Russ Charvonia’s The Civility Mosaic, written with Michael Ashley, is a 21st Century treatise on restoring civility as a matter of our survival. As past Grand Master of Masons in California, Charvonia provides readers with a first-of-its-kind, insider look at Freemasonry and how the practical application of its underlying ethos of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth can help us rise above the world’s bickering and violence to create a more compassionate, more humane, and more civil society.

The book is designed to help readers develop their own personal civility journey, using exercises built into the chapters. 

From the Publisher:
Civil discourse is in a state of crisis. Public dialogues today are celebrated not for what they accomplish, but for whom they divide. Incivility has become the new normal just as humanity faces existential, political and environment challenges that will require unprecedented global cooperation. The Civility Mosaic by Russ Charvonia with Michael Ashley is not only an urgent call to restore civility but it is also an instruction manual on how we might save ourselves from our most destructive impulses.

Written with screenwriter, author, and fellow Freemason Michael Ashley, The Civility Mosaic teaches us to take self-responsibility for transforming our troubled world by applying the cornerstone principles found in one of the world’s oldest and most influential societies—Freemasonry.

Resource Link: ​https://civilitymosaic.com/​

Submitted by: Lauren Barthold
​This book describes how civic dialogue can serve as an antidote to a polarized public square. It argues that when pervasive polarization renders rational and fact-based argumentation ineffective, we first need to engage in a way that builds trust. Civic dialogue is a form of structured discourse that utilizes first-person narratives in order to promote trust, openness and mutual understanding. By creating a dialogic structure that encourages listening and reflection, particularities and differences about fraught identities can be expressed in such a way that leads to the possibility of connecting through our fundamental, shared and deeply felt humanity. Drawing on Plato, Buber, Gadamer, Dewey, cognitive bias research, as well as the work of dialogue practitioners, Lauren Swayne Barthold provides a sustained defense of civic dialogue as an effective strategy for avoiding futile political arguments and for creating pluralistic democratic communities.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-45586-6

This 62-page step-by-step handbook from the Policy Consensus Institute (now Kitchen Table Democracy) walks readers through the stages of sponsoring, convening, organizing, and participating in a public policy collaborative process. Designed primarily for elected and appointed government officials and civic leaders, the guide also is useful for those who provide leaders with the staff assistance, facilitation services, and support they need to employ these approaches effectively.
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The Practical Guide was developed and written by Chris Carlson, founding director of PCI and a leading authority on consensus building in the public sector.

The Practical Guide to Collaborative Governance will help equip more leaders – present and future, in the public, private, and civic sectors – with the information and tools they need to bring about better governance through the use of collaborative practices, with instructions on how to: