From Aim (or Purpose) to Need

Sociocracy 3.0 moves primary focus from vision, mission, aims or pur-

pose, towards the source of motivation, and aligns the organization to-
wards discovering and addressing what it needs. Organizations which are
already need-driven, value driven or customer-centric, find this immedi-
ately accessible.
In Sociocracy 3.0, purpose is implicit in all cases – to flow value to the
organization’s drivers.

Condensed to the Essentials

When looking at the norms, the Sociocratic Circle Organization Method

may look big and scary. By focusing on the essentials only, Sociocracy 3.0
offers a lightweight framework to adapt and build on as necessary.

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This doesn’t mean to say it’s all easy: choosing to pull in Sociocracy 3.0’s
patterns requires an investment in learning and un-learning. This is why
it’s important to only pull in what you need, because there’s no point to
changing things if what you are doing is already good enough.

Integration With Agile and Lean Thinking

The Sociocratic Circle Organization Method is an “empty” method when

it comes to operations and creating a culture of close collaboration. Many
organizations already implement or show preference for lean and agile
thinking for operations and collaboration. We believe this is a great
idea, so Sociocracy 3.0 is designed for easy adoption into lean and agile
organizations.

A New Way to Evolve Organizational Structure

The organizational structure according to the Sociocratic Circle Organi-

zation Method is modeled on a hierarchy of domains. We see an increasing
emergence of collaborative multi-stakeholder environments and the need
for a wider variety of patterns for organizational structure. Evolution of
organizational structure happens naturally when the flow of information
and influence in an organization is incrementally aligned to the flow of
value. Sociocracy 3.0 provides a variety of structural patterns that can
be combined to evolve structure as required and in a flexible way.

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5. Patterns and the Seven
Principles

5.1. Patterns

S3 offers a pattern-based approach to organizational change.

A pattern is a process, practice or guideline that serves as a template
for successfully responding to a specific kind of challenge or opportunity.
S3 patterns are discovered through observing people working together in
organizations to solve problems and respond to opportunities they face.
When you find that your habitual ways of doing things fail to bring about
the outcomes you expected or hope for, you can look to S3 for patterns
that might help.
The patterns are grouped by topic into ten categories to help you more
easily identify those that are useful to you. They are modular and adapt-
able, can be used independently, and are mutually reinforcing, comple-
menting one another when used in combination. S3 patterns can be
evolved and adapted to address your specific needs.
By providing a menu of patterns to choose from according to need, S3
encourages an organic, iterative approach to change without a huge
upfront investment . It meets people where they are and helps them
move forward pulling in patterns at their own pace and according to their
unique context.

18
Figure 5.1.: Patterns are grouped by topic into ten categories; the Seven
Principles are reflected in every pattern

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5.2. The Seven Principles

Sociocracy is built on seven principles that shape organizational culture.

Since the seven principles are reflected in all of the patterns, understand-
ing these principles is helpful for adopting and paramount to adapting
Sociocracy 3.0 patterns.
Practicing Sociocracy 3.0 helps people appreciate the essential value that
these core principles bring – both to individuals and to organizations –
and supports their integration into organizational culture.

Figure 5.2.: The Seven Principles

The Principle of Effectiveness: Devote time only to what brings you

closer toward achieving your objectives.
The Principle of Consent: Raise, seek out and resolve objections to

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decisions and actions.
The Principle of Empiricism: Test all assumptions you rely on,
through experiments and continuous revision.
The Principle of Continuous Improvement: Change incrementally
to accommodate steady empirical learning.
The Principle of Equivalence: Involve people in making and evolving
decisions that affect them.
The Principle of Transparency: Record all information that is valu-
able for the organization, and make it accessible to everyone, unless there
is a reason for confidentiality.
The Principle of Accountability: Respond when something is needed,
do what you agreed to do, and take ownership for the course of the
organization.

The Principle of Accountability

Respond when something is needed, do what you agreed to do, and take
ownership for the course of the organization.
Act within the constraints of any agreements governing domains you are
accountable for, including the organization itself, teams you are part of,
and roles you keep.
Every member of the organization is accountable for effectively respond-
ing to organizational drivers, both in doing the work and in ensuring
(supporting) effective collaboration.
Individuals are also accountable for their work, ongoing learning and
development, and for supporting one another.
Everyone in an organization is accountable for aligning activity with or-
ganizational values.

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6. Key Concepts for Making Sense
of Organizations

In this section you’ll learn about the following key concepts:

• Driver
• Domain
• Agreement
• Objection
• Governance and Operations
You will also discover how these concepts relate to value (and waste), del-
egation (and accountability), self-organization, self-governance and semi-
autonomy.
When people understand these concepts, it gives them a common lan-
guage for describing clearly what’s going on in the organization. This
helps to increase shared understanding and enables constructive dialogue
about what needs to be done.
For any terms you don’t understand, check out the glossary at the end.

6.1. Drivers

A driver is a person’s or a group’s motive for responding to a specific

situation.
Drivers:

22
 • can be used to derive goals, objectives, aims, mission, vision, pur-
pose
• can change over time

Drivers, Value and Waste

Value is the importance, worth or usefulness of something in relation to

a driver.
Waste is anything unnecessary for — or standing in the way of — a
(more) effective response to a driver.
By adopting the concept of value and waste, many practices and ideas
from lean production and lean software development can be uti-
lized by organizations pulling in S3 patterns:
• value stream mapping
• various strategies for eliminating waste
• the Kanban Method

6.2. Domains

A domain is a distinct area of influence, activity and decision making

within an organization.
All domains are within the overall domain of an organization and may
overlap and/or be fully contained within other domains.

Delegating Responsibility for Domains

Delegation is the grant of authority over a domain by one party to another.

Responsibility for domains is delegated to people (e.g. to a unit, depart-
ment, team or individuals), who then act within its defined constraints
on influence and autonomy.

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Figure 6.1.: Domains may overlap and/or be fully contained within other
domains

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When a domain is delegated to a group of people, they become a team,
when it’s delegated to an individual, they become a role keeper.
Those delegating responsibility for a domain (the delegators) to others
still retain overall accountability for that domain, allocate resources and
often define:
• the organizational need the domain is designed to respond to
• key responsibilities (key deliverables, any critical risks to man-
age, other essential work and decision making being delegated)
• constraints to the autonomy and influence of those the do-
main is delegated to (the delegatees), usually related to the organi-
zation itself (dependencies, involvement of the delegator, reporting
etc.)

Drivers and Domains

It’s also possible to understand a domain in relation to organizational

drivers:
• the domain’s primary driver - the main driver the people ac-
counting for that domain (the delegatees) respond to
• the set of subdrivers the organization may benefit from addressing
when responding to the primary driver, which include:
– key responsibilities (any driver following directly from the
domain’s primary driver)
– drivers for constraints of the domain (which typically re-
late to the organization’s wider context)

6.3. Objections
An objection is an argument demonstrating (or revealing) how a (pro-
posed) agreement or activity can lead to unintended consequences, or that
there are worthwhile ways to improve it.

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 Figure 6.2.: Drivers and domains

Objections reveal information about (potential) unintended conse-

quences, or about worthwhile ways to improve.
Be aware that withholding objections can harm the ability of individuals,
teams or the whole organization to achieve their objectives.
It’s the responsibility of each individual in an organization to raise poten-
tial objections to proposals, decisions, existing agreements or activities.
Those accountable for an activity or (proposed) agreement in question,
are responsible for considering arguments and addressing objections that
are raised, when doing so will help to meet the organization’s objectives.
When seeking out potential objections, consider:
• why the intended outcome would not be (fully) achieved: effec-
tiveness
• why it would be wasteful to proceed as proposed (or previously
agreed): efficiency
• the negative consequences something would have elsewhere (in the
same domain, in the wider organization, or beyond): side-effects

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The information revealed by objections can be used to improve:
• current and planned activity
• how people execute on decisions
• existing agreements
• proposals
• shared understanding of drivers
Create a culture where people feel comfortable to raise potential objec-
tions at any time, so that they can relax into making decisions that are
good enough for now and safe enough to try. This encourages developing
a preference for trying things out, instead of attempting to anticipate
and account for all possibilities in advance.
Harness a diversity of perspectives and be open to challenge your own,
to discover when and what to change, and enjoy iterating more rapidly,
running experiments and learning from the outcomes as you proceed.

Concerns

Not all arguments raised are objections. Distinguish between

objections, which always reveal useful information, and other
arguments that are based only on assumptions, or a personal
preference or opinion.
A concern is an assumption – or opinion – that doing something (even
in the absence of objections) might stand in the way of (more) effective
response to an organizational driver.
In Consent Decision Making, concerns can inform ways to further evolve
agreements (including evaluation criteria and frequency of evaluation).
Bring up concerns if you think it’s valuable to consider them, and at
least record them along with the agreement, and monitor outcomes over
time.

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If in doubt about whether you have an objection or a concern, be proac-
tive and check with others to see what they think too. (see Test Argu-
ments Qualify as Objections).

6.4. Agreements

An agreement is an agreed upon guideline, process, protocol or policy

designed to guide the flow of value.
Shared guidelines about why, how and when to act, and what is specifi-
cally required, enable effective collaboration.
Agreements are created in response to organizational drivers, are regu-
larly reviewed and evolved as necessary.
Overall accountability for an agreement lies with the people that make
them.
An agreement can include delegation of specific responsibilities to
individuals or groups.

6.5. Governance and Operations

S3 seeks to enable productivity by freeing people up to do and decide as

much as possible for themselves, while ensuring coherence in collabora-
tion for a successful and effective organization.
Greater autonomy of individuals and teams necessitates clear agreements
(i.e. guidelines and constraints) that enable smooth collaboration be-
tween those teams and individuals, and that support achievement of both
long-term and short-term objectives. Regular iterative reviews and in-
cremental evolution of agreements ensure they remain fit for purpose.
While a decision of short-term consequence can easily be amended on
the spot, making more consequential agreements that constrain people’s
behavior and activity, often benefits from a more participatory and de-
liberate decision making process.

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Such agreements need to be documented, both to remember them and
to support effective review, and to be communicated to people affected
(who are ideally also involved in the creation and evolution of those agree-
ments).
Therefore it’s valuable to distinguish between two categories of activities
in an organization, one of which we refer to as governance, and the other
as operations:
Governance in an organization (or a domain within it) is the act of
setting objectives, and making and evolving decisions that guide people
towards achieving them.
Operations is doing the work and organizing day to day activities within
the constraints defined through governance.
For each domain in an organization there is a governing body: people
with a mandate to make and evolve agreements which govern how the
people doing the work in that domain create value.
There are many ways to distribute work and governance. Sometimes the
governing body is a single person, e.g. in the case of a team lead, and
sometimes it’s a group of people, e.g. in a circle where all circle members
share responsibility for governance within the constraints of the domain.
Governance decisions set constraints on activity and guide future de-
cisions.
This includes:
• defining domains
• delegating influence to people
• allocating resources and capacity
• specifying deliverables and prioritizing delivery.
Governance decisions can be made at any time and at any place, not just
in a specific kind of meeting, although a regular meeting for making and
evolving agreements is often a good idea.

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Related Concepts

Self-Governance: People governing themselves within the constraints

of a domain.
Semi-Autonomy: The autonomy of people to create value within their
domain, further limited by their own governance decisions, and objections
(including those of the delegator and of representatives).
Self-Organization: Any activity or process through which people or-
ganize their day-to-day work without the influence of an external agent,
and within constraints defined through governance. In any organization
or team, self-organization and external influence co-exist.
Depending on the constraints set by the delegator, teams have more or
less license to conduct governance and decide how they organize their op-
erations, and are therefore more or less self-governing and self-organizing.

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 Part II.

The Patterns

31
1. Co-Creation And Evolution

1.1. Respond to Organizational Drivers

Clarify organizational drivers (i.e. what’s happening and what’s

needed in relation to the organization), and respond as re-
quired.
Responses to organizational drivers include:
• direct action (operations)
• organizing how work will be done
• making governance decisions
The response to an organizational driver is typically treated as an exper-
iment that is evaluated and evolved over time.

Qualify Drivers as Organizational Drivers

A driver is a person’s or a group’s motive for responding to a specific

situation. A driver is considered an organizational driver if responding
to it would help the organization generate value, eliminate waste or avoid
unintended consequences.
A simple way to qualify whether or not a driver falls within an organiza-
tion’s domain is by checking:
Would it help the organization if we respond to this driver? Or would it
lead to unintended consequences if we don’t?

32
 Figure 1.1.: Possible responses to organizational drivers

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1.2. Navigate Via Tension

Pay attention to tension you experience in relation to the orga-

nization, investigate the cause and pass on any organizational
drivers you discover to the people accountable for the appro-
priate domain.
Challenges and opportunities for an organization are revealed by
people bringing awareness to the reasons why they experience tension.
Note: In this context, a tension is a personal experience: a symptom of
dissonance between an individual’s perception of a situation, and their
expectations (or preferences).
To discover drivers, investigate what stimulates tension, and describe
what’s happening and what’s needed. Sometimes an inquiry reveals mis-
conceptions and the tension goes away.

1.3. Describe Organizational Drivers

Describe organizational drivers to understand, communicate

and remember them.
Describing drivers may be done by a group or by an individual. De-
pending on their perspective, they may decide to explain a driver as a
problem to solve or an opportunity to leverage.
A simple way to describe a driver is by explaining:
• What’s happening…:
– the current situation
– the effect of this situation on the organization
• …and what’s needed:
– the need of the organization in relation to this situation
– the impact of attending to that need

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Figure 1.2.: Navigate Via Tension, Describe Organizational Drivers, Re-
spond To Organizational Drivers

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Create a brief but comprehensive summary containing just enough infor-
mation to clearly communicate the need for an action or a decision.

Figure 1.3.: Describe Organizational Drivers

Example:

“The kitchen is in disorder: there are no clean cups, the sink

is full of dishes and it’s not possible to quickly grab a coffee
and get right back to work. We need the kitchen in a usable
state so we can stay focused on our work.”

1. Current Situation

“The kitchen is in disorder: there are no clean cups, the sink

is full of dishes…”
Describe the current situation:
• Briefly capture the essentials of what is happening, and, if neces-
sary, the context in which it occurs.
• Be objective - describe observations and avoid evaluation.

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2. Effect

“…it’s not possible to quickly grab a coffee and get right back
to work.”
Explain the effect of this situation on the organization:
• Clarify why the situation needs attention: how does it affect the
organization?
• Be explicit about whether the effects are current or anticipated.
• Explain challenges, losses, opportunities or gains.

3. Need

“We need the kitchen in a usable state…”

Explain the need of the organization in relation to this situation:
• A need of an organization is anything a team (or individual)
requires to effectively account for a domain.
• Be specific on whose need it is (“we need”, “they need”, “I need”).
• If there’s disagreement about the need, it helps to zoom out from
specific solutions and focus on what the organization is lacking in
this situation.

4. Impact

“…so we can stay focused on our work”.

Describe the impact of attending to that need:
• Explain the intended outcome, potential benefits or opportunities.
• The impact may be obvious or implicit, especially when the effects
of the current situation are already described.

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Summarize the Driver

Aim for one or two sentences, so that the information is easy to remember
and process.
Besides the summary, more details about the driver may be kept in the
logbook.

Review Drivers

Make sure to review drivers on a regular basis, to deepen you under-

standing of what’s happening and needed.
Helpful questions for a review include:
• Is the description of the situation (still) correct?
• Do we still associate the same needs with the situation?
• Is the driver still within our domain?
• Is the driver still relevant?

1.4. Consent Decision Making

A (facilitated) group process for decision making: invite ob-

jections, and consider information and knowledge revealed to
further evolve proposals or existing agreements.
Proposals become agreements when they are considered good enough for
now and safe enough to try until the next review.
Unresolved objections prevent proposals from becoming agreements.
Withholding objections can harm the objectives of a team or organiza-
tion.

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Implicit Contract of Consent

1. In the absence of objections to an agreement, I intend to follow

through on the agreement to the best of my ability.
2. I agree to share objections as I become aware of them.

1.5. Test Arguments Qualify as Objections

Utilize your limited time and resources wisely by testing if ar-

guments qualify as objections and only acting on those that
do.
When someone raises an argument for changing something, check that
the argument reveals how leaving things unchanged will – or could — lead
to consequences you want to avoid, or that it informs you of a worthwhile
way to improve how to go about achieving your objectives.
Explore and refine each argument as necessary to identify any miscon-
ceptions or misunderstanding, and to eliminate aspects of the argument
that are based merely on assumptions, or a personal preference or opin-
ion. If you establish that what remains of the argument qualifies as an
objection, then go on to resolve the objection.
To discover if an argument qualifies as an objection in a group context,
a facilitator can invite reflection by asking:
“Do you think this argument qualifies as an objection?”
If no one disagrees, treat the argument as an objection. In case of dis-
agreement, invite a dialogue to discover if an objection is revealed by the
argument.

Understanding Objections

Some helpful questions:

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 Figure 1.4.: Consent Decision Making

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 • How does the argument relate to this specific proposal or agree-
ment?
• Does the argument reveal how a (proposed or current) activity or
agreement:
– harms response to any organizational driver?
– can be improved right now?
– prevents or diminishes someone’s contribution towards re-
sponding to a driver?
– is in conflict with the organization’s values?
– is considered not ‘safe enough’ to try?

Figure 1.5.: A process for testing if an argument qualifies as an objection

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1.6. Resolve Objections

Resolve objections one at a time by using the information they

contain to make and evolve amendments.
Choose an option for resolving an objection that looks most promising,
and if that fails, simply pick another one. Each attempt will help you
understand more of the information the objection contains, and bring the
group closer to proposing an amendment that resolves the objection.
Often, asking the person who brings the objection to propose an amend-
ment, is a productive place to start.
Typically it’s most effective to take one objection at a time, resolve
all objections to a proposed amendment, and then continue with the next
main objection.

Figure 1.6.: Some options for resolving objections

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 Figure 1.7.: A process for resolving objections

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1.7. Evaluate And Evolve Agreements

Continuously evolve the body of agreements, and eliminate

waste.
Regular review of agreements is an essential practice for a learning orga-
nization:
• adapt agreements to suit changing context
• integrate learning to make them more effective
Ensure all agreements have an appropriate review date.
Evaluating agreements can be as simple as checking that an agreement
is still relevant, and there is no objection to keeping it as it is.
Agreements are often reviewed in Governance Meetings, however some-
times it’s more effective to schedule a dedicated session.
Adjust review frequency as necessary, and review early if required.
Elements of this pattern can also be used by individuals to evaluate
decisions they make.

Short Format

• How has this agreement helped us?

• Is there any reason to drop this agreement?
• How can this agreement be improved?
• Agree on a next review date.

Long Format

Preparation:
• Schedule the review.
• Ensure all necessary information is available.

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 Figure 1.8.: Experiment, evaluate, evolve

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 Figure 1.9.: A long format for evaluating and evolving agreements

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Follow-up:
• Agree on the next review date.
• Document decisions and tasks, and share with relevant people.
• Consider effects on any related agreements.

1.8. Those Affected Decide

Involve people in making decisions that affect them, to maintain

equivalence and accountability, and to increase the amount of
information available on the subject.
For larger groups:
• facilitate a process in several stages and create smaller groups who
select delegates
• use an online tool and conduct an asynchronous, timeboxed and
staged process
Consider including those affected in reviewing and evolving decisions,
too.

1.9. Co-Create Proposals

Bring people together to co-create proposals in response to or-

ganizational drivers: tap collective intelligence, build sense of
ownership and increase engagement and accountability.
There are many ways to co-create proposals. They typically follow a
similar pattern:
1. Agree on the driver (or problem /opportunity /need)
2. Explore the topic and understand constraints
3. Generate ideas

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 4. Design a proposal (often done by a smaller group)
One way to co-create proposals is to use S3’s Proposal Forming pattern.
For inspiration for steps 2 and 3, look to classic group facilitation tech-
niques or design thinking activities.
Besides in a face-to-face workshop, you can adapt this process for online
meetings. You can even use it asynchronously (and over an extended
period of time) to include many people.

1.10. Proposal Forming

A (facilitated) group process for co-creating a response to a

driver.
• draws on the collective intelligence and diversity of perspective
within a group
• involves people in co-creating agreements
• fosters accountability and sense of ownership
Proposal Forming may also be used by an individual.

Proposal Forming Steps

Consent to driver: Briefly present the driver. Is this driver relevant

for us to respond to? Are there any essential amendments to what has
been presented?
Deepen shared understanding of driver: invite essential questions
to understand the driver in more detail.
Collect considerations phrased as questions relating to possible solu-
tions. Questions either reveal constraints (information gathering ques-
tions) or possibilities (generative questions).
Answer any information gathering questions if possible.

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 Figure 1.10.: A template for proposals

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Prioritize considerations.
Gather ideas as possible ingredients for a proposal.
Design a proposal for addressing the driver considering the creative
ideas and information gathered so far. This is usually done by a smaller
group of “tuners”.

Choosing Tuners

Consider:
• who should be there?
• who wants to be there?
• who else may have a valuable contribution to make?
• consider expertise, outside view, and inspiration
Between two and three tuners is usually appropriate. Check for any
objections to the proposed tuner(s).

1.11. Role Selection

A group process for selecting a person for a role on the strength

of the reason.
Instead of simply assigning people for roles, or making a choice based
only on majority, use the role selection process to:
• tap collective intelligence by hearing and deliberating on reasons
for nominations
• increase ownership over the decision
• ensure support for the role keeper by those affected.
A prerequisite to the selection process is a clear description of the role’s
domain.

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 Figure 1.11.: Proposal forming process

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Role Selection - Steps

1. Present Role Description: If possible, send out the role’s do-

main description in advance.
2. Record Nominations: Participants write their nomination on a
slip of paper. People can nominate themselves, another, or pass.
3. Reasons for Nominations: Each person shares who they have
nominated and why.
4. Information Gathering: Participants share or request any in-
formation that might support the group in making an appropriate
selection.
5. Nomination Changes: Check if anyone wants to change their
nomination in light of reasons and information shared so far, and
hear the reasons for each change.
6. Propose a nominee for the role: The facilitator guides the process
to identify a suitable nominee on the strength of the reasons heard,
e.g. by:
• proposing a nominee themselves or asking a group member
• inviting (some) nominees to agree who should be proposed
• inviting group dialogue to help reveal the strongest nominee
7. Check for Objections: Ask participants (including the proposed
nominee) to simultaneously signal whether or not they have an
objection.
8. Address and Resolve Objections, beginning with any from the
proposed nominee. Objections may be resolved in many ways, in-
cluding amending the role’s domain description or by nominating
someone else. When all objections are resolved, check with the
(final) nominee again if they accept the role.
9. Celebrate: Acknowledge reaching agreement and thank the per-
son who will now keep the role.

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 Figure 1.12.: Role selection process

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To avoid influencing others, abstain from expressing personal interest or
opinions before a selection takes place.
Sometimes a role selection reveals a lack of capacity, relevant experience,
qualities or skill. A group will then need to consider outside candidates,
reconsider priorities or find an alternative way to account for the domain.
This pattern can also be used in any situation where there is a need to
choose between a variety of options.

1.12. Driver Mapping

A workshop format to identify an effective response to a complex situa-

tion: organize start-ups, kick-off projects, tackle major impediments or
opportunities, develop organizational structure to better enable the flow
of value.
A (small or large) group identifies and clusters drivers, to then progress
quickly from concept to action in smaller and self-organizing teams.

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 Figure 1.13.: Driver Mapping: Process

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 Figure 1.14.: Driver Mapping: A template for domains

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2. Peer Development

2.1. Ask For Help

A simple protocol for learning, skill sharing, and building con-

nections, with respect for people’s agency.
Ask someone, “would you be willing to help me with …?” The person
asked accepts or declines with a simple “yes” or “no”.
• if the request is declined, the person asking accepts the answer
without negotiation or inquiry
• if the request is unclear, inquire for more information
• if you accept a request for help, support your peer in the best way
you can

2.2. Peer Feedback

Invite a peer to give you some constructive feedback on:

• your performance in a role
• your general participation and contribution
• any specific aspect you may be interested in
Considerations:
• invite peers to take some time to prepare
• invite both appreciations and actionable improvement sug-
gestions

57
 • inquire to better understand the feedback, and avoid discussing or
judging it
• decide for yourself what you will do with feedback you receive

2.3. Peer Review

Support each other to learn and grow in the roles and teams
you serve in.
The role keeper — or team — leads the peer review by setting up the
process and speaking first in each step.
Ensure you invite people with complementary perspectives to contribute
to the review, and a facilitator.
Improvement suggestions may relate to personal development, collab-
oration, updates to the domain description (including the driver) and
strategy.

2.4. Development Plan

A plan for how to develop more effective ways of accounting for

a domain, agreed between delegator and delegatee.
The development plan may be created for a person in a role, or for a
team (e.g. a department, circle or open domain).
Development may happen in the form of refining the description of the
driver and the domain, making amendments to strategy, or new or up-
dated agreements and specific actions to be taken, either within the do-
main of the delegator, or the domain of the delegatee.
A development plan (and any accompanying recommendations for
changes to the descriptions of the domain and the driver) requires
consent from both the delegatee and the delegator.

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 Figure 2.1.: Peer review process

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Figure 2.2.: Continuous improvement of people’s ability to effectively
keep roles or collaborate in teams

Figure 2.3.: A template for development plans

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3. Enablers Of Collaboration

3.1. Artful Participation

Commit to doing your best to act and interact in ways that

enable effective collaboration.
“Is my behavior in this moment the greatest contribution I can make to
the effectiveness of this collaboration?”
Participating artfully may include interrupting, objecting or breaking
agreements.
Artful Participation is an individual commitment to:
• actively consider and follow-up on all agreements made, in
the best way possible, given the circumstances
• develop awareness and understanding of individual and col-
lective needs
• grow the necessary skills
• support others to participate artfully
• bring impediments and improvement suggestions to the attention
of others if necessary

Benefits Of Artful Participation

Artful participation:
• enables co-creation and evolution of agreements
• helps to grow stronger teams

61
 • builds self-accountability, integrity and trust
• generates a culture of mutual support and close collaboration
• is more powerful when embraced by many

Figure 3.1.: Balance autonomy and collaboration through artful partici-

pation

Artful Participation: Self-Assessment

• How can I support myself and others to participate more artfully?

• Where are my interactions with others unhelpful or ineffective?
• Which agreements do I find hard to keep? What can I do to address
this?
• What skills can I develop, that would support me to participate
more artfully?
• What would artful participation mean in relation to:
– my daily activities?
– collaboration and interaction with others?
– the organization? …our customers or clients?
– the wider environment?

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3.2. Adopt The Seven Principles

Align collaboration with the Seven Principles.

Adopting the Seven Principles reduces the number of explicit agreements
required, and guides adaptation of S3 patterns to suit the organization’s
context.
An organization’s values need to embrace the Seven Principles.

Figure 3.2.: The Seven Principles

3.3. Agree On Values

Intentionally evolve the culture in your organization.

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Figure 3.3.: An organization’s values need to embrace the Seven Princi-
ples

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Values are valued principles that guide behavior. Values define scope for
action and ethical constraints.
• each member brings their own values to an organization based on
personal experiences and beliefs
• a team or organization may choose to collectively adopt values
to guide their collaboration
Values offer guidance to determine appropriate action, even in the ab-
sence of explicit agreements.
Collectively adopting a set of values supports the effectiveness of an or-
ganization:
• reduces potential for misunderstanding
• helps to align decision making and action
• attracts new members, partners and customers who are
aligned with the organization
Chosen values are an agreement that benefits from regular review.

3.4. Governance Facilitator

Select someone to facilitate governance meetings.

A governance facilitator:
• ensures governance meetings stay on track and are evaluated
• is (usually) selected by a team from among it members (and for a
specific term)
• familiarizes themselves with the Governance Backlog
• often invites others to facilitate some agenda items
As a governance facilitator, consider learning about and using the fol-
lowing patterns from S3 to handle governance effectively:

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 Figure 3.4.: Chosen values define constraints for collaboration

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 • Rounds
• Proposal Forming
• Consent Decision Making
• Role Selection
• Evaluate Meetings
• Resolve Objections
• Peer Review

3.5. Breaking Agreements

Breaking agreements is sometimes necessary but may come at a cost

to the community.
Be accountable:
• clean up disturbances
• follow up as soon as possible with those affected
• change the agreement instead of repeatedly breaking it

3.6. Contract For Successful Collaboration

Support successful collaboration from the start and build trust

between parties by co-creating mutually beneficial and legally
robust contracts.
A contract is a body of promises that two or more parties agree to make
legally binding, i.e if those promises are violated, the injured party gains
access to legal (or alternative) remedies.
Developing shared understanding about needs and expectations is essen-
tial for successful collaboration.

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Figure 3.5.: The governance facilitator is typically a member of the team

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While negotiating and agreeing on a contract, model the culture of col-
laboration you want to achieve, and build a positive relationship with the
other parties involved.
This pattern refers to contracts relating related to collaboration around
any business transaction between an organization and other parties (e.g.
employees, consultants, service providers, shareholders or customers). It
is especially relevant for contracts that have a significant influence on the
future of an organization or one of its partners, such as:
• employment contracts and contracts with external contractors or
consultants in support roles (including any agreement that results
in a change of remuneration or working hours)
• contracts governing collaboration with customers, vendors or ser-
vice providers
• shareholder agreements
Note: Many agreements about collaboration within an organization do
not require dedicated contracts, as they are already governed by or sub-
ject to existing contracts.

Success criteria for contract negotiation

When negotiating a contract, ensure:

• shared understanding of the reason for the collaboration, as well as
the intended outcome and important constraints
• all parties understand what is expected of them
• all parties affected by a contract are involved in creating the con-
tract and enter it voluntarily
• expectations are realistic
• the agreement is beneficial to all parties
• everyone intends to keep to the agreement made

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If for any reason one or more of these criteria cannot be fulfilled, it is
probably wise to not proceed.

Co-creating the contract

The way a contract is negotiated can significantly contribute toward

building trust between parties. Approach contracting from the point
of view of making an agreement between partners, not adversaries: co-
create the contract, tailor it to its specific context, and ensure it is legally
robust.
• the contract should include all expectations of the parties involved,
each explained with adequate detail
• use clear and simple language that all parties can understand, and
be unambiguous about legal consequences
• if you need to use specific technical or legal terms a party might
be unfamiliar with, explain them in a glossary that is part of the
contract
• consult a lawyer who supports the culture you aspire to and is
competent in the field if business you are negotiating

When Co-Creating a Contract:

• ensure all parties have a delegation that includes representation for

all affected domains (e.g. not only sales, but also development /
production /support, etc)
• explicitly describe the culture you want to develop, with consid-
eration for common ground and any cultural differences between
parties
• state the reasons for the proposed collaboration, and transparent
about expectations and needs of all parties
• disclose all relevant information (if necessary under an NDA)

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 • agree first on terms of the relationship and expectations to all par-
ties, and then consider how you can make them legally robust
• compile a list of specific laws and regulation the contract needs to
comply to
• negotiate in several iterations, allowing time to consider implica-
tions and propose amendments
• keep minutes of each meeting to reduce the potential for miscon-
ceptions

Support The Full Lifecycle Of The Collaboration:

Any contract can be changed at any time, provided all signatories agree.
However, it greatly reduces the potential for conflict later if you consider
the full lifecycle of the collaboration in the contract:
• make provisions for successfully getting started by defining on-
boarding procedures
• have a probationary period, where all parties can try out the col-
laboration, and a clear protocol for how each party can terminate
the contract during the probationary period
• define and build into the contract regular review meetings where
signatories come together to share learning and decide how the
contract might be amended to adapt to changing context
• include procedures for breach of contract
• consider making available alternative means for dispute resolution,
e.g. mediation, conciliation or arbitration
• consider limiting the contract to a fixed term after which the con-
tract expires and can be renewed if required

Culture

Every contract influences the culture of the collaboration it governs, even

when it appears to only describe what needs to be delivered:

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 • intentionally create the culture of collaboration you want to see by
including expectations on how things should be done
• align the contract to the organizational culture (of all parties) and
to legal requirements
• build contracts that enable and encourage accountability
If you find that standard contracts in your industry are misaligned with
the culture you want to create, build your own repository of templates
for contracts and clauses and consider sharing it with others, so that you
can leverage past experience when creating new contracts.

3.7. Transparent Salary

Create a fair salary formula and make it transparent.

Transparent salary (also referred to as “open salary”) is the practice of
determining each employee’s compensation according to a set of rules —
the salary formula — instead of making compensation subject to indi-
vidual negotiation between employer and employee. The salary formula
— and often individual compensation as well — is transparent to all
members of an organization, and sometimes to the public.
A transparent salary formula needs to suit an organization’s context, and
to be perceived as fair enough by all stakeholders.
Perception of fairness varies from person to person and according to con-
text, so creating a salary formula requires developing a shared under-
standing of what is considered fair.
When deciding (or agreeing) on a salary formula for an organization or
department, consider:
• what would be a suitable fixed subsistence guarantee
• how to calculate compensation according to need, investment, pro-
ductivity, or merit

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 • how to distribute the organization’s profit and cover for losses in
line with expectations and needs of the various stakeholders
Decide how to handle remuneration for changing roles and develop a
strategy for how to transition towards new contracts and compensation
agreements.

Figure 3.6.: Two ways of opening salaries

3.8. Support Role

Apply the role pattern to external contractors.
• clarify and describe the driver for the role
• create a domain description
• if valuable, implement a selection process
• limit the term of the contract
• build in regular peer reviews

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External contractors consent to take on their role.
See also: Contract For Successful Collaboration

3.9. Bylaws

Secure S3 principles and patterns in your bylaws as needed to protect

legal integrity and organizational culture
Consider:
• consent and equivalence in decision making
• selection process for leadership roles
• organizational structure, values and principles
• influence of owners or shareholders
• sharing gains and costs

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4. Building Organizations

4.1. Delegate Influence

Distribute the power to influence, to enable people to decide

and act for themselves within defined constraints.
A delegator can support delegatees to deliver value by:
• Clearly defining domains of autonomy and responsibility
• Ensuring there are opportunities for learning and development
• Providing support if required
Adjust constraints incrementally, considering capabilities, reliability and
outcome.
Decentralize as much as possible, and retain as much influence as neces-
sary.

4.2. Circle

A circle is a self-governing and semi-autonomous team of equivalent

people who collaborate to account for a domain.
A circle:
• may be permanent or temporary
• may be self-organizing
• is accountable for its own development and its body of agreements

75
 • semi-autonomous:
– A circle’s members act within the constraints of their domain.
– Each circle can create value autonomously.
• self-governing:
– A circle’s members continuously decide together what to do
to account for their domain, and set constraints on how and
when things will be done.
• equivalence of circle members:
– All members of a circle are equally accountable for governance
of the circle’s domain.

4.3. Role

Delegate responsibility for a domain to individuals.

A role is an area of responsibility (a domain) that is delegated to an
individual (the role keeper), who has autonomy to decide and act within
the constraints of the role’s domain.
The role keeper leads in creating a strategy for how they will account
for their domain. They evolve their strategy in collaboration with the
delegator.
A role is a simple way for an organization (or team) to delegate recurring
tasks or a specific area of work and decision making to one of its members.
• people can take responsibility for more than one role
• instead of formally setting up a new team, it’s sometimes simpler
to just share one role between several people
• role keepers are selected by consent and for a limited term
• peers support one another to develop in the roles they keep

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Figure 4.1.: All members of a circle are equally accountable for gover-
nance of the circle’s domain

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A role keeper may maintain a governance backlog, and a logbook to
record and help them evolve their approach toward delivering value.
Note: In S3, guidelines, processes or protocols created by individuals in
roles are treated as agreements.

Figure 4.2.: People can take responsibility for more than one role

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4.4. Linking

Enable the flow of information and influence between two

teams.
A team selects one of its members to represent their interests in the
governance decisions of another team.

Figure 4.3.: One circle linked to another circle

4.5. Double Linking

Enable the two-way flow of information and influence between

two teams.
Two interdependent teams each select one of their members to represent
their interests in the governance decisions of the other team.
Double linking enables equivalence between two teams and can be used
to draw out valuable information in hierarchical structures.

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 Figure 4.4.: Double linking two circles

4.6. Representative

Select a team member to participate in the governance decision

making of another team to enable the flow of information and
influence.
Representatives (a.k.a. links):
• stand for the interests of one team in another team
• are selected for a limited term
• participate in the governance decision making of the team they
link with, and can:
– raise items for the agenda
– participate in forming proposals
– raise objections to proposals and existing agreements

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4.7. Helping Team

Bring together a team of equivalent people with the mandate to

execute on a specific set of requirements defined by a delegator.
A helping team:
• is a way for a delegator to expand their capacity
• may be self-organizing, or guided by a coordinator chosen by the
delegator
• is governed by the delegator
• benefits from a clearly defined domain
Members of the helping team:
• can object to the delegator’s decisions that affect them
• can add items to the delegator’s governance backlog
• may be invited to select a representative to participate in the gov-
ernance decision making of the delegator

4.8. Open Domain

Intentionally account for a domain by invitation rather than

assignment and request that those invited contribute when they
can.
The delegator of the open domain clarifies:
• the primary driver, key responsibilities and constraints of the open
domain
• who is invited to contribute to the open domain
• constraints relating to the delegator’s participation in the open do-
main’s governance

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 Figure 4.5.: Helping Team

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Depending on the constraints set by the delegator, contributors may only
organize and do work, or take part in governance as well.
A delegator is accountable for conducting regular reviews to support
effectiveness of work and any decision making done in an open domain.

Figure 4.6.: Open Domain

4.9. Open Systems

Intentionally communicate with and learn from others outside
of your system.

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Individuals, teams and entire organizations can acknowledge interdepen-
dence and intentionally invite people from outside their system to bring
in knowledge, experience and influence to assist with decision mak-
ing and support collective learning.
• External experts can offer an outside perspective and bring
knowledge, understanding and skills
• Representatives of affected parties can inform and influence
decision making in ways that benefit overall objectives (see Those
Affected Decide)

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5. Bringing In S3

5.1. Adapt Patterns To Context

Adapt and evolve S3 patterns to suit your specific context.
Ensure that everyone affected:
• understands why changing the pattern is necessary (or helpful)
• is present or represented when deciding how to change it
• uses S3 principles as a guide for adaptation.
Run experiments with adaptations for long enough to learn about the
benefits and any potential pitfalls.
Share valuable adaptations with the S3 community.

5.2. Create a Pull-System For Organizational

Change
Create an environment that invites and enables members of the
organization to drive change.
Change things when there is value in doing so:
• Bring in patterns that help to solve current and important prob-
lems.
• Don’t break what’s already working!
• Meet everyone where they are…
• …and let them choose their own pace.

85
 Figure 5.1.: Phases of adapting patterns to a specific context

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5.3. Be The Change

Lead by example.
Behave and act in the ways you would like others to behave and act.

5.4. Invite Change

Clarify the reason for change and invite people to participate.

Inviting rather than imposing change helps reduce resistance and enables
people to choose for themselves.
When making the invitation:
• be transparent about the reason for the change
• clarify expectations and constraints
• avoid coercion or manipulation
• acknowledge any skepticism and doubts
Include the people involved and affected in regular evaluation of out-
comes.

5.5. Open Space For Change

Invite everyone to create and run experiments for evolving the

organization.
• clarify the driver for change
• schedule regular open space events:
– invite all members to create and run experiments
– define constraints for the experiments that enable development
of a sociocratic and agile mindset (e.g. S3 principles)
– review and learn from experimentation in the next open space

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5.6. Continuous Improvement Of Work Process

Reveal drivers and establish a metrics-based pull-system for

organizational change through continuously improving and re-
fining the work process.
• introduce the principle of consent and Navigate Via Tension to
evolve work process in a team
• consider selecting a facilitator to guide group processes, and choos-
ing values to guide behavior
• initiate a process of continuous improvement, e.g. through Kanban
or regular retrospectives
• members of the team pull in S3 patterns as required
• if valuable, iteratively expand the scope of the experiment to other
teams
• intentionally look out for impediments

Waste And Continuous Improvement

Waste is anything unnecessary for — or standing in the way of — a

(more) effective response to a driver.
Waste exists in various forms and on different levels of abstraction (tasks,
processes, organizational structure, mental models…)
Establishing a process for the ongoing elimination of waste enables nat-
ural evolution of an organization towards greater effectiveness and adap-
tation to changing context.

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 Figure 5.2.: Drivers, value and waste

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6. Defining Agreements

Figure 6.1.: Any agreement or decision can be viewed as an experiment.

90
 Figure 6.2.: The Life-Cycle of an Agreement

6.1. Record Agreements

Record the details of agreements you make, so you can recall

them later, evaluate the outcome and evolve the agreement over
time.
An agreement is an agreed upon guideline, process, protocol or policy
designed to guide the flow of value.
Note: In S3, guidelines, processes or protocols created by individuals in
roles are also treated as agreements.
Keep records of agreements up to date, e.g. in a logbook.

What to record?

Record agreements with adequate detail so that important information

can be recalled later.
At the very least include a summary of the driver, a description of what’s
been agreed, who is responsible for what, evaluation criteria and a review
date.
Depending on the scope and significance of the agreement, consider in-
cluding all of the following:
• A title for the agreement
• Description of the driver
• Date of creation (and/or version)

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 • Date of expiry or due date (if relevant)
• Review date (or frequency)
• Who is responsible for what?
• A description of the agreement, including:
– Any relevant requirements and expectations
– Action items
– Resources
– Constraints
– Intended outcomes
– Deliverables
– Rationale
• Evaluation criteria (and potentially concerns)
• Appendix (if helpful)
– Background information
– Previous versions of the agreements
– References

6.2. Develop Strategy

A strategy is a high level approach for how people will create value to
successfully account for a domain.
It is usually more effective if a team or role keeper lead in developing
their own strategy.
A strategy often includes a description of the intended outcome of im-
plementing that strategy.

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 Figure 6.3.: Template for agreements

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As the delegator shares accountability for domains they delegate, it’s
valuable they review a delegatee’s strategy, to check for potential imped-
iments and suggest ways it could be improved.
A strategy is a shared agreement between delegator(s) and delegatee(s)
that is regularly reviewed and updated as necessary (pivot or persevere)

Figure 6.4.: Strategies are validated and refined through experimentation

and learning.

Strategies are validated and refined through experimentation and learn-

ing.

6.3. Clarify Domains

A clear understanding of people’s area of responsibility and
autonomy enables greater efficiency, effective collaboration and
agility throughout an organization.
A simple way to clarify domains is with a domain description that
contains:

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 • primary driver (the organizational need the domain is designed
to respond to)
• key responsibilities (key deliverables, any critical risks to man-
age, other essential work and decision making being delegated)
• constraints to the autonomy and influence of those the do-
main is delegated to (the delegatees), usually related to the organi-
zation itself (dependencies, involvement of the delegator, reporting
etc.)
• resources (time, money, facilities, privileges, tools)
• evaluation criteria and frequency of evaluation
• term (for a role)
Domain descriptions can be created for a role, position, circle, team, open
domain, department, unit, or the whole organization.
Another way of clarifying a domain is by filling out an S3 Delegation
Canvas1 .

6.4. Clarify Intended Outcome

Be explicit about the expected results of agreements, activities,

projects and strategies.
Agree on and record a concise description of the intended outcome.
The intended outcome can be used to define Evaluation Criteria and
metrics for reviewing actual outcome.

6.5. Describe Deliverables

Clearly describe any deliverables related to an agreement to

support shared understanding of expectations.
1
[Link]

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 Figure 6.5.: A template for domain descriptions

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 Figure 6.6.: Intended Outcome, and Evaluation Criteria

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A deliverable is a product, service, component or material provided in
response to an organizational driver.
When describing deliverables:
• include the necessary amount of detail
• reference other documents when helpful or necessary
Explicitly describing deliverables can be useful for improving communi-
cation and collaboration within the organization, with customer and with
external partners.
Example: A popular way to describe deliverables in software-
engineering are so-called user stories, which focus on the need of
users in relation to a software system. User stories are developed in dia-
logue between a customer (or their representative, the product manager
or “product owner”), and the software developer(s). What is written
down is usually one sentence to remind the team of the user need, and
acceptance criteria, a list of requirements for the new feature, which the
customer will then use in a review meeting to decide whether or not they
accept the new feature as delivered.

6.6. Evaluation Criteria

Develop well-defined evaluation criteria to determine if acting
on an agreement had the desired effect.
• go for simple and unambiguous criteria and document them
(to avoid discussion or unnecessary dialogue when reviewing your
agreements)
• define actionable metrics to continuously track effects and spot
deviations from intended outcome
• consider adding criteria which make it explicit when the outcome
of an agreement would be considered unsuccessful
• when reviewing an agreement, consider evolving the evaluation
criteria based on what you have learned

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6.7. Logbook

Maintain a coherent and accessible system that stores all infor-

mation required for collaboration.
A logbook is a (digital) system to store all information relevant for run-
ning an organization and its teams. The logbook is accessible to all
members of an organization, and information is kept confidential only
when there is good reason to do so.
Common platforms for logbooks are Wikis (e.g. Dokuwiki2 , Medi-
aWiki3 , Confluence4 ), Content Management Systems (e.g. Wordpress5 ),
G Suite6 , Evernote7 or even Trello8 .

Logbook Contents

Content relating to the whole organization:

• primary driver, strategy and organizational values
• organizational structure (domains and the connections between
them)
• agreements
Content relating to a specific team or role:
• the domain description and strategy
• agreements (including delegatees’ domain descriptions, strategies
and development plans)
• backlogs and other information relating to work and governance
2
[Link]
3
[Link]
4
[Link]
5
[Link]
6
[Link]
7
[Link]
8
[Link]

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6.8. Logbook Keeper

Select a member of your team to be specifically accountable for

keeping up to date records of all information the team requires.
The logbook keeper is accountable for maintaining a team’s logbook by:
• recording details of agreements, domain descriptions, selections,
evaluation dates, minutes of meetings etc.
• organizing relevant information and improving the system when
valuable
• keeping records up to date
• ensuring accessibility to everyone in the team (and in the wider
organization as agreed)
• attending to all technical aspects of logbook keeping

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7. Focused Interactions

7.1. Governance Meeting

Teams meet at regular intervals to decide what to do to achieve

objectives, and to set constraints on how and when things will
be done.
A governance meeting is usually:
• facilitated
• prepared in advance
• timeboxed for a duration of 90–120 minutes
• scheduled every 2–4 weeks
A typical governance meeting includes:
• opening: check in with each other and attune to the objective of
the meeting
• administrative matters
– check for consent to the last meeting’s minutes
– agree on a date for the next meeting
– check for any last-minute agenda items and for consent to the
agenda
• agenda items
• meeting evaluation: reflect on your interactions, celebrate successes
and share suggestions for improvement

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 Figure 7.1.: Phases of a governance meeting

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 • closing: check in with each other before you leave the meeting
Typical agenda items include:
• any short reports
• evaluation of existing agreements due review
• selecting people to roles
• new drivers requiring decisions to be made, including:
– forming proposals
– making agreements
– designing domains and deciding how to account for them (e.g.
new roles, circles, teams or open domains)

7.2. Retrospective

Dedicate time to reflect on past experience, learn, and decide

how to improve work process.
• output: changes to work process, new tasks, on-the-fly agreements,
and drivers requiring an agreement
• facilitated meeting (1hr )
• regular intervals (1–4 weeks)
• adapt to situation and context

Five Phases of a Retrospective Meeting

1. Set the stage

2. Gather data
3. Generate insights
4. Decide what to do

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 Figure 7.2.: Output of a retrospective

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 5. Close the retrospective
Many different activities for each phase can be found at plans-for-
retrospectives.com1

7.3. Daily Standup

Meet daily to organize work, facilitate learning and improve

your productivity and effectiveness.
• timeboxed (usually 15 minutes)
• held daily at the same time
• the team gathers around a visible project management board/tool
to:
– organize daily work
– address impediments/blocks
– adapt existing agreements or create new agreements on the
spot

7.4. Planning And Review Meetings

People meet at regular intervals (1–4 weeks) in timeboxed meet-

ings to plan and review work.
Planning meeting: select and estimate work items for the next itera-
tion.
Review meeting: review completed work items and decide on re-work
and changes for the next iteration.

1
[Link]

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Figure 7.3.: Daily standup is an essential meeting for self-organizing
teams.

Figure 7.4.: Planning and review meetings

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7.5. Coordination Meeting

Meet on a regular basis (usually weekly) for reporting on and

coordinating work across domains.
• facilitate the meeting (timebox dialogue and use rounds where valu-
able)
• when useful, compile an agenda before the meeting and share it
with attendees in advance
– include details of any prerequisites that can help attendees to
prepare
– further agenda items may come up when hearing status reports
Agenda items:
• cross domain synchronization and alignment
• prioritization and distribution of work
• responding to impediments

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 Figure 7.5.: Phases of a coordination meeting

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8. Meeting Practices

8.1. Rounds

In a group meeting, go around the circle giving everyone the

chance to speak in turn.
Rounds are a group facilitation technique to maintain equivalence and
support effective dialogue.
Be clear on the purpose and intended outcome of each round.
Sit in a circle, begin each round with a different person, and change
direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) to bring variation to who speaks
first and last, and to the order of contributions.

8.2. Facilitate Meetings

Choose someone to facilitate a meeting to help the group main-

tain focus, keep the meeting on track and draw out the partic-
ipant’s creativity and wisdom.
Before each meeting, prepare an agenda of topics, and select a facilitator
to:
• hold the space, keep the time and navigate the agenda during the
meeting
• facilitate a suitable activity for each topic
• facilitate an evaluation at the end of the meeting

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 Figure 8.1.: Rounds

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Consider selecting a facilitator for a specific term. Even an inexperienced
facilitator can make a positive difference.
See also: Prepare For Meetings, Role Selection

8.3. Prepare For Meetings

Prepare in advance to make meetings more effective.

Some considerations for successfully preparing a meeting:
• clarify and communicate the driver for, and intended outcome of
the meeting
• decide who to invite
• create an agenda
• schedule the meeting enough in advance, so people have time to
prepare
• choose an appropriate duration for the meeting
• be clear who will facilitate the meeting, who will take minutes and
who will take care of any follow-up

Preparing an Agenda

Involve people in preparing and prioritizing an agenda and send it out in

advance
For each agenda item agree on:
• the driver
• the intended outcome
• the process
• the time you want to spend on it
• what people need to do to prepare

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Support the Participants’ Preparation

• consider what can be done in advance to prepare for the meeting

• notify people about any expectations and prerequisites
• make any resources available that people may need for preparation

As a participant

• consider the pattern Artful Participation

• review the agenda and consider how you can contribute to each
item
• bring up objections to an agenda, and if possible resolve them before
the meeting
• review improvement suggestions from the last meeting’s evaluation
and consider how you might act on them

8.4. Check In

Help people to become aware of themselves and others, and to

focus, be present and engage.
To check in, briefly disclose something about what’s up for you and how
you are, revealing thoughts, feelings, distractions or needs.
Checking in may take the form of an opening or closing round in a group
meeting, or just a brief exchange in a 1:1 meeting.
You can also call for a group check-in during a meeting, or even choose to
individually check in whenever you think this is valuable for the group.
In a group check-in, allow people to pass if they choose.
When checking in, in a new setting, people can also say their name and
where they are coming from, as a way to introduce themselves. (Tip:
Avoid talking about function, rank etc unless there is a reason to do so.)

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8.5. Evaluate Meetings
Take time for learning at the end of each meeting or workshop.
Reflect on interactions, celebrate successes and share suggestions for im-
provement before closing the meeting.
• reserve 5 minutes for 1 hour, and 15 minutes for a full-day workshop
• record learning and review it before the next meeting
Short formats you can use:
• more of/less of/start/stop/keep
• positive/critical/suggested improvements

Evaluate Meetings: Long Format

Ask everyone in a round to reflect on any or all of the following topics

in a brief sharing, and report key points you’d like to remember for next
time:
• effectiveness and format
• facilitation and participation
• emotional tone
• appreciations and achievements (I liked…)
• growing edges and improvement suggestions (I wish…)
• wild ideas and radical suggestions (What if…)

8.6. Meeting Host

Select someone to take responsibility for the preparation and
follow-up of meetings, workshops or other events.
A person may take on the role of meeting host for a specific event or for
several events over a period of time.

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 Figure 8.2.: Evaluate meetings right before closing the meeting

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Responsibilities Of A Meeting Host

Preparation:
• identify goals and deliverables
• prepare and distribute agenda
• identify and invite the participants
• estimate the time required and schedule the meeting/workshop
• book the location (and transportation if required)
• set up the space and provide required materials and information
• ensure selection of a facilitator and a notetaker to record minutes,
if appropriate
After the meeting: clean up location, return keys, tie up all the loose
ends, and ensure minutes are distributed.
See also: Facilitate Meetings, Prepare For Meetings

8.7. Governance Backlog

A governance backlog is a visible, prioritized list of items (drivers)

that are related to governing a domain and require attention.
A governance backlog contains:
• matters requiring a decision
• proposals to create and consider
• selecting people for roles
Note: Upcoming reports and agreements due review are usually added
directly to the agenda (rather than the backlog).

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9. Organizing Work

9.1. Backlog

A backlog (to-do-list) is a list of (often prioritized) uncompleted work

items (deliverables), or (drivers) that need to be addressed.
Consider making backlogs visible, not only to other members of a team,
but also to the wider organization.
Types of backlog include:
• governance backlog
• operations backlog
• sprint backlog
• product backlog
• impediments backlog
Implementation:
• analog backlog: sticky notes on a wall, or index cards, magnets
and whiteboard
• digital backlog: e.g. Google Sheets1 , Trello2 , Kanban Flow3 ,
Jira4 , Asana5
Each item on a (prioritized) backlog typically contains:
1
[Link]
2
[Link]
3
[Link]
4
[Link]
5
[Link]

116
 • a short description of a deliverable or a driver
• a unique reference number (or link) for each work item
• (the order of work items)
• dependencies to other work items or projects
• due date (if necessary)
• (optional) a measure for value
• (optional) a measure for investment (often an estimate of time or
complexity)

9.2. Prioritize Backlogs

Order all uncompleted work items with the most important

items first, then pull work items from the top whenever there
is new capacity.
No two items can be of equal importance, meaning it is necessary to agree
on priorities and make tough choices.
A prioritized backlog helps to maintain focus on the most important
items.

9.3. Visualize Work

Maintain a system that allows all stakeholders to review the

state of all work items currently pending, in progress or com-
plete.
• valuable for self-organization and pull-systems
• system must be accessible to everyone affected
• analog: post-its on a wall, or index cards, magnets and white
board

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 • digital: Trello6 , Kanbanery7 , Leankit8 , Jira9 , Google Sheets10 , etc.

Figure 9.1.: Visualization of a simple work process

Things to track:

• types of work items (e.g. customer request, project tasks, re-

porting tasks, rework)
• start date (and due date if necessary)
• priorities
6
[Link]
7
[Link]
8
[Link]
9
[Link]
10
[Link]

ebook.2020.0509.1501 118
 • stages of work (e.g. “to do”, “in progress”, “review” and “done”)
• impediments/blocks
• who is working on which items
• agreements and expectations guiding workflow (e.g. definition of
done, policy, quality standards)
• use colors, symbols, highlights etc.

Figure 9.2.: A card representing a work item

9.4. Pull-System For Work

People pull in new work items when they have capacity (instead
of having work pushed or assigned to them.

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Prioritize pending work items to ensure that important items are worked
on first.
Pulling in work prevents overloading the system, especially when work
in progress (WIP) per person or team is limited.

9.5. Limit Work in Progress

Limit the number of work items in any stage of your work

process.
Work in progress includes:
• the number of items in a backlog
• concurrent projects or tasks for teams or individuals
• products in a portfolio
When an action would exceed an agreed upon limit of work items in
progress, this needs to be brought up with the team before continuing.

9.6. Timebox Activities

Set a time constraint to stay focused, bring consciousness to

the time you have and how you use it.
A timebox is a fixed period of time spent focused on a specific activity
(which is not necessarily finished by the end of the timebox).
• to get value out of the timebox, be clear what you want to achieve
• agree on the duration of the timebox and visualize time
• negotiate and agree to extend a timebox before the time is up
• break down longer activities into manageable timeboxes
• consider frequent review of progress

ebook.2020.0509.1501 120
 • consider choosing someone (the “time keeper”) to help others stay
conscious of time
You could timebox:
• meetings, calls, dialogue
• tasks
• experiments
• an attempt to solve a problem
• checking emails
• breaks
• a longer stretch of work (a sprint)

9.7. Align Flow

In support of continuous flow of value, move decision making
close to where value is created, and align the flow of information
accordingly.
Flow of value: Deliverables traveling through an organization towards
customers or other stakeholders.
Achieve and maintain alignment of flow through the continuous evolution
of an organization’s body of agreements:
• ensure all decisions affecting the flow of value actually support the
flow of value
• enable people with relevant skills and knowledge to influence deci-
sions
• make available any helpful information
• aim for shorter feedback loops to amplify learning.
When decision making is conducted close to where value is created, and
the flow of information supports the continuous and steady flow of value,
the potential for accumulation of waste is reduced.

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Figure 9.3.: Aligning the flow of information to support the flow of value

9.8. Coordinator

A person fulfilling the role of a coordinator is accountable for coordi-

nating a domain’s operations and is selected for a limited term.
The coordinator may be selected by the team itself, or by the delegator.
Several coordinators may collaborate to synchronize work across multiple
domains.
Instead of selecting a coordinator, a team may choose to self-organize.

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10. Organizational Structure

Organizational structure is the actual arrangement of domains and their

connections. It reflects where power to influence is located, and the
channels through which information and influence flow.
Continuously evolve your organization’s structure to:
• support the continuous flow of value
• enable effective collaboration around dependencies
• ensure information is available to those who need it
• distribute power to influence as required
The basic building blocks for organizational structure are interdependent,
connected domains.
Domains can be linked to form a hierarchy or a heterarchy (a.k.a. com-
plex adaptive system, or network, where multiple functional structures
can co-exist).
Sociocracy 3.0 describes a variety of structural patterns to grow or-
ganizational structure.
• S3’s structural patterns apply to different layers of abstraction
• different structural patterns serve different drivers
• structural patterns can be adapted and combined as needed
• more patterns are out there and will be discovered

123
10.1. Service Circle
Outsource services required by two or more domains.
A service circle can be populated by members of the domains it serves,
and/or by other people too.

Figure 10.1.: Service Circle

10.2. Delegate Circle

Delegate making governance decisions affecting multiple do-
mains to representatives selected by those domains.
To make governance decisions on their behalf, stakeholders send repre-
sentatives to form a delegate circle.
Governance decisions made in a delegate circle are acted upon in the
various domains it serves.

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 Figure 10.2.: Delegate Circle

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Delegate circles provide a way of steering organizations in alignment with
the flow of value, and bring a diversity of perspectives to governance
decision making.
A delegate circle may bring in other people (e.g. external experts) to
help with specific decisions, or even as a member of the circle.

10.3. Peach Organization

Deliver value in complex and competitive environments

through decentralization (of resources and influence) and direct
interaction between those creating value and the customers
they serve.
Teams in the periphery:
• deliver value in direct exchange with the outside world (customers,
partners, communities, municipalities etc.)
• steward the monetary resources and steer the organization
The center provides internal services to support the organization.
Domains are linked as required to flow information and influence, and to
support collaboration around dependencies.

10.4. Double-Linked Hierarchy

Delegate all authority for making governance decisions to self-

governing circles, double-linked across all levels of the hierar-
chy, to transition from an traditional hierarchy towards a struc-
ture more suitable for tapping collective intelligence, ensuring
equivalence and building engagement.
1. Shift governance decision making from individuals to teams by
forming self-governing circles on all levels of your organization.

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 Figure 10.3.: Peach Organization

ebook.2020.0509.1501 127
 2. Each circle’s members select one of their group to represent their
interests and participate in the governance decision making of the
next higher circle, and vice versa.
A double-linked hierarchy:
• brings equivalence to governance
• maintains the potential for a functional hierarchy (if it enables the
flow of value).
See also: Circle, Double Linking, Representative

10.5. Service Organization

Multi-stakeholder collaboration and alignment towards a
shared driver (or objective).
• improves potential for equivalence between various entities
• increases cross-departmental/organizational alignment
• supports multi-agency collaboration between departments or orga-
nizations with different primary motives, or that are in conflict
• suitable for one-off projects, or ongoing collaboration
Note: a service organization is sometimes referred to as a backbone
organization.

10.6. Fractal Organization

Multiple constituents (organizations or projects) with a com-
mon (or similar) primary driver and structure can share learn-
ing across functional domains, align action and make high level
governance decisions (e.g. overall strategy).
Creating a fractal organization can enable a large network to rapidly
respond to changing contexts.

ebook.2020.0509.1501 128
 Figure 10.4.: A double-linked hierarchy: not your typical hierarchy

ebook.2020.0509.1501 129
 Figure 10.5.: Service Organization

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If necessary, the pattern can be repeated to connect multiple fractal or-
ganizations into one.

Figure 10.6.: Fractal Organization

Prerequisites

A fractal organization can be formed either by multiple in(ter-)dependent

organizations which share a common (primary) driver, or by multiple
branches, departments, or projects within a larger organization.
These constituents (i.e. organizations, branches, departments or
projects) need to share at least some — and typically most — functional
domains (e.g. accounting, product management, or development).

ebook.2020.0509.1501 131
Tiers

A fractal organization has at least three tiers:

• first tier: the constituents (i.e. organizations, branches, depart-
ments or projects)
• second tier: function-specific delegate circles to share learning
and to make and evolve agreements on behalf of function-specific
domains
• third tier: a cross-functional delegate circle to make and evolve
agreements in response to drivers affecting the overall body of con-
stituents

Forming a Fractal Organization

1. Forming the second tier: In each constituent, the members of

each common (and significant) functional domain, decide who of
them will represent them in a function-specific delegate circle,
where they share knowledge and learning, and contribute toward
making and evolving agreements. Representatives are selected for
a limited term (after which a new selection is made).
2. Forming the third tier: second-tier delegate circles each select a
delegate to form the cross-functional delegate circle.

Impact on the organization(s)

Each constituent:
• gains access to a wide array of experience, wisdom and skills to
increase effectiveness and innovation.
• can share resources, infrastructure and experience with other con-
stituents according to capacity and need
The second and third tier:

ebook.2020.0509.1501 132
 • can test decisions simultaneously across multiple instances of a
function-specific domain, providing extensive feedback and rapid
learning
• organize, align and steer the whole system while preserving auton-
omy and agency of the individual constituents

ebook.2020.0509.1501 133
 Part III.

Appendix

134
1. Changelog

1.1. Changes 2020–05–08

• revised all illustrations for a more consistent style and increased

readability
• revised introduction: more explanation about patterns and core
concepts
• updated glossary: revised explanation of Delegator, Delegatee, Role
and Pattern, added Role Keeper

1.2. Changes 2020–04–29

• Introduction: Added Objection and Agreement to concepts

• renamed pattern Objection to Test Arguments Qualify as Objections
• renamed pattern Agreement to Record Agreements
• Test Arguments Qualify as Objections: revised text and updated
illustration
• Record Agreements: revised text, added more details of agreements
that might be recorded, updated illustration

1.3. Changes 2019–12–22

• added new introduction text

135
 • added “social technology” to glossary
• website now has separate pages for “Introduction” and “Concepts
and Principles”
• ePub now looks much better

1.4. Changes 2019–11–29

• Principle of Transparency: revised description to clarify that valu-

able information needs to be recorded, and then shared with every-
one in the organization
• Principle of Empiricism: clarified that only those assumptions one
relies on need to be tested

1.5. Changes 2019–06–27

• Objection: further refined definition of objection, and updated the

glossary term for objection accordingly
• replaced “action” with activity in a few places where it made more
sense
• fixed a few typos

1.6. Changes 2019–05–03

• refined glossary terms for agreement, organization and team, added

glossary term for objective
• Principle of Accountability: clarified individual accountability for
work as well as for collaboration
• Contract For Successful Collaboration: revised text

ebook.2020.0509.1501 136
 • Describe Deliverables: added User Stories as an example for de-
scribing deliverables
• Double-Linked Hierarchy: revised summary
• Delegate Circle: refined summary
• Objection: refined definition of objection and concern, added illus-
tration for a process to qualify an objection
• Proposal Forming: added missing process illustration
• Role Selection: small amendment to illustration
• Transparent Salary: explained what a salary formula is

1.7. Changes 2019–03–08

General Changes
• expanded the introduction with more information about S3 and the
history of sociocracy that was previously only available on the main
S3 website
• updated section about governance in the introduction
• added captions to all illustrations
• renamed pattern group “Enablers of Co-Creation” to “Enablers of
Collaboration”
• removed slide deck version and improved layout and formatting of
pdf and ePub version
• website version: added clickable pattern map for simpler naviga-
tion, added glossary overlays to many patterns
Glossary:
• added team to glossary (and replaced group with team throughout
the practical guide where applicable)
• updated definition for deliverable

ebook.2020.0509.1501 137
 • removed driver statement from text and glossary
• updated definitions for governance, operations, and self-organization
Illustrations:
• updated templates for domain description and role description
• updated illustrations for Linking and Double-Linking
Changes to Patterns:
• Agreement: description now mentions that any expectations should
be recorded
• Describe Deliverables: updated summary
• Describe Organizational Drivers: more information on summarizing
drivers
• Resolve Objections: added summary and description

1.8. Changes 2018–08–17

General Changes
• added and revised the brief summary for many of the patterns
• removed bullet points in favor of full sentences in many patterns
• lots of small improvements to grammar and language
• included the URL to the web version of the practical guide
Glossary:
• updated: account for (v.), concern, deliverable, governance, objec-
tion, operations, primary driver, principle, role, self-organization,
semi-autonomy, subdriver, values
• added: constituent, coordination, delegation, driver statement,
evolve (v.), flow of value, helping team, open domain
• removed: peer driver

ebook.2020.0509.1501 138
Changes to Introduction
• added the driver for creating Sociocracy 3.0
• The Seven Principles:
– The Principle of Empiricism: removed reference to “falsifica-
tion”
– The Principle of Consent is now explained more clearly as
“Raise, seek-out and resolve objections to decisions and ac-
tions”
• Governance, Semi-Autonomy and Self-Organization: we refined the
definitions of Governance, Operations, and Self-Organization, re-
moved any reference to “coordination”, and clarified the distinction
between governance and operations
• Drivers and Domains - we clarified how domains can be understood
in relation to organizational drivers
Changes to Patterns:
• Agree on Values: improved description
• Align Flow: improved description and illustration
• Adapt Patterns To Context: improved description
• Agreement: improved description, updated template
• Artful Participation: improved summary
• Clarify Intended Outcome (renamed from Intended Outcome): im-
proved description
• Consent Decision Making: improved description, updated illustra-
tion
• Continuous Improvement Of Work Process: improved description
• Contract For Successful Collaboration: renamed the pattern to a
more descriptive name, and explained process of creating contracts,
and what needs to be in them

ebook.2020.0509.1501 139
 • Coordination Meeting: clarified agenda items, updated illustration
• Delegate Circle: improved description
• Delegate Influence: improved description
• Describe Deliverables: improved description
• Describe Organizational Drivers: made explicit that a driver state-
ment is typically only 1–2 sentences, revised section about explain-
ing the need, moved the section about reviewing driver statements
from Respond to Organizational Drivers to this pattern, and added
a new illustration that explains how to describe organizational
drivers
• Double Linking: aligned description to Link
• Double-Linked Hierarchy: explained in more detail what a double-
linked hierarchy is, and how it is created
• Evaluate and Evolve Agreements: rearranged the text so it’s clear
there is a long and a short format
• Evaluation Criteria: suggested clarifying a threshold for success,
and we explained about also evolving evaluation criteria when
evolving agreements
• Facilitate Meetings: improved description
• Fractal Organization: extended and improved description
• Governance Backlog: improved description
• Governance Meeting: improved description, clarified agenda items
• Invite Change: description now focuses on how to invite change
• Linking: aligned description to Double Linking
• Logbook: clarified that there is no difference between logbooks for
groups and logbooks for roles
• Navigate Via Tension: improved description, added a new illus-
tration to clarify the distinction between Navigate Via Tension,
Describe Organizational Drivers and Respond to Organizational
Drivers

ebook.2020.0509.1501 140
 • Objection: clarified the difference between objection and concern,
clarified what qualifies as an objection, and how to qualify objec-
tions in a group context
• Open Domain: improved description and updated illustration
• Open Systems: improved description
• Open Space for Change: renamed from Open S3 Adoption, improved
description
• Peach Organization: clarified relationship between periphery and
center
• Proposal Forming: revised text and illustration to make process of
choosing tuners more clear, updated template for proposal to align
with template for agreement
• Representative: improved description
• Resolve Objections: updated both illustrations
• Respond to Organizational Drivers: improved description, simpli-
fied qualification of organizational drivers
• Role: improved description
• Role Selection: improved description, added description of each
step
• Rounds: improved description
• Transparent Salary: added more details about fairness, and on how
to develop a salary formula
Renamed Patterns:
• Evaluate Agreements to Evaluate and Evolve Agreements
• Intended Outcome to Clarify Intended Outcome
• Open S3 Adoption to Open Space for Change
• Contracting and Accountability to Contract For Successful Collab-
oration

ebook.2020.0509.1501 141
Added Patterns:
• Check In
• Co-create Proposals
• Prepare for Meetings
• Timebox Activities

1.9. Changes 2018–03–21

• renamed pattern Describe Drivers to Describe Organizational

Drivers
• Describe Organizational Drivers: explained four aspects of a driver:
current situation, effect of the situation on the organization, need
of the organization in relation to this situation, and impact of at-
tending to need
• added need to glossary

1.10. Changes 2017–11–16

• small corrections
• aligned glossary entries for Circle and Role to pattern text
• Development Plan: clarification of responsibilities
• Role: clarified evolution of strategy

1.11. Changes 2017–11–10

• various small clarifications and corrections

• Circle: clarified relationship between circle and domain
• Role: improved description

ebook.2020.0509.1501 142
 • Rounds: improved description
• moved Open Domain, Helping Team and Open Systems to category
“Building Organizations”
• added several terms to the glossary

1.12. Changes 2017–10–21

• added Liliana David to authors

• dropped the term “framework” (replaced with “practical guide”)
• updated order of patterns
• added an index of all the patterns
• added a glossary
• added acknowledgments
• various small clarifications and corrections to text and illustrations
• updated templates for agreement and development plan
Changes to Introduction
• added “what’s in it for me?”
• added definitions for governance, self-organization, semi-autonomy,
operations to introduction
• clarified domains and their relationship to drivers
• fleshed out core concepts
• made all principles actionable
Changes to Patterns:
• Artful Participation: improved description
• Agreement: clarified that the concept of agreements is applicable
to people in roles

ebook.2020.0509.1501 143
 • Clarify Domains: improved description
• Circle: updated definition of “circle”, improved description
• Driver: updated definition of “driver”
• Development Plan: improved description, updated template
• Develop Strategy: updated definition of “strategy”, improved de-
scription
• Double-Linked Hierarchy: new illustration
• Evaluate Agreements: aligned questions to peer review
• Governance Backlog: improved description
• Logbook: added details about governance to personal logbook
• Objections: clarified qualifying objections
• Peer Review: improved description
• Respond to Organizational Driver: integrated information about
qualifying drivers
• Role: clarified role keeper may maintain a governance backlog, in-
troduced the term “role keeper” for a person in a role
• Proposal Forming: added criteria for selecting tuners, added step
for prioritizing considerations, small clarifications
• Resolve Objections: updated illustration to better reflect the pro-
cess
Renamed Patterns:
• Backbone Organization to Service Organization
• Effectiveness Review to Peer Review
• Strategy to Develop Strategy
• Domain Description to Clarify Domains
• Describing Deliverables to Describe Deliverables
Added Patterns:

ebook.2020.0509.1501 144
 • Delegate Influence
• Describe Drivers
• Open Domain
Removed Patterns
• Coordination Circle
• Nested Domains
• Qualify Driver

ebook.2020.0509.1501 145
2. Links

The latest online version of the Practical Guide at [Link]

can be annotated via [Link] and comes with an alphabetical index
and a pattern map for easy navigation.
Various other formats and languages of the practical guide can be found
at [Link]
More S3 Resources: [Link]
Main S3 website: [Link]
Follow us on twitter: @sociocracy30

146
3. License

“A Practical Guide for Evolving Agile and Resilient Organizations

with Sociocracy 3.0” by Bernhard Bockelbrink, James Priest and
Liliana David is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which is a Free Culture
License.
Basically this license grants you:
1. Freedom to use the work itself.
2. Freedom to use the information in the work for any purpose, even
commercially.
3. Freedom to share copies of the work for any purpose, even commer-
cially.
4. Freedom to make and share remixes and other derivatives for any
purpose.
You need to attribute the original creator of the materials, and
all derivatives need to be shared under the same license.
To view the the full text of this license, visit [Link]
licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode
There’s more on the topic of free culture on the Creative Commons web-
site1 .

1
[Link]

147
3.1. Attribution of derivative works

If you create a derivative work, you must give appropriate credit, and
indicate which changes you made. A good attribution contains title,
author, source and license, like this:
This work, “[name of your work]”, is a derivative of “A Practi-
cal Guide for Evolving Agile and Resilient Organizations with
Sociocracy 3.0” by James Priest, Bernhard Bockelbrink and
Liliana David used under CC BY SA. “[name of your work]”
is licensed under CC BY SA by [your name].
You can find out more about attribution on the Creative Commons page
about best practices for attribution2 .

2
[Link]

ebook.2020.0509.1501 148
4. The Intentional Commitment
for Practitioners and Teachers
of Sociocracy 3.0 (ICPT)

This commitment supports:

Practitioners and teachers with clear guidance on how to continually
develop their experience and skills in sharing about and applying S3
patterns, and improve their knowledge and understanding of S3 as it
evolves.
Clients and students in selecting the people they wish to work with
and learn from, according to their level of experience and the quality and
integrity of their work.
If you follow the voluntary Commitment you can add our banners to
your website, or to other materials that promote you as a practitioner
or teacher of Sociocracy 3.0. Please consider signing the commitment so
that we can notify you of proposed changes to the ICPT and seek any
objections or concerns you may have. Thank you.
You can find out more about the ICPT at [Link]
intentional-commitment/

4.1. Full Text of the ICPT

Intentional Commitment for Practitioners and Teachers of So-

ciocracy 3.0

149
I commit to developing a sociocratic and agile mindset, and I hold my-
self accountable to practice and teach Sociocracy 3.0 with integrity, by
following these guidelines:
I strive to follow the seven principles in my daily life. I commit to par-
ticipating artfully in my collaboration with others.
I practice and facilitate S3 patterns.
I maintain appropriate confidentiality about issues relating to my clients.
I will work in accordance with my level of competence and the client’s
needs, and disclose when I am out of my depth.
I stay up to date with the ongoing developments of the S3 and the way
it’s presented. (e.g. by following the changelog in the latest version of
the practical guide)
I will continue learning about S3, deepen my understanding and explore
related topics.
I am transparent about my level of experience, my understanding of S3,
the feedback I receive and my development plan.
I conduct regular peer reviews, and I integrate feedback from clients and
peers into evolving what I’m doing.
I will give all clients/peers the chance to publicly share feedback.
I am part of an organized intervision group (of at least 3 people, e.g. a
triad or a circle) for collaborative learning to support my development,
where I share about my practice and offer and receive help from peers,
including relating to resources any one of us creates.
I dedicate some time to actively support others from the S3 community
to learn and grow.
I will make any S3 resources I adapt or create available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
I will discuss possible objections relating to S3 patterns in my intervision
group, and pass to S3 developers if I believe they qualify.

ebook.2020.0509.1501 150
5. Acknowledgments
The content of Sociocracy 3.0 reflects the accumulated experience and
wisdom of contributors across generations. These people have shared a
common quest: to evolve more effective, harmonious and conscious ways
of collaborating together.
Particular recognition goes to Gerard Endenburg and others over the
years who have committed significant time towards evolving and doc-
umenting the Sociocratic Circle Organization Method, which has con-
tributed towards and inspired the evolution of Sociocracy 3.0.
We’d also like to recognize all those who have worked extensively to
facilitate the emergence of a more agile and lean mindset, and those who
have developed and shared various practices with the world.
Finally to acknowledge our numerous colleagues, customers, clients and
attendees of Sociocracy 3.0 courses who have chosen to experiment with
Sociocracy 3.0. Thank you for contributing your ongoing feedback to
help evolve the patterns and enable us all to learn and grow.
By no means an exhaustive list, we’d like to offer our appreciation to
the following people who directly contributed toward developing Socioc-
racy 3.0, or whose work influenced what it is today:
Gojko Adzic, Lyssa Adkins, Christopher Alexander, David J. Anderson,
Ruth Andrade, Jurgen Appelo, Kent Beck, Sue Bell, Sonja Blignaut, An-
gelina Bockelbrink, Jesper Boeg, Kees Boeke, Mary Boone, John Buck,
Betty Cadbury, Diana Leafe Christian, Mike Cohn, Stephen Covey, Gigi
Coyle, Jef Cumps, David Deida, Esther Derby, Kourosh Dini, Jutta Eck-
stein, Frands Frydendal, Gerard Endenburg, Andreas Hertel, Andrei Iuo-
raia, François Knuchel, Diana Larsen, Helmut Leitner, Jim and Michele
McCarthy, Pieter van der Meche, Daniel Mezick, Susanne Mühlbauer,

151
Niels Pfläging, Mary and Tom Poppendieck, Karl Popper, Brian Robert-
son, Marshall Rosenberg, Dave Snowden, Hal and Sidra Stone, Ken
Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Sharon Villines, Nathaniel Whitestone, Ken
Wilber, Jack Zimmerman.

ebook.2020.0509.1501 152
6. Authors

We sell consulting, learning facilitation, coaching and mentoring, includ-

ing but not limited to Sociocracy 3.0. We dedicate a part of our time and
money to create free resources about Sociocracy 3.0 as part of our on-
going commitment to make sociocracy and related ideas more accessible
to the wider world.

Figure 6.1.: James Priest, Liliana David, Bernhard Bockelbrink

James Priest serves internationally, providing organizational develop-

ment consultancy, learning facilitation, and mentoring for people wishing
to evolve collaborative, adaptive organizations at scale.
[Link]
james@[Link]
Bernhard Bockelbrink is an agile coach, trainer and consultant sup-
porting individuals, teams and organizations in navigating complex chal-
lenges and developing a culture of effective, conscious and joyful collab-
oration.

153
[Link]
[Link]@[Link]
Liliana David serves internationally, providing training, facilitation and
mentoring to teams and organizations wishing to develop greater effec-
tiveness and equivalence in collaboration.
[Link]
lili@[Link]

ebook.2020.0509.1501 154
7. Glossary

Account for (v.): to take the responsibility for something.

Accountability (principle): Respond when something is needed, do
what you agreed to do, and take ownership for the course of the organi-
zation.
Agreement: An agreed upon guideline, process, protocol or policy de-
signed to guide the flow of value.
Alignment: The process of bringing the actions of all parts of an orga-
nization in line with the organization’s objectives.
Backlog: A list of (often prioritized) uncompleted work items (deliver-
ables), or drivers that need to be addressed.
Check-In: A brief disclosure where you share something about what’s
up for you and how you are, revealing thoughts, feelings, distractions or
needs.
Chosen Values: A set of principles a team (or an organization) has
chosen to collectively adopt to guide their behavior in the context of
their collaboration.
Circle: A self-governing and semi-autonomous team of equivalent people
who collaborate to account for a domain.
Complexity: An environment where unknowns are unknown, cause and
effect can only be understood in retrospect, and actions lead to unpre-
dictable changes. [Snowden and Boone]
Concern: An assumption – or opinion – that doing something (even
in the absence of objections) might stand in the way of (more) effective
response to an organizational driver.

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Consent (principle): Raise, seek out and resolve objections to decisions
and actions.
Constituent: A team (e.g. a circle, team, department, branch, project
or organization) who delegate authority to a representative to act on
their behalf in other team or organizations.
Continuous Improvement (principle): Change incrementally to ac-
commodate steady empirical learning.
Coordination: The process of enabling individuals or teams to collab-
orate effectively across different domains to achieve shared objectives.
Delegatee: An individual or group accepting responsibility for a domain
delegated to them, becoming a role keeper or a team.
Delegation: The grant of authority by one party (the delegator) to an-
other (the delegatee) to account for a domain, (i.e. to do certain things
and/or to make certain decisions) for which the delegator maintains over-
all accountability.
Delegator: An individual or group delegating responsibility for a do-
main to other(s).
Deliverable: A product, service, component or material provided in
response to an organizational driver.
Domain: A distinct area of influence, activity and decision making
within an organization.
Driver: A person’s or a group’s motive for responding to a specific
situation.
Effectiveness (principle): Devote time only to what brings you closer
toward achieving your objectives.
Empiricism (principle): Test all assumptions you rely on, through
experiments and continuous revision.
Equivalence (principle): Involve people in making and evolving deci-
sions that affect them.
Evolve (v.): to develop gradually.

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Flow of Value: Deliverables traveling through an organization towards
customers or other stakeholders.
Governance: The act of setting objectives, and making and evolving
decisions that guide people towards achieving them.
Governance Backlog: A visible, prioritized list of items (drivers) that
are related to governing a domain and require attention.
Helping Team: A team of equivalent people with the mandate to exe-
cute on a specific set of requirements.
Intended Outcome: The expected result of an agreement, action,
project or strategy.
Key responsibilities: Essential work and decision making required in
the context of a domain.
Logbook: A (digital) system to store all information relevant for running
an organization.
Need: The lack of something wanted or deemed necessary (a require-
ment).
Objection: An argument demonstrating (or revealing) how a (proposed)
agreement or activity can lead to unintended consequences, or that there
are worthwhile ways to improve it.
Objective: A (specific) result that a person or team or organization
wants to achieve; an aim or a goal.
Open Domain: A domain that is accounted for by a set of people who
are invited to contribute when they can.
Operations: Doing the work and organizing day to day activities within
the constraints defined through governance.
Operations Backlog: A visible list of (typically prioritized) uncom-
pleted work items (deliverables).
Organization: A group of people collaborating toward a shared driver
(or objective). Often an organization subdivides into several teams.

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Organizational Driver: A driver is a person’s or a group’s motive for
responding to a specific situation. A driver is considered an organiza-
tional driver if responding to it would help the organization generate
value, eliminate waste or avoid unintended consequences.
Pattern: A process, practice or guideline that serves as a template for
successfully responding to a specific kind of challenge or opportunity.
Peer Domain: Two peer domains are contained within the same imme-
diate superdomain, and may be overlapping.
Primary Driver: The primary driver for a domain is the main driver
that people who account for that domain respond to.
Principle: A basic idea or rule that guides behavior, or explains or
controls how something happens or works.
Role: A domain that is delegated to an individual, who then becomes
the role keeper.
Role Keeper: An individual taking responsibility for a role.
Self-Governance: People governing themselves within the constraints
of a domain.
Self-Organization: Any activity or process through which people or-
ganize their day-to-day work without the influence of an external agent,
and within constraints defined through governance. In any organization
or team, self-organization and external influence co-exist.
Semi-Autonomy: The autonomy of people to create value within their
domain, further limited by their own governance decisions, and objections
(including those of the delegator and of representatives).
Social Technology: Social technology is any process, technique,
method, skill or any other approach that people can use to influence
social systems — organizations, societies, communities etc. — to sup-
port achieving shared objectives and guide meaningful interaction and
exchange.
Sociocracy: A mindset where people affected by decisions can influence
them on the basis of reasons to do so.

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Sociocratic Circle-Organisation Method (SCM): An egalitarian
governance method for organizations based on a sociocratic mindset, de-
veloped in the Netherlands by Gerard Endenburg.
Strategy: A high level approach for how people will create value to
successfully account for a domain.
Subdomain: A domain that is fully contained within another domain.
Subdriver: A subdriver arises as a consequence of responding to another
driver (the superdriver) and is essential for effectively responding to the
superdriver.
Superdomain: A domain that fully contains another domain.
Superdriver: see subdriver.
Team: A group of people collaborating toward a shared driver (or ob-
jective). Typically a team is part of an organization, or it is formed as a
collaboration of several organizations.
Tension: A personal experience, a symptom of dissonance between an
individual’s perception of a situation, and their expectations or prefer-
ences.
Timebox: A fixed period of time spent focused on a specific activity
(which is not necessarily finished by the end of the timebox).
Transparency (principle): Record all information that is valuable for
the organization, and make it accessible to everyone, unless there is a
reason for confidentiality.
Value: The importance, worth or usefulness of something in relation to
a driver. Also “a principle of some significance that guides behavior”
(mostly used as plural, “values”, or “organizational values”).
Values: Valued principles that guide behavior. Not to be confused with
“value” (singular) in the context of a driver.
Waste: Anything unnecessary for — or standing in the way of — a
(more) effective response to a driver.

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8. Pattern-Index

Adapt Patterns To Context (section 5.1)

Adopt The Seven Principles (section 3.2)
Agree On Values (section 3.3)
Align Flow (section 9.7)
Artful Participation (section 3.1)
Ask For Help (section 2.1)
Backlog (section 9.1)
Be The Change (section 5.3)
Breaking Agreements (section 3.5)
Bylaws (section 3.9)
Check In (section 8.4)
Circle (section 4.2)
Clarify Domains (section 6.3)
Clarify Intended Outcome (section 6.4)
Co-Create Proposals (section 1.9)
Consent Decision Making (section 1.4)
Continuous Improvement Of Work Process (section 5.6)
Contract For Successful Collaboration (section 3.6)
Coordination Meeting (section 7.5)
Coordinator (section 9.8)
Create A Pull-System For Organizational Change (section 5.2)
Daily Standup (section 7.3)
Delegate Circle (section 10.2)
Delegate Influence (section 4.1)
Describe Deliverables (section 6.5)
Describe Organizational Drivers (section 1.3)
Develop Strategy (section 6.2)

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Development Plan (section 2.4)
Double Linking (section 4.5)
Double-Linked Hierarchy (section 10.4)
Driver Mapping (section 1.12)
Evaluate And Evolve Agreements (section 1.7)
Evaluate Meetings (section 8.5)
Evaluation Criteria (section 6.6)
Facilitate Meetings (section 8.2)
Fractal Organization (section 10.6)
Governance Backlog (section 8.7)
Governance Facilitator (section 3.4)
Governance Meeting (section 7.1)
Helping Team (section 4.7)
Invite Change (section 5.4)
Limit Work In Progress (section 9.5)
Linking (section 4.4)
Logbook (section 6.7)
Logbook Keeper (section 6.8)
Meeting Host (section 8.6)
Navigate Via Tension (section 1.2)
Open Domain (section 4.8)
Open Space For Change (section 5.5)
Open Systems (section 4.9)
Peach Organization (section 10.3)
Peer Feedback (section 2.2)
Peer Review (section 2.3)
Planning And Review Meetings (section 7.4)
Prepare For Meetings (section 8.3)
Prioritize Backlogs (section 9.2)
Proposal Forming (section 1.10)
Pull-System For Work (section 9.4)
Record Agreements (section 6.1)
Representative (section 4.6)
Resolve Objections (section 1.6)
Respond To Organizational Drivers (section 1.1)

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Retrospective (section 7.2)
Role (section 4.3)
Role Selection (section 1.11)
Rounds (section 8.1)
Service Circle (section 10.1)
Service Organization (section 10.5)
Support Role (section 3.8)
Test Arguments Qualify as Objections (section 1.5)
Those Affected Decide (section 1.8)
Timebox Activities (section 9.6)
Transparent Salary (section 3.7)
Visualize Work (section 9.3)

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List of Figures
3.1. Influences and history of Sociocracy 3.0 . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.1. Three variants of sociocracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5.1. Patterns are grouped by topic into ten categories; the

Seven Principles are reflected in every pattern . . . . . . . 19
5.2. The Seven Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

6.1. Domains may overlap and/or be fully contained within

other domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.2. Drivers and domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.1. Possible responses to organizational drivers . . . . . . . . 33

1.2. Navigate Via Tension, Describe Organizational Drivers,
Respond To Organizational Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.3. Describe Organizational Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.4. Consent Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1.5. A process for testing if an argument qualifies as an objection 41
1.6. Some options for resolving objections . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
1.7. A process for resolving objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1.8. Experiment, evaluate, evolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
1.9. A long format for evaluating and evolving agreements . . 46
1.10. A template for proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
1.11. Proposal forming process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
1.12. Role selection process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
1.13. Driver Mapping: Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
1.14. Driver Mapping: A template for domains . . . . . . . . . 56

2.1. Peer review process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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 2.2. Continuous improvement of people’s ability to effectively
keep roles or collaborate in teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.3. A template for development plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

3.1. Balance autonomy and collaboration through artful par-

ticipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2. The Seven Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3. An organization’s values need to embrace the Seven Prin-
ciples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.4. Chosen values define constraints for collaboration . . . . . 66
3.5. The governance facilitator is typically a member of the team 68
3.6. Two ways of opening salaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

4.1. All members of a circle are equally accountable for gover-

nance of the circle’s domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2. People can take responsibility for more than one role . . . 78
4.3. One circle linked to another circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.4. Double linking two circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.5. Helping Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.6. Open Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5.1. Phases of adapting patterns to a specific context . . . . . 86

5.2. Drivers, value and waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6.1. Any agreement or decision can be viewed as an experiment. 90

6.2. The Life-Cycle of an Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.3. Template for agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.4. Strategies are validated and refined through experimenta-
tion and learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
6.5. A template for domain descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.6. Intended Outcome, and Evaluation Criteria . . . . . . . . 97

7.1. Phases of a governance meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

7.2. Output of a retrospective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.3. Daily standup is an essential meeting for self-organizing
teams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

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 7.4. Planning and review meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.5. Phases of a coordination meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

8.1. Rounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

8.2. Evaluate meetings right before closing the meeting . . . . 114

9.1. Visualization of a simple work process . . . . . . . . . . . 118

9.2. A card representing a work item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
9.3. Aligning the flow of information to support the flow of value122

10.1. Service Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

10.2. Delegate Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
10.3. Peach Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
10.4. A double-linked hierarchy: not your typical hierarchy . . . 129
10.5. Service Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
10.6. Fractal Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

6.1. James Priest, Liliana David, Bernhard Bockelbrink . . . . 153

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