2) Solving NATIONAL issues

The U.S. has "Monster Problems"

"Monster Problems" are existential issues that seem impossible-to-solve but which must be solved. A short list of national Monster Problems are:

Increasing polarization, media silos, separate versions of "truth," lack of shared vision;
Radicalized people, conspiracy theories, rage without evidence, calling for violence, lack of listening;
Pandemic mismanagement, government mandates, distrust of science, Covid variants;
L-shaped distribution of wealth and power, U.S. as an oligarchy, poverty, homelessness;
Increased corruption, special interests dominating the public interest, legal bribery of politicians;
Unraveling of public institutions —threatened autocracy, fake news, runaway Supreme Court, foreign manipulation of elections, breakdown of the rule of law, threats to voting rights, captured agencies/revolving doors for executives, etc.
Poor collective thinking, partisan gridlock in Congress, avoiding the BIG issues, threatened loss of democracy, massive need for governmental reform;
Declining trust in elections, the courts, government and one another; loss of the spirit of community;
Systemic racism, mysogyny, prejudice, violence directed at minorities;
Destruction of the commons ... e.g. aquifers, forests, trust in one another, spirit of community;
Our system is destroying our people ... e.g. money comes first, our food system builds unhealthy bodies and destroys soils, encouraging over-consumption, people are stuck without good options;
.... and many more

Our System is causing these Monsters

Our System no longer fits our Situation. The U.S. Constitution may be the greatest social invention of all time. It is the underpinning for the national System in the U.S and much of the developed world. It structures how we think, talk and make collective decisions. It establishes "the rules of the game" and sets up competition as the basis of our governance, economics and culture.... While this was a vital step for humankind our collective situation has changed. Today we are more inter-dependent than in-dependent. So a competitive structure starts to break down ... from being win/win to being lose/lose.

Most people think there are only two viable Systems by which a large society can organize itself, autocracy and a "democracy" . Or what we call the "Triangle" and the "Box". The ultimate authority in the Triangle System is some "Great Leader," to whom we owe undying loyalty. In the Box System we are loyal to the Social Contract, Constitution or Rules of the Game instead. But now the Game itself is destroying our planet, our nation, our people, etc. We are no longer just individuals free to pursue personal happiness (e.g. profits) trusting that collective intelligence will result. No. Just as it makes no sense to have the cells of one body compete for blood, more importantly, we must have a System that supports us to cooperate.

What's needed is for all of us to step back periodically, to face the Monster Problems respectfully and creatively together, and to reach near unity about what is the real problem and what to do about it. That is, we need a "We the People" conversation similar to the one that the founding generation of the U.S. enjoyed ADDED to what we already have. And if this new "We the People" moments of conversation are structured to continue, then we would be living in a new System— the Circle, or what we call "Wise Democracy." In a "Wise Democracy" we are all part of "We the People," ultimately in charge seeking what's best for everyone.

What is your wish for America?

Please, make the biggest wish you can for American society. Then look at the "Monster Wish" below. We think the Monster Wish will encompasses your wish and is achievable through The ToBe Project.

I wish ... . .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Monster Wish

Good news: We think this Wish is realizable within 8 years! See The ToBe Project.

That we (just us) can convene a national conversation where “all” the people come together respectfully; face Monster Problems like purchased politicians, media silos, homelessness and corporate values; co-create shared perspectives on what is really going on, what we want, and what we need to do; where this new creative collaborative "We the People" conversation achieves breakthrough progress on each Monster; where "We" provide wise leadership to government, corporations and the culture so that needed changes happen in both distributed and collective ways; where this new conversation is ongoing so that it becomes part of the underlying structure of our society, assuring a new form of governance (i.e. Wise Democracy), a new form of economics and a new culture; and where individuals gain achieve new levels of awareness, understanding, consciousness, empowerment, healing and freedom.

The ToBe Project —8 steps to facilitate the "Monster Wish" into being

The ToBe Project are the 8 steps required to establish a national Wisdom Council Process. And to facilitate all the people to come together as
"We the People." Originally, we thought a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was needed to set things up. (See The Wise Democracy Amendment.) This approach was described in the 2002 book, Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People. But since then we've discovered that ordinary people with enough resources can convene a legitimate "We the People" into being. And that a likely result of the ToBe Project would be a Constitutional Amendment.

The ToBe Project is aimed at convening a new all-inclusive national conversation and FACILITATING it in a way that "all of us" think collaboratively and creatively together as "We the People." Just the existence of this new entity in addition to the current constitutional republic is the missing ingredient to making our system a true democracy and a "Wise Democracy." In summary form, here are the eight steps. For more details see The ToBe Project

Gather "Just Us" and adequate resources
Identify the first Monster Problem to address
Randomly select 10 to 16 people
Use Dynamic Facilitation to reliably evoke the spirit of "choice-creating" in each Wisdom Council
Convene a live "global community" meeting where the Wisdom Council presents the story of its journey & unified conclusions
Structure this process of global Wisdom Councils to be ongoing
Provide for the new whole-system conversation to include everyone
Provide ways for all to learn more about this holistic model of change, especially the mode of thinking (i.e. choice-creating) and our way to reliably evoke it (i.e. Dynamic Facilitation)

Note: There is no identifiable down side to this strategy. We are just adding the new, missing "We the People" conversation to what we already have. Every bit of this is voluntary. We just start facing Monster Problems one at a time, achieve breakthrough answers and wise collective action. Plus because this new added public conversation is ongoing, it is a structural change to our System. "We the People" is not just a set of words pretending that the people are in charge ... currently they aren't. Nor is it just the set of people in the 18th Century who designed and approved the U.S. Constitution. Rather it's the missing ingredient today, keeping us from being a "Wise Democracy," with the collective intelligence to manage the Monster Problems.

How does this work?

Society's Breakthrough is based on a set of social innovations, which allow us to facilitate the particular kind of conversation required for a legitimate national "We the People" to arise. The necessary magical-seeming form of conversation is choice-creating, by which people can solve impossible-seeming issues and reliably reach wise unity in difficult settings. Dynamic Facilitation is a way to reliably evoke chore-creating in small groups. And theWisdom Council Process is how we can spark choice-creating in large systems of people. Society's Breakthrough is the application of the Wisdom Council Process to the nation (and/or to the world).

How does adding this new conversation change anything?
The benefits from this process are immense as can be seen from rereading the Monster Wish. It's a way that we all can come together as "We the People" to achieve breakthrough progress on Monster Problems. And, it's a way to involve everyone in transforming our System so it works for all and stops creating more Monsters.

To understand more about how the Wisdom Council Process can achieve the Monster Wish please see the 5-part video series "Essential Wisdom for solving society's biggest problems".

Trans-partisan video

Below is a short 9 min video briefly describing the national Wisdom Council Process. This talk was given on 1/25/17 to the Democrats of Spokane WA, just after the installation of Donald J. Trump as President of the U.S. Because this strategy is "trans-partisan", this talk could just as easily been given to Republicans.

Achieving the Monster Wish provides for solving the Monster Problems

Let's check back on the Monster Problems listed earlier ...

Increasing polarization, information silos, separate versions of "truth," no shared vision; ... The National Wisdom Council Process facilitates a new kind of public conversation where people naturally listen to one another and co-determine "what is truth", "what we want", "how to get there" ... So just implementing the new conversation is the solution to these mis-information silos.
Radicalized people, conspiracy theories, rage without evidence, calling for violence lack of listening ... Choice-creating, is a healing process where people listen to diverse voices and co-create a shared perspective. In the process people reawaken critical thinking, systems thinking and creative thinking so that the radicalization process is muted.
Pandemics, excess government mandates, distrust of science, Covid variants ... Our System focuses on individual freedoms with little regard for the collective need. Here's a way to maintain and enhance individual freedoms while we all face and co-determine what is the best for all. It's "We the People" talking things over creatively and collaboratively, co-creating a shared strategy for addressing both collective and individual needs and then providing responsible leadership to government going forward. This beyond government mandates, to where we all figure things out together and oversee the implementation of our strategy.
L-curve distribution of wealth and power, U.S. as an oligarchy, poverty, homelessness ... Our current System is like the game of Monopoly: One player wins everything. Everyone else loses. What's missing is the spirit of national collaboration and community that makes the current mal-distribution of wealth deeply embarrassing. One aspect of addressing this issue is to facilitate a change in the game-mentality, where we voluntarily stop trying to win as much as we can ... and shift to a collaborative problem-solving mentality.
Increasing corruption, special interests dominating the public interest, purchased politicians, bribery ... There is no sense of the "Public Interest" in our current System. It's just a competition of Special Interests. But Society's Breakthrough creates the missing voice of "We the People" and a clear expression of the Public Interest. It's a new management System, beyond capitalism, where more primarily we seek to realize the shared vision.
Unraveling of public institutions —threatened autocracy, fake news, runaway Supreme Court rulings, foreign manipulation of elections, breakdown of the rule of law, threats to voting rights, captured agencies/revolving doors for executives, etc. ... Society's Breakthrough establishes a new collective thinking capability and a new public institution, "We the People", which is ongoing. This provides a way that We can establish trustworthy public institutions and reshape our social contract.
Partisan gridlock, avoiding the BIG issues, politicians incapable of agreeing, threatened loss of democracy ... Quality leadership cannot come from within the partisan battle. A way to transcend the partisan battle is to enlist the participation of all people in a creative endeavor, solving real problems. This is a higher form of democracy, what we call "Wise Democracy." Here we face the Monster Problems one at a time, reach unity and provide responsible direction to elected officials, the marketplace and the culture.
Declining trust in government, elections, the courts and one another; loss of the spirit of community ... When the people face difficult problems and come together on what's needed, this builds trust. Here's a way that "We the People" of the 21st century can take responsibility for our System and institutions back from an 18th century "We the People" that is currently in charge. Now, in unity, we can start designing a 21st century system.
Systemic racism, mysogyny, prejudice, violence directed at minorities ... Our current System is rooted in "decision-making", which literally means "cutting away" ... e.g. a judging process that "cuts away" the minority. On the other hand an ongoing national choice-creating conversation sets up a system of valuing diversity. In choice-creating minority voices are necessary to achieve creative shifts and breakthroughs.
Destruction of the commons ... e.g. aquifers, forests, trust in government, spirit of community ... The Tragedy of the Commons happens because we are structured to be self-interested parties taking from the commons, with essentially no provision for the well-being of the whole. Society's Breakthrough restructures our System so that we all meet to consider the well-being of the commons and to responsibly manage it.
Our system is destroying our people ... e.g. special interests and making money comes first, our food system builds unhealthy bodies and destroys soils, pursuit of over-consumption ... Together we are all riding in an airplane on auto-pilot, heading toward a mountain. We are stuck in a System that is forcing us to over-consume. And increasingly people know it, and feel the desperation of our situation. With Society's Breakthrough "We" can check in on our situation and our 18th century system. And make adjustments. Here's a way all of us can get involved in making real headway.
etc.

Additional benefits!

Society's Breakthrough can achieve even more positive benefits:

We shift our thinking ... from a basis in judgment (decision-making) to a basis in creativity (i.e. choice-creating), from an emphasis on self-aggrandizement to service.
We shift from a "constitutional republic" to being a "Wise Democracy" ... where "We the People" are ultimately in charge.
We heal deep divisions and trauma ... Choice-creating is a trauma-healing conversation. (See the archived video "Healing Trauma and Dynamic Facilitation" 2009)
We start aligning our actions with our values ... e.g. to reshape our budget priorities
We structure our society so that jobs have real meaning ... e.g. our current system structures things so that profits are actually more primary than saving our democracy. This would reverse that.
We shift our economics from capitalism to "ToBe-ism". This doesn't replace capitalism but just adds the missing human element, where we are primarily pursuing a shared vision and collaborating to achieve it.
etc.

This process already works at large scale

This short (5 min) video (in English) describes one national Wisdom Council experiment in Germany. Note: German-speaking governments refer to the Wisdom Council as "Bürgerat" (i.e."Civic Council").

Civic Council Project 2016 - German Ministry for the Environment - BMUB from Martin Rausch on Vimeo.

Note also ...

1) During the years 1993 to 2002, we thought a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was needed to establish a legitimate "We the People" for the nation. This "Citizens Amendment" was the focus of the 2002 book by Jim Rough: "Society's Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People". ... But after 20+ years of experiments and adoptions of the Wisdom Council Process, especially by governments in Europe, we now know that the "magic sauce" for establishing a legitimate "We the People" lies in our ability to facilitate "choice-creating" at large scale. It's still important that this change be institutionalized in the Constitution. But the need for it, a Wise Democracy Amendment, should emerge naturally from the Wisdom Councils.

2) It is difficult to find any risk to this strategy. Basically, we just gather a small number of random people and dynamically facilitate them over a couple days. They give a presentation and they go away. Then in a few months a new random group is gathered and the process is repeated. Where is the risk in that? ... But obviously since this simple process promises to transforms the System, just hearing the idea can seem risky. The real risk is to assume that we can continue to operate in the existing System with little provision for "collective intelligence."

Additional resources

Video Seminar (5-parts): "Essential Wisdom for Solving Society's Biggest Essential Wisdom Issues
Article: 'A Rebirth of 'We the People', Jim Rough, The Good Society, Penn State University Press, Volume 13, Number 2, 2004 pp 44-48
Video: ... Healing Polarization in Society (4min)
Handout ... "How to Fix America ... And Become a Real Democracy"
Chart: Seven strategies to achieve the "Ideal of Democracy" in America
Short video on “How to reform democracy”
Book (2002) “Society’s Breakthrough! Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People”