A new strategy for social change


The Center for Wise Democracy has developed an exciting social invention, a systems approach to solving many of today's most pressing social issues—failing education, loss of community, citizen apathy, diminished economic viability prejudice, terrorism, poverty, exorbitant health care costs, partisanship, breakdown of families, global warming, wars, etc.

It's called the "Wisdom Council process." It is aimed at transforming the public conversation of a large system —a neighborhood, city, county, state, or nation — to create an inclusive voice of "We the People." This strategy promises immense benefits like ... collectively intelligent decisions, bringing people together into a "We," building individual capabilities and empowerment, low cost and low risk, etc.

We hope you will explore this "Good News!" social invention and help us bring it forward. For a short summary see an introduction to the future. (pdf)

News!

Jim Rough, the originator of the Wisdom Council, was selected one of the 100 finalists from 4,641 national entries in the Case Foundation's Make it Your Own Award Program.

Examples!

Our experiments with the Wisdom Council in the public sector are proving that it works! See some current examples below:

a) Port Townsend WA (A class of high school students convened their first "Wisdom Council community meeting" for the voters of the town!) See a video about the first Community Meeting. (30 min)


b) Victoria British Columbia. George Sranko and Caspar Davis are the initiators. The first Wisdom Council is aimed for March 2007. Check out the progress at Wise Democracy Victoria )
c) Wolfurt Austria (This Wisdom Council just won a national award!!!) It has the support of the mayor and town council, plus the support of Manfred Hellrigl of the Office of the Future in Austria, who wrote a short article and created a video —The video is in German)

About the Center


To solve the BIG issues of our society, like global warming, the war on terror, the decline of public education, and racism, ALL of us need to think at a higher level. We need to come out of denial, understand the problems we face, dialogue respectfully, discover our deep feelings of connectedness, creatively invent new solutions, and freely pitch in to serve the common good. We need to come together as "We the People" not just as a political movement but as "collective intelligence." At the Center for Wise Democracy we have discovered a social innovation that allows us to do this ... and to do it in the short term. The social innovation is called a "Wisdom Council."

Now, experiments are showing that the Wisdom Council works. It can establish a wise voice of "We the People" in cities, counties, organizations, and even nations. To work this magic it relies on another social innovation, "Dynamic Facilitation". With these new processes just a few of us can facilitate all of us to face the difficult issues creatively and collaboratively, and to reach near-unanimous perspectives.

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We hope you will examine the many Wisdom Council resources to learn more about this exciting prospect, and consider joining us or supporting our efforts. Here are some of the ways:

1) Learn more about these concepts and talk with others about them. Come to one of our seminars. Think about convening a Wisdom Council process in your area. (A high school class will convene one in 2006-2007 for the citizens of the City of Port Townsend, WA.) Invite us to give a talk or a seminar in your area. Donate money or time to projects in your area.

2) Become an active member of our organization and bring your expertise ... in web development, fundraising, newsletters, database management, marketing, or media outreach. Become a trained Dynamic Facilitator for Wisdom Councils.

3) Donate towards our general fund. Help us develop the capacity of our organization to further these ideas. Please think about becoming a founding donor by pledging any amount monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually. Use the contact information below to send checks or money orders. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of Washington and federal law.


We look forward to hearing from you.

Center for Wise Democracy
1122 E. Pike Street, #578
Seattle, WA 98122
206.459.8429
info {@} wisedemocracy.org
www.wisedemocracy.org

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Stay Informed

Check out our Press Room

To keep up-to-date on CWD activities, including current Wisdom Council projects, upcoming training opportunities and speaking engagements, and efforts email your name and contact information to info {@} wisedemocracy.org.

Key Links

1) Campaign to Reunite America Very exciting work spearheaded by Joseph McCormick that is creating a voice of "We the People" through the Wisdom Council and other tops people from the Left and the Right is the Wisdom Council.

information to info {@} wisedemocracy.org
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Key resources

  1. WEB TV: (30+)
    Here is an important collection of interviews about various democratic processes. In particular, the transformational impact of the Wisdom Council processis explored. Most of the videos are included in the channel: Wise Democracy. Other channels include:

    Societys Breakthrough — How the Wisdom Council process applied nationally and globally will transform economics, politics, etc. Shows include:
    • "Overcoming Society's Crisis
    • We the People of Earth
    • It's not as hopeless as you think, etc.

    Issues To Solve — The Wisdom Council process will benefit many different seemingly impossible-to-solve issues and areas of human endeavor. Show topics include:
    •Terrorism ... Health care ... "Religion" ... Global Climate Change ... Criminal Justice System ... etc.

    Strategies For Society — There are a number of different solution strategies to benefit society and transform democracy. These solutions include:
    • Citizen Inititative Review with Ned Crosby and Pat Benn
    • Corporate Monitoring Project with Mark Latham,
    • Citizen Deliberation with John Gastil,
    • Non violent communication with Jorge Rubio
    • Georgian economics with Jeff Smith and Tom Grecko, etc.

    Wisdom Council experiments — In this channel some experiments with the Wisdom Council process are depicted.

    DynamicFacilitation — Here are some videos around topics in Dynamic Facilitation
  2. Key Article#1: Transforming the Public Conversation ... by Jim Rough

    There is a social breakthrough that allows all citizens to come together respectfully and creatively as "We the People." This "Wisdom Council" strategy can be initiated by just a few people who understand certain concepts, like the difference between "decision-making" and "choice-creating."
  4. Key Article#2: An Experimental Framework for Community Democracy ... by Richard K. Moore

    Examining democracy tools that can be used by a community ... and how central and accessible the Wisdom Council is.
  5. NCDD 06 Presentation: Wisdom Council: A Tool to Create a We the People ... by Jim Rough and DeAnna Martin

    In August 2006, we attended a great conference —the National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation. We were really well received when we presented on the Wisdom Council. Here're the overheads for our talk.
  6. Audios are also available for many of the interviews:
    A U.S. NATIONAL WISDOM COUNCIL
    1) A New Form of Civic Participation Describes the Wisdom Council in plain language.(Jim Rough with Paul Everett, 8/22/05).
    2) Is this the Holy Grail? Describes the transformational potential of the Wisdom Council. ( Paul Everett, 1-12-05)
    3) Campaign to Reunite America Joseph McCormick has been convening conversations among national, high-profile leaders. His work may be the springboard for the national Wisdom Council to come into being.( Joseph McCormick 1/18/06)

    Local WISDOM COUNCILS
    1) The Wisdom Council in Neighborhoods ... Considering the Wisdom Council in communities (Greg Saville, 1-12-05)
    2) The Wisdom Council in High Schools Imagining how the Wisdom Council can be used in high schools ( George Thomas 7/2/03)
    3) The Wisdom Council in Countries Considering the country of Botswana (Matlho Kgosi - 4/12/06)

    OUTCOMES of the WISDOM COUNCIL
    1) Empowerment (Linda Showler, N.D., 8/14/06)
    2) The Wisdom Council and Religion (Kim Rotchford, M.D., 4/13/04)
    3) Bridging to Peace (Darlene Durfee- 2/1/06)
    4) Wise Economics (Paul Everett, Systems Consultant, 7/21/04)
    5) Further Challenging the Paradigm re: terrorism, leadership, etc. (Paul Everett, Systems Consultant, 10/4/04)
    6) Challenging the Corporate Paradigm.(Paul Everett, Systems Consultant 11/29/04)
    7) Environmental Wisdom This one happened before we realized the amendment wasn't necessary (Karen Barrows, Environmental Scientist—12/9/02)

    DYNAMIC FACILITATION
    1) Understanding Dynamic Facilitation (Les Emery, Mythological Psychologist—9/23/03)
    2) The Early History of Dynamic Facilitation (Paul Everett 12/14/05)
  7. Key BOOKS describing the Wisdom Council

    1) Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People by Jim Rough (2002) This book describes the Wisdom Council as applied to the United States, implemented as a U.S. Constitutional Amendment. Since then, our experiments have discovered that it's possible for a legitimate "We the People" to be facilitated without the amendment.

    2) The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-intelligence to Create a World that Works for All" by Tom Atlee (2003) In his usual beautiful style Tom brings all the democracy techniques together, including Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council, under the banner of "co-intelligence."

    3) Escaping the Matrix: How We the People Can Change the World by Richard K. Moore (2005). Richard describes how Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council are key to bringing forth a society in harmony.
  8. Article ... A Rebirth of 'We the People' ... by Jim Rough

    This article about the Wisdom Council as a society-transforming process was published in The Good Society by PEGS, a nonpartisan, ideologically diverse organization whose goal is to promote serious and sustained inquiry into innovative institutional designs for a good society.
  9. Cartoon Presentation Describing Dynamic Facilitation

    Michael Erickson, Boeing Cartoonist, created a Powerpoint presentation of how Dynamic Facilitation can change people's thinking. See the show.
  10. Wisdom Council Tool Kit

    The CWDP is in the process of creating a kit designed to help people in local communities who are interested in convening a Wisdom Council in their local area. Sign up to receive this kit when it becomes available by emailing your name and contact information to wisedemocracy@speakeasy.net. Write Wisdom Council Kit in the subject line of your email.
  11. See More resources
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