Changelog | Sociocracy 3.0

Here’s detailed explanations of the changes we made in October and November 2017.

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 navigation und 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
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

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, objection, 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

Changes to Introduction

added the driver for creating Sociocracy 3.0
The Seven Principles:
- The Principle of Empiricism: removed reference to “falsification”
- The Principle of Consent is now explained more clearly as “Raise, seek-out and resolve objections to decisions and actions”
Governance, Semi-Autonomy and Self-Organization: we refined the definitions of Governance, Operations, and Self-Organization, removed 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
Clarify Intended Outcome (renamed from Intended Outcome): improved description
Consent Decision Making: improved description, updated illustration
Continuous Improvement Of Work Process: improved description
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 statement is typically only 1-2 sentences, revised section about explaining 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 evolving evaluation criteria with 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 illustration to clarify the distinction between Navigate Via Tension, Describe Organizational Drivers and Respond to Organizational Drivers
Objection: clarified the difference between objection and concern, clarified what qualifies as an objection, and how to qualify objections 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, simplified 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

Added Patterns:

Check In
Co-create Proposals
Prepare for Meetings
Timebox Activities

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 attending to need
added need to glossary

2017-11-16

Here’s detailed explanations of the changes we made in October and November 2017.

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

2017-11-10

various small clarifications and corrections
Circle: clarified relationship between circle and domain
Role: clarified description
Rounds: updated description
moved Open Domain, Helping Team and Open Systems to category “Building Organizations”
added several terms to the glossary

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 acknowledgements
various small clarifications and corrections to text and illustrations
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
Artful Participation: refined description
Agreement: clarified that the concept of agreements is applicable to people in roles
Clarify Domains: refined description
Circle: updated definition, refined description
Driver: updated definition
Development Plan: refined template and description
Develop Strategy: clarified definition of strategy, refined description
Double-Linked Hierarchy: new illustration
Evaluate Agreements: aligned questions to peer review
Governance Backlog: updated definition
Logbook: added details about governance to personal logbook
Objections: clarified qualifying objections
Peer Review: refined description
Respond to Organizational Driver: integrated information about qualifying drivers
Role: clarified role keeper may maintain a governance backlog, introduced 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 process

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:

Describe Drivers
Open Domain
Delegate Influence

Removed:

Coordination Circle
Nested Domains
Qualify Driver

Read next: Acknowledgements