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 We develop and teach social innovations by which people can face and solve impossible-seeming issues. These innovations can be used at large scale to empower "We the People".

We face BIG impossible-seeming issues at all levels of society ... e.g. partisan gridlock, climate change, corruption, wars and poverty. ... At the Center for Wise Democracy we offer a new, facilitative, whole-system approach to addressing and solving these issues. In addition, this approach opens the door to a new system of democracy that we call "Wise Democracy", where "We the People" provide responsible leadership to governments, institutions and the culture. This approach can be applied to each level of society, including:
  • ​​Global society...To solve issues like climate change and to adequately manage the global commons (e.g. soils, water, oceans, the gene pool, overfishing, and species extinction) requires a collective thinking process. It's not enough to just raise people's awareness. The people need to start thinking together as "We the People," take ultimate responsibility for the global commons and the problems our system is causing. We (a few of us) can facilitate the essential new "We the People" conversation into being.  See Transforming Global Society.
  • National society  (e.g American democracy)  ... A competition-based form of government was a good design for the 18th century. But as we become more inter-dependent, it cannot last. ... The need is to keep and enhance individual freedoms, yet also facilitate us all to work collaboratively toward shared goals. ... The Wisdom Council Process can do this. It adds a new conversation to what already exists, where we start facing our problems collaboratively in a way that empowers each person and sparks "We the People" to arise. So here's a fast, proven way facilitate the people to transcend the partisan divide, assure election quality, overcome the outsized influence of money in politics, drive away corruption, etc.
  • State-wide ... The Wisdom Council Process has already been adopted into the state constitution of Vorarlberg, the Westernmost state of Austria. There it is being used to help resolve issues like the influx of Syrian refugees and land use planning. (See examples). So we know the Wisdom Council Process can work at large scale.
  • Local towns, cities & communities ...  See the flyer for how a group of citizens (or government, or a community foundation) can facilitate the citizens of a community to get involved, face and resolve hot issues, and build the spirit of community and trust. (See examples.)
  • organizations ... e.g. The Wisdom Council Process can also be used in organizations, conferences and all sorts of human networks. (see examples:  a food co-op, a conference, corporations)
The social innovations we offer and teach are proven to work. They include:
  • Choice-creating ... is a form of thinking opposite to "decision-making". In choice-creating groups reach unanimous conclusions through creativity, while in decision-making they use judgment, often through voting.   
  • Dynamic Facilitation (DF) ...  is a way to reliably facilitate groups into the spirit of choice-creating, where they face difficult issues and achieve win/win unity about what to do.
  • The Wisdom Council Process (WCP)...  is a way to facilitate a large system of people into the spirit of choice-creating. It combines an ongoing series of randomly selected people plus Dynamic Facilitation so that the whole system (e.g. community, corporation or nation) can face and solve problems together. Here's a way to bring "the people" together as "We the People" and safely transform to "wise democracy."
  • ​Society's Breakthrough ... is when we apply the Wisdom Council Process to global and/or national society.  Here is a way to safely facilitate the ground we are standing on ... a transformation of economics and governance so that we become "collectively intelligent". 

Some illustrations 

EXAMPLE #1: State-wide ... Here's are two short videos showing how the state government of Voralberg in Austria is using the Wisdom Council Process to help citizens address and solve contentious issues, like the influx of refugees and land use planning.
EXAMPLE #2: Currently in the United States bitter political battling obliterates the possibility of collective intelligence. Most people feel excluded from democratic participation. And elected leaders often represent moneyed interests more than their constituents. How might we (just a few of us) facilitate "We the People" to come back into being?  ... where We periodically think together in the spirit of choice-creating, and reach shared conclusions? Below is a short video describing one example for how this might happen within a reality TV Show. (3.5 min video):
To understand this new-paradigm approach most people find it valuable to experience it by taking a seminar. See the seminars on  "Dynamic Facilitation."
Check out "Our Story" of how these social innovations and this whole-system strategy came about.

360.385.7118
info@wisedemocracy.org
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