Today’s organizational model centered on command-and-controls is no longer working. It never worked for most people to begin with. The great resignation is a testament that people want more.

They want better relationships and want to be able to make an impact at work by having an active say in the direction of the business. 

People want to feel like they belong and that what they do has meaning. They also want to be compensated properly. Above all people want to be becoming, and this can only happen in a co-leadership environment.

“The days of do as I say or else, are over. Companies that don’t get this, will find themselves without employees, without a future.”

Many are already struggling retaining top talent because of leaders who are best described as dinosaurs, lacking emotional intelligence and the ability to empower people.

This past summer, Society 2045 had a series of interviews with change makers seeking to improve the way society works.

Society 2045 is a community of people from around the world seeking to co-discover a vision for the year 2045. The goal is to connect with leaders of emerging communities and movements across society and come together to co-create a better future.

In an interview with Ted Rau, we discussed his vision of 2045 and ways to make the world a better place by introducing self-governance through Sociocracy. Ted Rau is a sociocracy trainer, consultant, and coach. Ted is also co-author of the sociocracy handbook Many Voices, One Song and Who decides who decides? How to start a group so everyone can have a voice.

What Is Sociocracy?

Sociocracy, also called dynamic governance, is a system of governance which seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It is distinguished by the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared objective or work process.

Sociocracy is a self-convergence system that has a peer approach to organizations. It is an unbiased platform for global meetings where you can enter with a single thought and go back with a bucket full of ideas that are easy to implement.

Ted explains sociocracy as a movement supporting different organizations. People from different organizations have different views and different aspects of the world. All organizations can come together and discuss their approaches to evolve as a single unit.

Sociocracy in Today’s World

Our world is standing on the edge of its resources. Humanity crisis, emotional unavailability, conflicts, and other negative thoughts keep increasing among people with the passing years.

Undoubtedly, many experts are joining their hands and forming different organizations that concern the earth’s present condition. They are all making continuous efforts to make the world a better place to live in.

These different groups of people also need a platform to collectively discuss their views and make strategies towards the targeted path. No single organization with a single approach can bring changes in the world until it collaborates with the same mindsets.

On a collective level, they have the power over people to change their faulty mindset, which is continuously harming an individual’s environment and emotional stability.

Sociocracy and the Individual

Sociocracy is self-governance. The motto is to help the individual understand social learning. To change their thinking towards being more positive. It aims to bring out people from a self-centered society and transform to think of themselves as a single collective unit.

It is really a difficult process to reach out to every individual globally. To simplify this system, sociocracy has begun to focus on small groups of people. By concentrating on the nuclear level, the organization itself is simplifying the complexity of the system. Fewer people at a time will become focused better over time. Their ideas and perspectives can be heard and understood well.

As an individual you can understand the need for change in a broader scale. Then they will be able to prove their point and spread awareness to the right crowd. Most people in society don’t like to be taken advantage of, so planting small seedlings for a better more self-governed future is the need of the present.

Sociocracy and Change

Ted is positive in his approach to sociocracy. According to him, first believing in the positive outcome is our need to bring the positive outcome.

Organizations are full of skillful people who are ready to travel the hard road to bring positive changes to society. His beliefs is that people in small groups that share the views will bring out the best outcomes in the world. For an individual, it will be difficult to face all the world’s challenges and still lead in the same direction. But acting in the form of organization and other small groups, the whole process becomes simplified to stay active towards the goal.

The core of any organization is people forming into groups. To challenge the present situations of the world, people and crowds must be in good shape to endure the lows and highs of society. Individual mental stability plays a great role in leading an organization or a group. Even if you are playing the part of a member, stability is a building block of the group structure.

On a collective level, different organizations, together with their different approaches, will bring about fast change in the world. Personal stability of people will join hands together with the group stability and thus shaping a new world with their ideas.

Ted’s vision for more self-governed society in 2045 is groundbreaking. It will be amazing if we are able to achieve his vision in the coming years. Check out the interview here: