Wisdom Council, which is a way to apply Dynamic Facilitation to a large system of people like a city or government agency.
employing Citizen’s Juries, Consensus Conferences, Consensus Forums, Deliberative Surveys, Multi-Criteria Analysis Workshops, and “21st Century Town Meetings” for a number of years.
people consider “community engagement” and “deliberative democracy” to be the same thing, so at the conference there was a lot of interest in this field and in remedying various problems with it. But Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council are not “deliberative” in nature. And I believe the most needed forms of talking and thinking for community engagement to succeed are more dialogic in nature.
The word “deliberate” means to carefully “weigh” specific ideas or options.
policy recommendations or some other form of input to the system’s decision-makers, who choose to act or not on those recommendations.
complementary approach, using a thinking style that I call “choice-creating” rather than “decision-making,” where people address difficult issues creatively seeking heartfelt breakthroughs. The Wisdom Council is not a one-time event convened by an authority. Rather it is an ongoing process that is chartered over time by all the people, who are the ultimate authority in the system. It symbolically involves everyone in the system rather than “as many people as possible.” Furthermore, the randomly selected group is not given an issue to address. They choose their own issue and constantly reframe it throughout the conversation. The only possible result is unanimity on something.
group of twelve or so citizens every four-six months for a short time like two days. Each time there is a new group that chooses and addresses its own issues, reaches unanimous conclusions, presents its views to all, and then disbands. The group has no power other than to begin a larger conversation involving everyone, who all talk about the results and make their views known.
the Wisdom Council might transform the way democracy works, takes more than just a presentation at a conference. So, I was gratified to have the opportunity to teach and demonstrate as well. With my wife and partner Jean Rough, we conducted a three-day training in Dynamic Facilitation Skills before the conference to 30 people who were going to be attending. What an advantage this provided!
fairness than most Americans. So encouraging them to describe what they would do if they were in charge, for instance, was awkward for most. I don’t think the culture supports imagining oneself in such a special position.
different table with 10 people from the conference, while I presented a very short overview of Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council. Then there was a demonstration of both.
of the system rather than government ultimately charter it. Probably all 300 raised their hands, “yes.” Then, since all were given a number as they entered the room, random numbers were projected on the large screen in front of the hall. Facilitators from the pre-conference seminar were not eligible so they stayed seated. So did anyone who didn’t want to participate. But those whose numbers were selected and who did want to participate stepped forward. After drawing about fifteen numbers we had eight willing participants who took their places on stage. These randomly selected conference participants were deemed “Wisdom Council members” for a very brief demonstration of how things might go. They sat with their backs to the audience, while a roving cameraman was able to film their expressions and project their images onto the large screens for all to see. Mostly though, the screens showed what was being written on the flip charts. All 300 could see and hear.
this topic, while the audience watched.
big topic might profitably be addressed, how the conversation might go and how the group could actually reach consensus.
2) Information: We need to be better informed on key issues.
a) Within the current political process. We need to use elected representatives to make the hard decisions based upon principles of sustainability.
When the 35 minutes was up, the audience went into a break while a few Wisdom Council members figured out how to quickly present the results. In a real Wisdom Council all members help to present the results. Here, when everyone came back from break, one of the group members read the statements back to the audience.
integrate community engagement from the CEO to team leader level.
. Create a Department of Community Engagement.
forums, creating a greater youth foundation in community engagement.
conclusions and 2) a bit of each person’s experience of the process. In this case the Wisdom Council members didn’t have time to reach that level of engagement with one another or the issue.
little more than a normal conversation because there was no agenda and people spoke in a disjointed, natural way. To experienced “facilitators” in the audience, the process may have seemed “all wrong” because few of the usual “musts” were done.
a higher quality meeting than most.
wasn’t adequate time to demonstrate how a large system could reach consensus using it. Neither was there time to reflect on the process, to take the results from the small groups further, or to consider the implications of this pproach if used in conjunction with deliberative methods. But interested people could learn more about both the Wisdom Council and Dynamic Facilitation from the printed material and the web sites.
After the demonstration of Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council, everyone broke into an “Open Space” meeting spontaneously arranged by Tom Atlee (see www.co-intelligence.org/P-Openspace.html for more information). One graduate of the Dynamic Facilitation seminar organized a session “Convening a Wisdom Council in Perth,” which was exciting to me. They decided that the place to start is the 1500 person Dept. of Planning and Infrastructure in Western Australia. Greg Martin, the Director of this department, joined this small group after a while and expressed his support. So, there is a good prospect of that happening. Reports from Perth indicate that people are practicing Dynamic Facilitation and these ideas are moving forward.
more of a legitimate, ongoing role in the governance process, where their results can have more impact.
topic suggestions, tips on using DF or stories on how DF has made a difference in your professional life or community. Submit your ideas to Dfnews@tobe.net.