Pattern for Agile Organizations

Read this text to see the idea of sociocracy as a form of organizational design. This is a way for organizations to transcend the traditional approach to organizational change. While the model is primarily applied to software organizations, it can be used by other organizations that want to be sure that information flows to and from the appropriate parties and ensure that experts can participate in the decisions that affect them. The text considers governance, teams, and collaboration internally and externally. The graphics make the complexity of the linkages easy to understand as the author presents consent decision-making, double linking, and governance in iterations.

The Patterns

Building Organizations

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 responsible for its own development and its body of agreements
  • 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.

All members of a circle are equally accountable for governance of the circle's domain

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

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.

People can take responsibility for more than one role

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.

One circle linked to another circle

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.

Double linking two circles

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

Open Team

Intentionally account for a domain by invitation rather than assignment, and request that those invited contribute when they can.

An open team is a group of people who are invited to contribute to the work and governance done in a domain when they can.

The delegator of the domain creates an invitation that clarifies:

  • the primary driver, key responsibilities and constraints of the open team's domain
  • who is invited to contribute (the members of the open team)
  • constraints relating to the delegator's participation in the open team's governance

Depending on the constraints set by the delegator, contributors may only organize and do work, or take part in governance as well.

The delegator is accountable for conducting regular reviews to support effectiveness of work and any decision-making in the open team.

open team

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 governance decision making of the delegator
Helping Team