Episode 75

Diana Leafe Christian

Diana Leafe Christian is presenting Socriocacy as a Self Governance tool at an event held in San Diego on February 3 and 4th. She will also present a slideshow about Eco villages. Find out more about this event and get your tickets here.

Diana is the author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, about forming successful communities and ecovillages  and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community (affiliate links to Amazon. If you buy this way, you are supporting our show. Thank you.)

 She is former publisher Ecovillages, an online newsletter http://EcovillageNews.org, and formerly edited Communities magazine in the US for 14 years.

  • Diana Leafe Christian lives in an Ecovillage in the Mountains of North Carolina

  • 2:55  90% of Ecovillages fail, only 10% succeed
  • 4:23   The ingredients to Success
    • A shared vision, mission and purpose
    • A fair and participatory method of self-governance
    • Sociocracy
    • Clear Agreements in writing
    • Communication skills – Non Violent Communication recommended
    • Restorative circles
    • Method of accountability
    • Community glue
    • Project management
    • Clear and thorough membership process
  • What is Sociocracy?
  • What is consensus
  • 13:45 It can happen that an idea will never make it off the ground if consensus is abused – premature proposal death
  • 14:29 How to reach Diana https://dianaleafechristian.org
  • 14:47 A bit about the San Diego event
  • 17:27 different types of community formation
  • 17:33 Diana’s book: Finding Community
  • 19:00 Co-Housing neighborhoods
  • 21:00 Shared Group Household
  • 21:42 Eco Village
  • 23:47 Housing co-op
  • 25:31 A virtual neighborhood
  • 26:34 Rural retreat and conference centers
  • 27:47 Other kinds of rural communities – sexual orientation or interest based
  • 28:06 Rural back to the land communities
  • 29:00 Commune
  • 31:00 Restorative Circles/ Restorative Justice
  • 36:00 Event at Emerald Village in Vista, CA
  • 37:00 Sociocracy explained
  • 38:28 Four kinds of benefits
    • Meetings go better
    • Get more done
    • Better organized, more transparency and accountability
    • More connection and good will
  • Brief overview of Sociocracy
    • Governance
    • Decision making
    • Feedback loops
  • 7 parts
    • Series of circles with clear objectives
    • Continuous improvement through feedback loops
    • Creating proposals
    • Considering and deciding Proposals
    • Selecting people for roles
    • Feedback
    • Consenting to circle members
  • 47:30 3 day sociocracy workshop in San Francisco Eco Village

To find out more about Diana Leaf Christian visit her website

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