Leading and acting from the Heart.
Systemic transformation and structural evolution of organisations enabling wellness and happiness is key to address coherently and efficiently the challenges of today and tomorrow.
To seize all opportunities and act towards a world where human rights, environmental and humanitarian law are fully implemented, changes in governance as well as in decisions making systems and shaping processes is required and necessary.
Embracing all windows of opportunities as unique spaces and times to bring and achieve meaningful impact allows the challenges of our time and to come – biological, climatic, ecological, economic, energetical, environmental, existential, political, social ,… – to become sources of civic contribution and democratic participation, to foster and support political evolution and social innovation as well as to nourish and cultivate a culture of togetherness and kindness towards oneself and all others sentient and living beings.
Aiming at studying and training, driven by protection and implementation, gva4HR supports stakeholders and policy makers to shifts their strategies and vision, to adapt and scale their actions as well as shape to enrich their vision and plans.
Concepts, principles and practices for improving performance, engagement and wellbeing in organizations.
Dynamic sociocracatic practices as well as agile and smart horizontal methods and tools, as alternatives to sometimes more rigid hierarchies and top-down decision-making systems, are key elements to enable and manifest a ‘common culture of entrepreneurship and a culture of common entrepreneurship’.
Governance stemming from and rooting itself in nonviolent communication and tolerance, in affirmative consent and social justice, in mutual trust and accountability, in solidarity and support as well as in diversity and inclusion, shapes and transforms our approaches and strategies.
Built around a number of essential principles like absolute transparency and zero-tolerance principles, our governance approach is articulated around four fundamental pillars:
- Consent,
- Circles,
- Two-way link, and
- Election without a candidate.
To help build agility and risk taking into a risk adverse environments.
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| Lead by Example: Our behaviour sets the tone, leading from the heart is a strength. Showing gva4HR’s willingness to embrace change and seize opportunities. Stories of our own experiences with mistakes and downs and how they led to learning and success. Doing our best, individually and together, enables us to envision a brighter future for all, for the planet and the next generations. | Cultivate a Safe-to-‘Fail’ Environment: Nurture a safe-to-‘fail’, ‘fail’-fast/learn-quickly environment and approach. Stressing importance of experimentation and trials, we make sure everyone understands that experimenting with ‘failure’ is a stepping stone, not a setback nor a weakness. This perspective is essential for fostering an environment where knowledge is shared and innovation thrives. | Welcome evaluation to improve: Creating short, smart and agile feedback tools for the individuals, communities and nations we serve. Critical and factual observations, meant to improve efficiency and intended to increase coherence are key. Within our Circles and among them, ensure conditions for rapid and actionable learning. This setup accelerates innovation and aligns closely with our agile methodology. |
| Navigating the Grey: Working Between Silos Organizations and services can become siloed. For us it is important to bridge these gaps and foster collaboration and communication across the organization(s) and the individuals serving and servicing them. We do step into the grey zones, the spaces between silos, providing capacity building, facilitating dialogue and fostering cooperation. | Hearted Servant Leadership: Leading Others from the Heart. Treating each individual, team and situation appropriately with care and support unlocks and raises performance, focus, and impact. A servant leader, a is someone who puts the needs of the collective first, who empowers it and helps each develop and perform as highly as possible. It’s about caring for others and being ethically driven. | Foster Cross-Sector Collaboration: Engage with regulatory bodies, peers, and other stakeholders to share insights and best practices. This collaboration can highlight paths to innovation that align with regulatory standards and basic norms, |
gva4HR strives to work within a holistic as well as a pattern-based approach to organizational change and challenges.
A pattern is a process, practice or guideline that serves as a template or model for successfully responding to a specific kind of challenge or opportunity.
Models and patterns are discovered through supporting, collaborating and being with people working together in organizations to solve problems and respond to opportunities they face.
When systems and individuals find that their habitual ways of doing things fail to bring about the outcomes which where intended or expected, we can look to horizontal and sociocratic-style governance for patterns that might help.
Patterns and models are modular and adaptable, can be used independently, and are mutually reinforcing, complementing one another when used in combination.
Patterns can be evolved and adapted to address our specific needs and those of the individuals and communities we serve and support.
• Sense-Making and Decision-Making
• Evolving Organizations
• Peer Development
• Enablers Of Co-Creation
• Building Organizations
The sociocracy-influenced governance movement:
As interest in alternative governance frameworks and systems grows there is a fast growing community of people from a variety of backgrounds — pioneering consultants, coaches, learning facilitators, and people applying horizontal, inclusive and shared governance into their various contexts — who share appreciation for the transformational potential of new models of agile and hybrid governance to help organizations and their members thrive.
The Consent Principle
Consent is at the heart of the decision making process of a sociocratic organization.
Consent decision making means that decisions are only taken when no further relevant objections are raised against them.
It is different from consensus, where everyone in the group needs to agree.
Dialogues and discussions within the sociocratic circle (or department circle) make it possible to overcome these objections until a decision is unanimously not rejected by any circle member.
It would obviously be inconceivable that all decisions would be subject to such a protocol, particularly for the day-to-day affairs of the company.
However, it is precisely by consent that it is determined which decisions fall outside this rule, to whom they are entrusted, within what limits, and for how long.
The Sociocratic Circle
The principle of building an organizational structure in circles is the second fundamental rule of sociocracy.
These circles, designed as decision-making structures, are aligned with the company’s functional structure.
Each area of operation has a circle corresponding to it.
These circles are interconnected and apply the rule of consent for their internal administration: definition of their own mission, their objectives…
Each circle is finally responsible for the implementation of the objectives that are established for it by the higher circle.
Two-Way Link
The double link is the rule that guarantees the good complementarity of the circles between them.
Each one is connected by two people to the circle directly above him.
Both belong fully to the two circles:
- one is elected by the lower circle and is responsible for representing it,
- the other is designated by the upper circle, and acts in the other as a kind of operational leader.
Election Without Candidate
Finally, sociocracy has established election without a candidate as one of its fundamental rules.
When it comes to choosing a person to hold a position, a Circle precisely makes a designation rather than have an election.
The absence of a candidate, open discussion, and consent on the final choice, are the pillars that guarantee the general approval of the circle on the legitimacy of the designated person.