21st Century Town Meeting

AmericaSpeaks' 21st Century Town Meeting method creates engaging, meaningful opportunities for citizens to participate in public decision making. This unique process updates the traditional New England town meeting to address the needs of today's citizens, decision makers and democracy.

Resource Link: http://www.americaspeaks.org

Bohm Dialogue

The late quantum physicist David Bohm observed that both quantum mechanics and mystical traditions suggest that our beliefs shape the realities we evoke. He further postulated that thought is largely a collective phenomenon, made possible only through culture and communication. Human conversations arise out of and influence an ocean of cultural and transpersonal meanings in which we live our lives, and this process he called dialogue.

Charrettes

Charrettes are typically a potent combination of modern design studio and town meeting, with a dash of the teamwork from an old-fashioned barnraising mixed in. Most start with a hands-on session for citizens and continue in an around-the-clock, energetic push until a plan is finished about a week later. A charrette can be a breakthrough event that helps overcome inertia and creates a meaningful master plan. Properly executed, this technique can produce a master plan that is more useful, better understood, and more quickly produced than one formed by any other method.

Resource Link: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pittd/charrett.htm

Choice Work

Choice work is the work of making choices in Deliberation. It is work because we have conflicting values and motives - both within ourselves and with each other - about how to deal with any difficult issue.

Citizen Consensus Council

A citizen consensus council is a microcosm of a larger population where citizens dialogue to deep agreement about issues of common concern. It is usually a group of 12-24 diverse citizens selected at random from (or to be demographically representative of) their organization, community, country, etc.

Citizen Deliberative Council

Citizen Deliberative Councils (CDCs) are temporary, face-to-face councils of a dozen or more citizens whose diversity reflects the diversity of their community, state or country. Usually council members are selected at random, often with additional criteria to ensure gender, racial, socioeconomic and other diversity.

Citizens Jury Process

The Citizens Jury process is a method for gathering a microcosm of the public, having them attend five days of hearings, deliberate among themselves and then issue findings and recommendations on the issue they have discussed. No deliberative method has been more carefully designed or thoroughly tested than this method.

Civic Reflection

Civic reflection is the practice of bringing together a group of people who are engaged in common civic work to read and talk about fundamental questions of civic life. This form of dialogue draws upon the rich resources of the humanities--using readings of literature, philosophy, and history, and the age-old practice of text-based discussion--to help civic leaders think more carefully and talk more comfortably about their values and choices.

Commons Cafe

Commons Cafes were created by Sharif Abdullah to bring diverse groups of people together in small groups to get to know each other.

Cooperative Inquiry

"In traditional research on people, the roles of researcher and subject are mutually exclusive. The researcher only contributes the thinking that goes into the project, and the subjects only contribute the action to be studied. In co-operative inquiry these exclusive roles are replaced by a co-operative relationship of bilateral initiative and control, so that all those involved work together as co-researchers and as co-subjects. They both design, manage and draw conclusions from the inquiry, and they undergo the experience and action that is being explored. This is not research on people, but research with people."

Cooperative Inquiry

Cooperative inquiry is a research method that provides a framework for participants to use their own experience to generate insights around an issue that is of mutual concern. Participants form a group, usually of about 7-8 people, define a pressing question and agree to meet on several occasions over a period of time. During meetings, members reflect together on their work as it relates to the question. Between meetings, members inquire into their own practice, observe their experiences and implement new actions that might help them learn something new about the question.

D&D; Success Stories

Compiled by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), 2005.

Below are dozens of links to dialogue and deliberation success stories and case studies that are available online. Approaches covered include Deliberative Polling, Citizens Juries, Future Search, National Issues Forums, Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue, AmericaSpeaks, Study Circles, the Public Conversations Project, and Wisdom Councils. NCDD has been compiling these resources for the D&D; community for several years, but we could really use your help keeping this page updated. Email us at [email protected] with your additions and changes.

Dialogue & Deliberation Quotes

National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD).

Need great quotes for a publication, article or report you're writing? This NCDD resource lists dozens of quotes organized by topic: dialogue; deliberation; listening; communication; truth, knowledge & exploration; conflict and transforming conflict; inclusion; democracy; action & change; and a miscellaneous category for other great quotes that are relevant to this work.

Resource Link: http://thataway.org/index.php/?page_id=550

Dialogue and Deliberation Spectrum

Tom Atlee.

In this piece, begun on the NCDD wiki, Tom Atlee explores what a spectrum of public dialogue and deliberation might look like, from D&D; that is unconnected to governance to "Citizen dialogue and deliberation with a coherent outcome that plugs into policy-making and decision-making where the citizens are selected to reflect the diversity of the community and the whole process is officially institutionalized and empowered such that it drives policy-making."

Dynamic Facilitation

Dynamic Facilitation is an energy-based way of facilitating where people address difficult issues creatively and collaboratively, achieving breakthrough results. It creates a process of talking and thinking that builds mutual respect, trust and the sense of community.

Forums Institute Policy Forums

Over the past 10 years, the Forums Institute for Public Policy has developed Informed Contemplative Dialogue, a successful method of engaging stakeholders in not only talking about an issue, but also learning new perspectives and sharing information with others beyond the forum itself. Unlike most group gatherings whose goal is to support cohesive group effort, the goal of a Policy Forum using Informed Contemplative Dialogue is to provide participants what they need to think about an issue and to take action within their own sphere of influence.

Guidebook for the 2006 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation

The 2004 NCDD Conference Planning Team (design and layout by NCDD's Creative Director, Andy Fluke). National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), 2006.

The third NCDD conference (we feel, the best of the three!) took place in San Francisco, California in August 2006. The conference was designed to give us all a better sense of who we are as a community of practice, field, and/or movement, and provide us with a stronger sense of where we should go from here if we want to truly have the impact we believe we could and should have on the world.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/NCDD2006_Guidebook.pdf

INTEGRA: A Model of Intentional Creative Dialogue & Negotiation

Developed and copyrighted by Chris Saade, the INTEGRA© model of intentional creative dialogue is comprised of a 6-step process that emphasizes heart-centered negotiation and community building. The fundamental power of INTEGRA emerges from its roots as a "heart-centered" model. The human heart is the center-point around which this process of dialogue and negotiation revolves.

Issue Framing

A "frame" is a way of understanding or interpreting what is going on and how we should relate to it. How we frame an issue or conflict (or how it is framed for us) has a tremendous impact on what we do about it...

Key Terms for High-Tech Collaboration

Blogs, decision support systems, asynchronous communication, e-government, groupware, social media... those new to online dialogue & deliberation and high-tech collaboration can feel like they need to learn a completely new language just to begin understanding their options. Utilize our glossary of terms for high-tech collaboration to help you get by.