Wisdom Council workshop handouts

Here are the five great handouts from “The Wisdom Council: A Tool for Empowering 'We the People'” – facilitated by Jim Rough and Deanna Martin at the 2006 NCDD Conference in San Francisco.

Here is the full workshop description:
Imagine all of citizens in your community talking together creatively and collaboratively about the big, important issues. Convening this kind of conversation holds the promise of raising our collective intelligence, consciousness and wisdom on issues like healthcare, traffic, our educational system, and violence. The Wisdom Council is a new democratic tool that promises a grassroots way to develop near-unanimous strategies and the will to implement them on the issues that matter to you and your neighbors. It offers the prospect of engaging all in one, heartfelt, creative conversation that is ongoing, moving people beyond partisanship to serving the public interest. There have been a number of successful experiments with the "Wisdom Council" in cities, schools, among homeless people and in various organizations. Come hear about the growing number of experiments that demonstrate this new process really works – like in the Department of Agriculture of Washington State, at Salmon Bay Elementary School in Seattle, and at a local food co-op. Join us for an introduction to the process and learn how you might implement a Wisdom Council in your community.

The Handouts:

• An 18-slide PowerPoint presentation on the Wisdom Council process – access presentation
• A two-page Word document comparing dialogue, deliberation, and the Dynamic Facilitation's "choice-creating" – access document
• Another two-page Word doc, this one with a chart comparing traditional facilitation with dynamic facilitation – access document
• A three-page Word doc describing both Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council process – access document
• A 6-page PDF article by Jim Rough called "Transforming the Public Conversation" which wasn't handed out, but which the facilitators planned to include as the follow up to the session – access article

Jim Rough and Deanna Martin
(2006)

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