Promoting human-centered approaches in organizations: an interview with Jef Cumps

February 15, 2022

Jef Cumps is an experienced educator and coach who supports organizations in their transition to greater resilience, agility and effectiveness. He has worked with numerous teams, managers and leaders to help them facilitate and effect change in a humane way. He is the author of Sociocracy 3.0:  The Novel, which we discuss below.

VIVACE:  Can you please describe the concept of Sociocracy 3.0?

Sociocracy 3.0 (S3) is, in essence, a collection of patterns. And a pattern is a technique, a process, or something you can tangibly use in a collaboration. S3 includes approximately 70 techniques, processes and definitions to improve a collaboration, whether profit or not profit, in order to make it more conscious, more effective and pull it towards “equivalence.” 

VIVACE:  What are the defining principles of S3?

Behind the patterns I mentioned are seven principles. One of them is equivalence, which is closely related to consent: we actively look for objections and the voice of the minority. This way, we create wise decisions that reflect collective intelligence. Also, typically, innovation and creativity ly in the voice of the minority.

S3 also includes some of the agile principles of continuously improving, working empirically and working transparently. Another principle is effectiveness, which is about spending your time and energy on the right things. It’s not about efficiency and removing waste, but focuses first on the right things, and doing those things in the right way. The principle I want to address lastly is accountability. This involves personal responsibility and personal leadership on the part of all participants, whether the CEO, an employee, a partner or a customer.

VIVACE:  How is S3 applied in practice?

One of the strengths for me is that it’s not an all-in-one model or a methodology. It’s kind of like a box full of Lego bricks:  although there are more than 70 patterns, the goal is not to use or apply all of them, but rather learn to sense in the organization what is alive. And to become more aware of what’s happening:  what the dreams, desires, tensions and goals are. And then to address those in an effective way. 

VIVACE:  How can these principles be applied in an organization that has a difficult or dysfunctional work culture? How do you go from first figuring out what’s alive, and then in a second step, putting in place kind of structural changes that will really bring about the positive changes?

There’s not one single answer to that. It fully depends on context, on the situation, and on the people that are involved and their backgrounds. In general, though, I think that the first step is realizing that parts of the culture are dysfunctional. Not everything is going to be dysfunctional, or otherwise you wouldn’t exist anymore. We like to honor and accept what’s here today and realize that everything that has been built up over the years has been there for good reasons, or at least with good intentions. And then the first step is to realize that some parts of your structure, culture, processes or collaboration are dysfunctional or no longer serving the needs of the whole.

There are some techniques to get a group of people together and help them to become aware of what’s alive. For instance, helping them to sense their bodies. I think we underestimate the power of our body as a way of sensing what’s alive and what’s needed in a team or organization. So, when I work with groups, we often get in touch with the body to combine its wisdom with that of our brains. I help people bring up tensions, which for me, is the difference between what exists today and what we desire tomorrow. And then we help people formulate those tensions in a non-judging, non-attacking or defensive way. Discovering and agreeing on what’s needed first, before stepping into experiments to improve things.

VIVACE:  Making decisions democratically can be slow and costly and take people away from their more urgent work. How can building consensus happen without a high cost for the organization in terms of time and resources?

When consensus truly works, it’s awesome. It leads to very wise decisions because collective intelligence is gathered: everyone feels involved and everyone is going to actively support a true consensus decision. But, as you said, it comes at a high cost, because usually takes a lot of time and includes other risks.

Moving from consensus to consent means that we’re going to agree on something unless there’s an objection. And an objection reveals solid arguments that show that the proposition or the proposal that’s on the table is not good enough, not safe enough and might harm the organization.

Rather than asking if everyone agrees, we will explain the proposal and gather objections. Are there any arguments that show us the proposal is not good enough? Participants cannot just express disapproval without explaining and qualifying their objection, and adapting the proposal. This leads to decisions that are focused on arguments and not politics. And it requires accountability in the sense that people need to know when to put aside their personal preference in favor of doing what is justifiably best for the organization.

VIVACE:  How is unity maintained within the organization when we use S3?

I think we need unity on different levels. To pick two: unity on organizational level by gathering around a clear, inspiring mission or purpose and assuring that all groups, departments or teams are consciously and effectively contributing to that shared goal. What S3 offers here are drivers, as a way to formulate and follow up on those goals, and help us relate goals to one another.

Also, unity on team level is important. For instance, next to the shared driver we just mentioned – assuring the domain of responsibility of a team is very clear and agreed upon. A clear, well-balanced ‘playing field’ for a team with clear boundaries, allowing the team to work as autonomous as needed to effectively deliver value.

VIVACE: Any last words?

I’d like to reiterate that S3 is not an out-of-the-box solution. Feel free to combine it with whatever other techniques that enable effectiveness in a humane way. And I’d suggest to only pull in S3 patterns when there’s a clear need for it, and iteratively inspect and adapt based on the actual progress and results.

And, finally, the S3 patterns are designed to trigger more consciousness about our individual and collective habits and patterns. So, be aware you’ll be challenged and invited to grow as a human being, collaborating with other human beings.

CPM