Sustainable Frome organises itself using a system based on holacracy at the moment. What this means is that we have meetings to discuss what we are doing, what we need to do, and how we might do it, using a new way of organising that hopes to avoid the problems with a hierarchical approach and be more effective than a very loose, open system.

The meetings are run under certain 'rules', most of which are designed to give everyone present a chance to express their opinion, without the meeting getting bogged down in long-lasting discussions. So far, the system has worked well; helping us to sort out what needs to be done and who could do it.

There have been a few issues too. It is not always clear who can come to a meeting (answer: anyone, although you need to show some involvement in SF to take an active part), or how we should communicate what has been decided. We are still working on this, but may be able to use this  website to let people know what is happening.

About holacracy

This system was introduced to us in 2013 by Nick Osborne of Evolving Organisation, who was also very helpful in coaching us through the early months, helping us to understand the system and use it correctly, as well as Richard Grey, who has been important in facilitating our meetings for some time.

You can find out more about Nick and his work on the Evolving Organisation website. The website also explains holacracy in more detail.

You can also find out more about holacracy on the internet. To help you, you might start with the following links:

• the wikipedia entry on holacracy
• the holcracy.org site - the organisation behind it, and details of seminars, training programmes, and a link to the TED talk by the founder, Brian Robertson
• this article on Mashable discusses how it works in running a business (Zappos, a unit of Amazon)
• Brian Robertson has written a book about the system - find out about it here, and then order it through Hunting Raven, your local independent bookshop!

Holacracy meetings at Sustainable Frome

Would you like to attend a meeting? If so, contact info@sustainablefrome.org.uk and we can tell you when the next meeting is and explain a little of how it might work.