To facilitate is a holistic change strategy ... different than top-down or bottom-up change. In the facilitative model of change, it takes only one person to raise the collective intelligence of a whole group of people. In the same way we think it's possible for just a few of us to facilitate a transformation of consciousness for global society(!) --i.e. governance, economics and culture. As facilitators we just attend to the process, helping all the people co-create what they want. For this to work, key is for the facilitative few to share certain understandings about group process, especially (i.e.just us) to learn about Dynamic Facilitation and why this is needed. ...
Are you one of facilitative few? ... 8 questions to help you know
1. Are you concerned that existential issues now threaten the collapse of our civilization?
2. Have you noticed that these existential issues seem to be "impossble-to-solve" because "normal solutions" cannot solve them?
“Normal solutions” are those our System provides (See “To solve climate change We need to … WAIT! … Who is 'We'?") ... "Normal solutions" include:
3. Do you recognize that these Monsters seem linked into and caused by an underlying "Meta-crisis" or "Human Predicament"?
4. Do you recognize that implementing Society’s Breakthrough (i.e. the global Wisdom Council Process) can "resolve" the Human Predicament .... and provide for "solving" the existential issues?
a) ... It facilitates "all of us" to address each "Monster Problem" with a new level of collective intelligence
5. Do you recognize that we, just a few of us with enough resources, can use Society’s Breakthrough to facilitate a transformation of the global System?
6. Do you recognize that time is running out? -- i.e. Implementing Society's Breakthrough at both the global and national levels? ...
7. Do you recognize that facilitating global (and national) transformation may not be that hard(!)?
8. Do you accept this "response-ability"?
- globally (e.g. climate change, species extinction, ocean acidification, L-distribution of wealth)? …
- nationally (e.g. authoritarian threats to democracy, partisan gridlock, money dominating politics)? …
2. Have you noticed that these existential issues seem to be "impossble-to-solve" because "normal solutions" cannot solve them?
“Normal solutions” are those our System provides (See “To solve climate change We need to … WAIT! … Who is 'We'?") ... "Normal solutions" include:
- individualistic answers … This set of solution strategies seeks to educate or raise the consciousness of everyone, often assuming the potential of reaching "a critical mass" of people who adopt the new culture or the new consciousness. (e.g. "We need to ..."teach critical thinking, learn non-violent communication, make choice-full purchasing decisions, adopt a particular religious belief, demonstrate in the streets, achieve "We-consciousness, etc.) ... These improve-the-existing-system answers cannot work into the future because our system cannot work in our new situation. i.e. The Tragedy of the Commons) requires ALL of us to be involved and act intelligently together.
- organizational answers… We can gather into groups, corporations, networks, etc. and act together. e.g. "We need to ..." develop new energy storage technologies; model the next System through land trusts, co-ops, and eco-villages; negotiate among stakeholder groups, etc. ... But these strategies are again limited because our System is still fundamentally a competition among special interests, not a collaboration of all to serve the whole.
- official answers … We can work through our established decision-making process, like influencing elected leaders to enact specific policies or budget priorities, or to establish rank-order voting, or enact term limits for the Supreme Court, etc. ... These strategies are also limited because our system still enforces a competition of special among interests vs a collaboration of all.
3. Do you recognize that these Monsters seem linked into and caused by an underlying "Meta-crisis" or "Human Predicament"?
- Our current System (capitalism and what we call "democracy") is designed for the North American continent of the 18th century, where we all can be in-dependent actors, where a competition among special interests will automatically yield the best collective results. But now we are increasingly inter-dependent, so the normal competition is becoming lose/lose instead of win/win. Ultimately we must shift our System to a new basis, where we all recognize that we are in this predicament together.
- In our System there is no collective thinking process. We rely on voting, which is just adding individual judgments, rather than the kind of conversation that leads to intelligent collective actions. It's like we are all embedded in a competitive Game, where the competition is destroying the park in which we are playing.
- Monster Problems like climate change and species extinction are ultimately caused by our new Situation where we are no longer independent, yet where our System assumes we are. Now, we have surpassed the ability of our planet to regenerate itself in many areas ... e.g. the atmosphere, the oceans, aquifers, wild food species, etc. So, like it or not, we are now inter-dependent. And a competitive model cannot work in that setting.
4. Do you recognize that implementing Society’s Breakthrough (i.e. the global Wisdom Council Process) can "resolve" the Human Predicament .... and provide for "solving" the existential issues?
a) ... It facilitates "all of us" to address each "Monster Problem" with a new level of collective intelligence
- Here's how we can facilitate all the people to step back and face particular Monster Problems, like climate change, creatively and collaboratively. People who think together in the spirit of choice-creating frequently generate breakthrough answers that were not seen before.l
- Voting generates a low level of collective intelligence. It is based on individual judgments, mostly without deliberation. SB adds the necessary high-quality conversation where all the people come to a new level of collective consciousness and coherent action.
- Individual-based ... e.g. SB provides a way to surmount media silos, because it facilitates “all” the people to come together around a shared version of the "truth". It's a way to generate a "critical mass" without needing a social movement. Or to spark everyone ... and the food system ... to choose a vegetarian lifestyle, etc.
- Organization-based ... e.g. SB provides a way to identify a shared vision of what we all want. So the underlying motivations of people and corporations can be directed toward serving the public interest vs. mindless consumption and maximizing of profits. It's a way to bypass corporate foot-dragging and take quick advantage of technological innovations, etc.
- Policy-based ... e.g. SB provides a way to disrupt the political battle of Special Interests and the corruption that results. It's a way to quickly identify the real problem and the “Public Interest." And set up a dynamic of collaboration more than competition. Here's how to set up a form of global governance that can responsibly manage the global commons.
- The Human Predicament arises from our old System (growth-oriented, competitive, mechanistic, reductive, etc.) and our new Situation, where we are now in Overshoot, consuming the planet faster than it can regenerate. Society's Breakthrough is a HOLUTION to the Human Predicament. Are there others?
- SB adds a special kind of conversation to the existing System, where we all stop regularly to think about our situation and make adjustments. This special conversation needs to be: "one ongoing whole-system choice-creating conversation". Just adding this conversation is a restructuring of the existing System. Once We start thinking together in a way that allows us to reach near unity on issues, we are no longer trapped inside the current competitive dynamic heading for mutual destruction.
- One feature of choice-creating is how it generates a natural valuing of the diversity of people and views. And encourages individual uniqueness.
- Eventually SB facilitates a new entity “We the People” to come into being, a global "We" powerful enough to restructure economics and governance.
5. Do you recognize that we, just a few of us with enough resources, can use Society’s Breakthrough to facilitate a transformation of the global System?
- Unlike "normal solution" strategies, which are either top-down or bottom-up, this is a facilitative strategy which is holistic in nature. In this case we (just us) can facilitate "We the People" into being as the ultimate authority of society. This changes the underlying structure of the System.
- We don't need permission to begin! Nor do we need to sell the idea to a huge mass of people first! In this strategy we just need a few people to understand this new facilitative model of change. (See the five part video seminar: Essential Wisdom for solving society's biggest problems)
- To start this process we need financial resources, people with connections, technical support, marketing help and media partners.
6. Do you recognize that time is running out? -- i.e. Implementing Society's Breakthrough at both the global and national levels? ...
- Are there other options? What else is out there that promises what's needed ... i.e. to transform the global System to a new level of collective intelligence? (e.g. This is a strategy to achieve the Third Attractor beyond dystopia or catastrophe.)
- Most of us have compartmentalized our feelings about the decline of our civilization. Of course, no one wants to accept what is happening. But the collapse of this civilization is inevitable if we don't all come together in a way that is collectively intelligent.
7. Do you recognize that facilitating global (and national) transformation may not be that hard(!)?
- We can start the process by gathering randomly selected people and DF'ing them to reach unity. And by organizing a global presentation ceremony. And by making the process ongoing. ...
- The process doesn't need to be widely known or accepted beforehand. We can just begin and let people get involved at their own pace. But with each new crisis, people will naturally seek some way to talk about what's happening through which they can impact the problem. Transformational results can come quickly when a crisis hits —like the Covid 19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, or the next climate disaster—and people seek some way to come together and help.
- All the steps of Society's Breakthrough are already proven to work at large scale!!
- Each step is a benefit to society. e.g. educating people about issues, bringing them together in a new sense of global community, achieving breakthrough insights, bridging political divides, facilitating new clarity, breaking down media silos, etc.
- Where is the risk? ... It's hard to find. We are just adding a new voluntary conversation to what we already have.
8. Do you accept this "response-ability"?
- Obviously, with no risk and such immense benefit to be achieved at the global scale. This must happen.
- Are you willing to help?
- One key is to recognize and explore the wholly different way of thinking that is being presented in this website ... choice-creating vs. decision-making. And to try to hold the distinctions in talking to people about this new approach, how the "Wisdom Council Process" is distinct from other "citizen involvement processes", and how Dynamic Facilitation is a higher form of "facilitation".