View source for Market/en/Portal:Soft-Transmission/Main

{{KidsIntro|Some organizations have one leader or a small group in charge. When they leave suddenly, it can be hard to find new people. This page explains how to teach people leadership slowly, so someone is always ready to take over.}}
{{ExpertIntro|We are heading towards a reconceptualization of organizational succession in non-profits, where gradual documented handovers replace crisis-driven transitions. This hypothesis proposes that distributing leadership responsibilities across a recognized pool of contributors, combined with planned mentorship phases (discover, steer, transmit), can balance stability and renewal. The emerging trend suggests shared leadership frameworks yield organizational outcomes comparable to centralized models while reducing vulnerability to sudden departures.}}

This page is the landing page of the '''Soft Transmission''' portal (Market space, for associations and organisations with participatory governance). It gathers a short synthesis, the explanations, and a model contract (an amendment to the statutes) presented clause by clause.

<div style="border:1px solid #ccc;background:#f6f6f6;padding:10px 14px;border-radius:6px;">
'''In short.''' This portal explores a framework so that an organisation's responsibilities (chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer, heads of committees) could be handed over gradually, rather than resting on one person or a small team that would leave all at once. The starting point: what matters is not rotation for its own sake, but the balance between stability and transmission. A person may stay in a role for a long time; what counts is that a culture of transmission exists, like a school of people interested in taking part in leadership groups that manage resources together.
</div>

__TOC__

= Soft transmission =

== Preamble: sociology of organisations ==

Non-profit organisations, or organisations with limited profit purpose, face recurring governance difficulties:

* sudden resignations that leave a gap,
* difficulty finding people to renew the teams,
* excessive dependence on one person or a very small team,
* loss of memory about responsibilities when people leave.

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_theory sociology of organisations] documents these tensions between stability and renewal. The proposed agreement starts from the hypothesis that a gradual and documented transmission could turn succession into a habit rather than a crisis, while preserving stability where it is useful.

<div style="border:1px solid #ccc;background:#f6f6f6;padding:10px 14px;border-radius:6px;">
'''Scientific abstract (one page).''' Non-profit and limited-profit organisations face a recurring governance problem: leadership concentrated in one person or a small team, followed by abrupt departure, resignation waves, and difficulty renewing the teams. The research literature studies several responses. Work on leadership succession and executive turnover documents the cost of unplanned departures and the value of planned handovers, including in the non-profit sector. Work on shared, distributed and collective leadership shows that leadership can be treated as a social process spread across a team rather than a role held by one individual, and reports that shared leadership can predict team and organisational outcomes at least as well as vertical leadership. Within this family, researchers distinguish several arrangements, including rotated (consecutive) leadership, specialisation by skill, simultaneous enactment, and centralisation. The soft transmission model draws on this state of the art: it does not aim at forced rotation, but at a documented, gradual handover (discover, steer, transmit) combined with stability where it is useful, and at a recognised pool of contributors. A separate page develops this synthesis with standard keywords and verifiable references: see [[Market/en/Portal:Soft-Transmission/Scientific-Study|Scientific study]].
</div>

Related concepts: [[w:en:Governance|Governance]], [[w:en:Nonprofit organization|Non-profit organisation]], [[w:en:Cooperative|Cooperative]].

== Who this agreement is for ==

The framework could suit an association, a foundation, a cooperative, a public-law entity, or a limited company with statutes of limited profit or non-profit purpose, when these entities carry a participatory intention and look for a controlled handover from one era to the next.

== Overview of existing transmission models ==

=== Leadership by one person or a small team ===
One person, or a team of two or three, holds the direction and then steps down, often all at once. A very common model. Known risk: the simultaneous departure leaves a gap that is hard to fill.

=== Rotating duumvirates and triumvirates ===
Two or three leaders share the head, then take turns one after another rather than leaving together. Less common, but it reduces the risk of a clean break ([[w:en:Duumvirate|duumvirate]], [[w:en:Triumvirate|triumvirate]]).

=== Rotating leadership and corporate democracy ===
The Brazilian Ricardo Semler (Semco) popularised a form of corporate democracy where roles circulate and where direction is designed to function without depending on a single person. His TED Talk spread this rotating leadership approach widely, and it has fed self-management cultures.

* [[w:en:Ricardo Semler|Ricardo Semler]], [[w:en:Semco Partners|Semco Partners]]
* TED Talk: [https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_company_with_almost_no_rules How to run a company with (almost) no rules]
* [https://github.com/electron/governance/blob/main/charter/rotating-chair-model.md Rotating chair model (documented example, Electron)]

=== Terms that cannot be renewed indefinitely ===
A ban on being elected several times in a row to the same committee: terms of two or four years, repeated at most twice, then a mandatory stop, as in many national presidencies ([[w:en:Term limit|term limits]]).

=== The "legislature elects the executive" model (Swiss reference) ===
A legislative body elects the executive, which then stays in place as long as it wishes unless there is serious fault, with long durations in practice. Strong stability, slow rotation ([[w:en:Federal Council (Switzerland)|Swiss Federal Council]]).

=== The proposed model: soft transmission (Balélec reference) ===
The proposed model draws on a practice tested by the association [https://balelec.ch Balélec], taken up here in an amplified and more structured form.

At Balélec, the logic works per event: the vice-chair becomes chair at the next edition (or the other way around), and the former lead then becomes assistant to the next lead. Rotation is not mandatory: a person may stay in the same role for a long time. The indicator is the level of rotation, but the aim is the combination of stability and transmission, not forced rotation. The whole thing works like a school of people interested in managing resources together, with attendance tokens.

== What soft transmission aims at ==

* Making succession a habit rather than a crisis.
* Avoiding a single person steering while the others follow.
* Building a pool of committee participants, to strengthen them over time.
* Recognising that contributed time has value for everyone.

= Model contract: committee operating agreement =

This text is a model amendment to the statutes describing how the committee operates. It is a starting point, to be adapted to the legal form of each organisation. It is not legal advice.

== Clause 1: transmission commitment ==
Committee members commit to aiming at the transmission of their responsibilities: identifying and training people, socialising in that direction, or subcontracting this work to third parties whose role as contributor carriers is recognised as such, internally or externally.

== Clause 2: pool of participants ==
The organisation builds and maintains a pool of committee participants, in order to strengthen the committees over time and to prepare successions without rupture.

== Clause 3: fluid participatory decision-making ==
Decisions are taken in a participatory and fluid way: seeking consensus and consent rather than heavy voting, with listening and regular exchanges, and lighter meetings. Decision circles and motivated people are identified upstream. No single person steers without sharing ([[w:en:Sociocracy|sociocracy]]).

== Clause 4: the three stages of involvement ==
Each contribution follows three stages, which can be short:

# '''Discover.''' The person gets involved to understand. Indicative minimum duration of six months, measured by a number of hours and months (main indicator of this stage).
# '''Steer.''' The person takes on responsibilities over a given period, measured in time, in resources at stake, and in attendance-token equivalents.
# '''Transmit.''' The person hands over the steering. The indicator of this stage: was the transmission accompanied (availability, help, time spent together)? The person receiving the transmission is then themselves at stage 1 (discovery, internship).

== Clause 5: recognition of contributions (four dimensions) ==
Recognition links four interconnected dimensions:

# '''Resources at stake''' (amounts and assets managed within the responsibility).
# '''Time contributed''' (hours and duration).
# '''Attendance tokens''' (recognition of participation).
# '''Quality, impact and difficulty''' of the contribution (results achieved, complexity and skills required).

These dimensions are weighed together. For example, fundraising is worth more per hour (prior work and skills) than tidying up after an event. However, every contribution has value: recognised values stay close to the market, without excessive gaps between low and high added value, so that everyone's time is recognised ([[w:en:Attendance (meeting)|attendance token]]).

== Clause 6: continuous documentation (AI support) ==
Each person easily describes what they do; the information is stored and communicated at all levels. AI support aims to make this description simple and fluid, so that the memory of roles does not depend on a single person. The number of roles, missions and functions tracked per person stays reasonable.

== Clause 7: amendments and evolutions ==
This agreement may evolve through amendments, following the same principles of fluid participatory decision-making (clause 3).

= Planned variations =

Inside this Market portal, specific marketplaces are planned:

* a Swiss variation,
* a French variation,
* application examples, for instance the management of housing cooperatives.

= Status of this document =

A starting point to adapt to the legal form and context of each organisation. It is not legal advice.

[[Category:Market]]
[[Category:Migration June 2026]]

<!-- visible -->