Testimonial from a participant

Testimonial from a participant

During the month of September I have participated in the Introductory Training to Sociocracy, of TSG (the Sociocratic Group), led by professional trainers.
It has been a very interesting process, for which I was very curious at the beginning, and which has exceeded my curiosity and expectations by far, and that is why I want to share my experience with this article.

I am going to start by presenting my greatest learning:

I have been able to verify, how important it is to value other people’s opinions, and my own, with the same intensity, and relevance, which also becomes the sum of a bigger opinion. In the collective opinion.

My word is as important as the word of the people with whom I am sharing a job, a project, a meeting, a conversation. All of them, the words, the opinions, are different, unique and complementary points of view, which together create the collective intelligence of the team.

In Sociocracy, through arguments, these opinions can be more or less useful depending on the objective being worked on; in any case, all opinions always enrich the final result; all of them influence decision-making, some more, some less, in equivalence to their argument, and to the situation being discussed, proposed and decided.

I continue to emphasize time management.

In Sociocracy I have been able to observe that the time management of meetings is intelligent, dynamic and useful.

I like to go fast, and sometimes, Sociocracy generates in me the impatience of immediacy, however, by listening actively, speaking in the established rounds and having patience, the result emerges almost instantly at the end, giving a very creative proposal or solution, since it has been nourished by many points of view, and has been consented by all the people. This translates into a very efficient initial time investment.

From the training in general, I also like to highlight the friendliness in the development of the meetings. Partly thanks to the facilitation of the meeting by the facilitator and the support of the secretary, both of whom are trainers, and also thanks to the good manners of the colleagues in the training. All the people have their turn to speak, as many turns as they need, since the consent requires the turn of all the people, their doubts, their objections, their arguments, and their consents. The meeting is not finalized until an agreement is reached by consent, which comes almost naturally after hearing all the opinions. So, if time is running out, the consent is postponed for another meeting, it is not a matter of anyone getting tired, or consenting out of boredom or haste.

During the practices in the training, and I point out, in this training you learn by doing, didactic notes are presented that complement the theory of the documentation that accompanies the training.

I had done another training before, with another institution, and I had not practiced as many tools as in this one with TSG. I remembered the principles of sociocracy, its agents, its agenda, its choices by consent; and I also learned how to prepare a proposal through the 9 steps to achieve an aim, to consent it and complete it with the team. And the finishing touch of the training has been to practice and learn the method of proposals for problem resolution, available to this social and human engineering, which is sociocracy.

This method of problem solving can be summarized as the willingness to combine the reality of a problem with the facts, needs and emotions it presents, in order to become aware of the realities that are activating the problem and those that can stop it, in order to reach the proposal that can create the desired solution.

I would like to end by encouraging all those who are looking for a substantial change in the management and governance of their companies, organizations and their communities, work and personal, leisure, educational or sports, to take this training.

I really feel very grateful to have participated in it, and as I want to continue learning, I will continue with the intermediate training this fall.

And to conclude, to share with you that in my opinion, Sociocracy facilitates creative and positive thinking, brings the best ideas to light, which turns out to be very satisfying and optimistic.

Thank you for reading me.