In many ways, the world is skidding out of our control, both at a global level and at a personal level that directly affects students. The symptoms are as varied as the dramatic surge in species extinctions, a four-fold increase since 1980 in incarcerations, increasing suicide rates, ballooning student debt, and a sharp decline in teaching students about civics and methods of self-governance.

Amazingly similar solutions to these broad societal problems started developing in the late 1970s in the Netherlands and India, unbeknownst to each other - until about six years ago. Known in the Netherlands as sociocracy and in India as Neighborhood Parliaments, the solution is starting to get notice. Companies and organizations on every continent are using sociocracy successfully. In India and some other countries, there are more than 200,000 Neighborhood Parliaments. The approach is starting to have a society level impact, including at the United Nations, and could be dramatically useful to students and their universities.

John Buck has been working with organizations all over the world to help infuse principles of consent and transparency leading to increased equality, freedom and sustainability for people and communities associated with those organizations. He has led dozens of sociocracy implementation projects in varied organizations such as schools, universities, healthcare providers, software companies, materials manufacturers, professional organizations, and ecovillages. He is co-author, along with Sharon Villines, of the book "We the People, Consenting to a Deeper Democracy" (http://www.sociocracy.info/we-the-people/) as well as co-author, along with Jutta Eckstein, of the just published book "Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space, and Sociocracy." (https://leanpub.com/bossanova)

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx