Over the past decade, Sociocracy has become the main way that worker coops in the UK organise themselves internally. If a coop doesn't run on Sociocracy, they will very likely be familiar with the basics of how it works from seeing it in use in other coops or in ad hoc groups at conferences etc.

Every group uses it slightly differently, in the same way that in Zen everyone sits slightly differently: your (or your group's) natural differences are expressed in how you take the same position.

The basic system is that people first decide or define the purpose of their group, which usually happens before they adopt sociocracy i.e. when the group started for whatever reason. Then people make proposals, and as long as the proposal doesn't endanger the group or the group's purpose, the proposal can pass. The key part of sociocracy is that it operates in the zone of tolerance rather than preference: it has a bias to action.

There is a bit more to learn about the rounds system, where people's reactions, questions and concerns are voiced and answered, but that takes less than 5 minutes to explain. The real learning comes from actually trying it out!