Compassionate Listening Method

Compassionate Listening is a process of "listening our way to wholeness." We believe that peace comes through the hard work of meeting one's enemy - the human being behind the stereotype, and acknowledging one another's suffering. Compassionate Listening as a tool for reconciliation is based on a simple yet profound formula for the resolution of conflict: adversaries giving the gift of listening. To help reconcile conflicting parties, we must have the ability to understand the suffering of both sides.

Compassionate Listening Project

The Compassionate Listening Project is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals to heal polarization and build bridges between people, communities, and nations in conflict. The Compassionate Listening Project teaches powerful skills for peacemaking in families, communities, on the job, and in social change work locally and globally. Their curriculum grew out of our many years of reconciliation work on the ground in Israel and Palestine. They adapted their trainings and began to teach in the U.S. in 1999, and now offer trainings and workshops worldwide for everyday peace-building.

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

Conflict Resolution Consortium of the University of Colorado

This is a gateway to the Consortium's various websites, including CRInfo (The Conflict Resolution Information Source), the Intractable Conflict Knowledge Base Project, the original Conflict Resolution Consortium website, and several other great resources.

Resource Link: http://conflict.colorado.edu/

Conflict Resolution Quarterly

Association for Conflict Resolution.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly (formerly Mediation Quarterly) is a publication of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the practice and public understanding of conflict resolution. The journal publishes quality scholarship on relationships between theory, research, and practice of third parties in the conflict management and dispute resolution field to promote more effective professional applications.

Resource Link: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/97519532

Conflict Resolution Services Center

Run by Bill Warters, Ph.D., of Wayne State University, this site is dedicated to supporting the development of mediation and conflict resolution services at colleges and universities. Includes searchable web links to more than 150 campus mediation projects, an extensive bibliography, program development resources, links to sample policies, and more.

Resource Link: http://www.campus-adr.org/CR_Services_Cntr/crservices.html

Consensus Conference

Consensus Conferences, developed in Denmark, are used in a variety of settings and typically involve a group of citizens with varied backgrounds who meet to discuss issues of a scientific or technical nature. The conference has two stages: the first involves small group meetings with experts to discuss the issues and work towards consensus. The second stage assembles experts, media and the public where the conferences main observations and conclusions are presented.

Consensus Through Conversation: How to Achieve High-Commitment Decisions

Larry Dressler. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2006.

At a time when organizational hierarchies are flattening, workforces are becoming more geographically dispersed, and workers are demanding a say in what they do, consensus is more needed than ever. Consensus Through Conversation guides leaders and facilitators toward the proper use of consensus and away from applications that create the 'illusion of inclusion' and false agreement. It is a handy, vital reference readers can turn to in their efforts build enthusiasm and commitment on high-stakes issues.

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

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...

Conversation Caf?

Vicki Robin, a pioneer in the voluntary simplicity movement, came up with the idea of using the 'conversation caf?' model in attempts to take her ideas of simpler living to a higher level. Her organization has more than 60 trained caf? hosts and has spread internationally after a tremendous start in Seattle.

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

Conversation Café Method

A Conversation Café is a 90-minute hosted conversation which is held in a public setting like a coffee shop or bookstore, where anyone is welcome to join. A simple format helps people feel at ease and gives everyone who wants to a chance to speak.

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.

Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The International Association of Facilitators Handbook

Sandy Schuman. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Collaboration is often viewed as a one-time or project-oriented activity. An increasing challenge is to help organizations incorporate collaborative values and practices in their everyday ways of working. In Creating a Culture of Collaboration, an international group of practitioners and researchers ?– from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States ?– provide proven approaches to creating a culture of collaboration within and among groups, organizations, communities, and societies.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787981168.html

Creating a World that Works for All

Sharif Abdullah, Commonway Institute. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publication, 1999.

Exclusivity - the desire to stay separate from other people - is at the root of most of the world's problems, according to Abdullah, who then presents a unique blueprint for social justice. Demonstrates how we can change our world by changing our consciousness. Reveals how to turn from a mentality that disconnects us to one that embraces the goals of restoring balance to the Earth and building community with all others.

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

Creating Meaningful Dialogue at Arts Events: Getting beyond Q & A, testimonial, art critique, or soapbox oratory!

Excerpted from Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy by Pam Korza, Barbara Schaffer Bacon, and Andrea Assaf. Washington, D.C.: Americans for the Arts, 2005.

This great 2-page handout was created for a workshop at NCDD's 2006 conference called "Inquiring Minds Want to Know: What Do the Arts Have to Do With Dialogue?" Presenters Leah Lamb, Ellen Schneider, and Pam Korza list challenges, offer strategies for effectively engaging audiences in civic dialogue at arts events, provide examples of how dialogue professionals can learn to incorporate art to support their dialogue goals, and more.

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

CRInfo

The Conflict Resolution Information Source (CRInfo) is a cooperative effort to strengthen the conflict field's information infrastructure. The site has catalogued over 8,000 web, hard copy, audio and video resources.

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

CRS Programs For Managing School Multicultural Conflict

A multicultural learning environment has become the norm in many school districts and communities throughout the United States. The diversity found in these settings offers many opportunities for people to learn more about one another. Yet too often schools are ill prepared to adjust to this diversity positively. To address this reality, the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice has developed several racial/ethnic conflict prevention and management programs for schools or school districts.

Resource Link: http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/pubs/pubflyercrsschoolprograms92003.htm

D&D Principle and Design Do?’s & Don?’ts: Insights from the Front Line

Myriam Laberge, Miriam Wyman and Jan Elliott. Summary from the Saturday morning plenary at the C2D2 Ottawa Conference, 2005.

What are the keys to enhancing the effectiveness, outcomes and impact of our Dialogue and Deliberation practice, no matter what the methodology, scale and approach adopted? This question was the focus of a plenary session at the first Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation in October 2005. Outlined in this 6-page document is a summary of the wealth of information and experience that C2D2 participant provided during this plenary. The authors feel that some principles emerged that are inviolate ?– things that must characterize any dialogue or deliberation process; these underpin our work and guide us in design, implementation and follow-up. These include things like transparency about purpose, accountability, inclusivity, commitment to feedback - what Dr. Peter A. Singer has called ?“procedural values.?”

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/C2D2_2005_report.pdf

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.

Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright. Verso Press, 2003.

This book presents case studies which demonstrate how people are inventing new political forms that realize the deeper democratic ideal of government of, by and for the people. The four contemporary cases explore the participatory budgeting process in Porto Alegre; decentralized school councils and community policing groups in Chicago; stakeholder planning in environmental protection and habitat management; and new participatory governance structures in Kerala, India.

Resource Link: http://www.archonfung.net

Deliberation and Your Community: How to Convene and Moderate Local Public Forums Using Deliberative Decision-Making (training manual)

Sandra S. Hodge, Ph.D.. University Outreach and Extension, University of Missouri.

This 86-page NIF training manual is designed for use in Missouri, but it is a compliation of materials used by a number of people throughout the National Issues Forums network to train others in deliberative decision-making and NIF moderation. It addresses deliberation as another way to decide and is based on how to use local public forums, especially National Issues Forums, as a venue for deliberation. The author encourages you to adapt the manual to meet your own group's training needs.

Resource Link: http://extension.missouri.edu/cd/pubdelib/trainmaterials/deliberationmanual2.pdf