I’m looking for a succession policy/process which incorporates cooperative values.
My organisation is an architecture workers coop focusing on housing and sustainablity. We have a membership-based structure and we have 5 active members. Our annual turnover is 100k-300k. Our members are very important to how the business operates, we each bring different areas of expertise and if someone were to leave we could potentially lose a great deal of knowledge. We use sociocracy and the organisation has flexed each time someone has left/joined but it would be good to have some system in place to mean we don’t have to start over each time someone joins.
It sounds like your cooperative has a strong foundation built on shared values and diverse expertise, which is a great strength. Given how much your members contribute to the organisation’s knowledge and adaptability, it makes sense to look for ways to make transitions smoother when people join or leave.
One approach could be to develop a structured onboarding and knowledge management system—something that captures key processes, decisions, and lessons learned. This might include creating a living handbook, role descriptions, and documentation of past projects so new members can quickly understand both your systems and your culture. Since you already use sociocracy, aligning these tools with your existing governance circles could ensure continuity without adding unnecessary structure.
It might also help to dedicate a regular review cycle within your sociocratic process to keep shared knowledge updated and collectively owned, so it stays current and distributed across members.
The decelerator.org.uk/ has superb resources about transitions and endings, really useful ways to think about the process. They also offer a free helpline so you can talk things through.
Thank you so much for all your responses. We do have a processes page but a living handbook would be a good idea. I also agree about reviewing this within our sociocratic circles to ensure the information is collectively owned. And Rachel that page is super helpful. I think the key is acting early and ensuring that things are kept up to date as someone is in their role, we will explore some of the things shared here and I can feedback at a later date