Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in Conflict Resolution

Bernard Mayer. Jossey-Bass, 2004.

In this thought-provoking, passionately written book, Mayer - an internationally acclaimed leader in the field - dares practitioners to ask the hard questions about alternative dispute resolution (ADR). What?’s wrong with conflict resolution? Why aren?’t more individuals and organizations using conflict resolution when they have a problem? Why doesn?’t the public know more about it? What are the limits of conflict resolution? When does conflict resolution work and when does it not? Offering a committed practitioner?’s critique of the profession of mediation, arbitration, and ADR, Beyond Neutrality focuses on the current crisis in the field of conflict resolution and offers a pragmatic response.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787968064.html

Brisbane Declaration on Community Engagement

The Brisbane Declaration drew on numerous definitions and aspirations for community engagement, including IAP2's core values and the Queensland Government's community engagement resources. A draft of the Declaration was reviewed and revised to reflect the feedback from the community of practitioners, academics, policy advisers, government and citizens who responded to a questionnaire. Importantly, there were also a number of deliberative sessions on the Declaration held during the 2005 International Conference on Engaging Communities. Feedback from these sessions was incorporated into the final version of the Declaration.

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

Change.org

Launched in February 2007, Change.org is a community platform that creates a social network for over 1 million nonprofit organizations. Each organization has free access to an online dashboard through which they can review activity on their network and directly engage with their supporters by posting fundraising projects, events, photos, videos, news stories and blog entries. Change.org enables nonprofit organizations to harness the power of social networking technology to build community around their organization and extend their reach and social impact.

Resource Link: http://change.org

Conservatives and D&D

National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, 2003.

Back in 2003, there was a great conversation on the main NCDD Discussion list sparked by the question "What should we do when our most visible collaborator is perceived as liberal, yet our goals are to involve people with all ideologies?" That conversation evolved to address the all-important question "Are conservatives less interested in citizen engagement than liberals?" Here is a summary of that meaty conversation...

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.

Doing Democracy: 10 Practical Arts

Frances Moore Lappé. Originally appeared in Frances Moore Lappe's book "The Quickening of America." Jossey-Bass, 1994.

To be effective in creating societies that reflect our values and work for all of us, it helps to approach democracy-making as a learned art. As in learning any art - from ballet to basketball - it helps to break the process down to its core elements. So we've chosen ten arts of democracy, a nice round number - not with any pretense of creating an exhaustive guide. Rather, these practices seem a great place to start. They contribute to enhanced decision-making, mutual regard, and to group learning and staying-power. This 40-page guide is a companion to Frances Moore Lappé's 2006 book "Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life." It is designed for educators, group leaders, and any citizen who wants to become more powerful.

Resource Link: http://www.democracysedge.org/handbook.pdf

Issue Framing: Issue Books and Implications for Community Action

Chris Kelley. Kettering Foundation, 2002.

The Kettering Foundation long ago identified a disconnect between the public and politics. People in communities all over the country felt estranged from their elected representatives, from their public institutions, and most importantly, from each other. A significant portion of this disconnect focused on how issues in communities got named and framed. Kettering surmised, correctly, that if a public issue was named in such a way that the public could not identify with it, then the public would have a difficult time supporting it. However, if the public could identify a public problem together (naming) and then discuss choices on how to solve the particular problem (framing), then the likelihood of greater community action increased ten-fold.

Media and Public Relations Guide

Let's Talk America, 2004.

Originally created for Let's Talk America conversation hosts, this 6-page document suggests a variety of methods for getting the word out through the media about your dialogue or deliberation program. The methods range from simple letters to the editor to a major media campaign.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/LTA_media_strategies.doc

Meetings as a Strategy for Change

The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and BTW Consultants, 2004.

Meetings are a ubiquitous, time-consuming, and often expensive feature of organizational life. They range from ad hoc meetings of two or three people to multi-day events with hundreds of speakers and thousands participants. To maximize the value of meetings, grantmakers who fund them and organizations that sponsor them must be clear about their objectives and must think strategically about both the benefits and costs of the events. This packet includes three tools that provide a series of questions to be asked of meeting planners or foundation staff in considering whether a meeting is the best strategy for accomplishing the desired results.

Resource Link: http://http://www.hewlett.org/NR/rdonlyres/047CCF02-D038-4C0E-9121-FDD4074E6ACD/0/HFBTWmeetingspilot.pdf

Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue

Simon Fraser University, which is located in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), is the home of the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, an international conference centre providing 16,000 square feet of specialized meeting and function space which is devoted to facilitating public and private dialogue in order to foster understanding and engender positive action.

Resource Link: http://www.sfu.ca/dialogue

NCDD's Engagement Streams Framework

Sandy Heierbacher and other members of the D&D community. National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), 2005.

NCDD?’s Engagement Streams Framework helps people decide which dialogue and deliberation method(s) are most appropriate for their circumstance. The framework is a series of two charts that categorize the D&D field into four streams based on intention or purpose (Exploration, Conflict Transformation, Decision Making, and Collaborative Action), and show which of the most well-known methods have proven themselves effective in which streams. The second chart goes into more detail about 23 dialogue and deliberation methods, and includes information such as group size, meeting type and how participants are selected.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/ddStreams1-08.pdf

NCDD's Quick Reference Glossary

There are numerous streams of practice running parallel in the broader dialogue and deliberation community (deliberative democracy, intergroup dialogue, conflict transformation, etc.), and they have each developed their own terminology for what they do. We hope our glossary helps you make sense of it all!

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/index.php/?page_id=499

Podcasting: A New Tool to Plant and Sow the Seeds of Negotiation and Mediation

Joshua N. Weiss, Ph.D., Global Negotiation Project at Harvard?’s Program on Negotiation, Associate Director.

We live in a world of instant information. We live in a world of simplicity. We live in a world that desparately needs negotiation and mediation skills and processes. Podcasting enables practitioners and scholars of negotiation and mediation to extend our reach and explain concepts simply, in an unfiltered manner, to a large number of people around the globe. If 3,800 people have downloaded my Podcasts over the past four months alone, imagine what would happen if we had legions of Podcasters spreading the message that negotiation and mediation are invaluable tools to have in your toolbox. I am hard pressed to think of something that would help our field more...aren?’t you?

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Weiss_Podcasting.doc

SurveyMonkey.com

Powerful yet simple tools for designing online surveys, collecting responses and analyzing the results. Both 'basic' (free) and 'professional' (pretty affordable) subscriptions available.

Resource Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com