The Center for Wise Democracy


The Center for Wise Democracy has developed some exciting social innovations, which make it possible to solve many of today's most pressing public issues—global climate change, diminished economic viability, failing education, loss of community, citizen apathy, prejudice, terrorism, poverty, exorbitant health care costs, excessive partisanship, breakdown of families, wars, etc.

The four social innovations are: Dynamic Facilitation, Choice-creating, the Wisdom Council Process, and the Creative Insight Council. All are being tested by governments, citizen groups, and organizations— and they work!

Three key resources for understanding are:
1) ARTICLE of explanation: "WISE DEMOCRACY: A strategy for involving the citizens, transcending partisanship, and solving impossible public issues"

2) AUDIO: "Wisdom of the Circle," Interview of Jim Rough by Jarett Sanchez on "the next step" Oct 27, 2009

3) VIDEO: "Democracy in America," by Joseph McCormick, describing the first public Wisdom Council experiment in 1993 (22 min)

Let's turn the switch to facilitate Wise Democracy.

How you can help


1) Learn more! Come to one of our seminars on Dynamic Facilitation. Test the process for yourself.

2) Become a member. Advocate it for your community! Help get the word out.

3) Donate to the Center for Wise Democracy! ... All donations are tax-deductible. We are a 501-c3 organization. See the half-hour video on "Hi-leverage Philanthropy" with DeAnna Martin and Jim Rough.

News!

• In March 2010 Jim and Jean Rough held a 5-day training for 40 government people and consultants in Austria, each of whom will be working with cities on experimenting with the Wise Democracy approach. Over the next two years, the European Institute for Public Participation will be assessing the results of these experiments.

• In Victoria BC the City chose to partner with Wise Democracy Victoria to conduct two Citizen Insight Councils.

Previous examples

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

a) Port Townsend WA (A class of high school students from the alternative school convened a series of "Wisdom Councils" for the voters of the town) See a video about the first Community Meeting. (30 min)
(The student group.)

b) Victoria British Columbia. George Sranko and Caspar Davis initiated Wise Democracy Victoria A group of citizen activists established and held three Wisdom Councils for the city. Now the City Council is interested.

c) Dr. Manfred Hellrigl and the people of the Office of Future Related Issues in Vorarlberg, Austria have been experimenting with the Wisdom Council Process and the Creative insight Council in cities there. See a documentation of experiments (in German). One experiment in the town of Wolfurt won a national award!). Hear Dr. Hellrigl and Jim Rough discuss the Wise Democracy approach (4/16/09). Also see Dr. Hellrigl's short article.


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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RESOURCES

  1. Jim Rough Show video interviews:

    •Learn more about Wise Democracy:
    - 121-Overview of Wise Democracy with guest DeAnna Martin
    - 103-Overcoming Society's Crisis guest host Dan Shaw
    - 106-We the People of Earth guest host William Bass
    - 119-Citizen Involvement for Solving Big Issues guest host Ruth
    Gordon
    - Hi-leverage Philanthropy guest host DeAnna Martin

    •Consider how this strategy will affect Impossible-seeming issues :
    - Overcoming War guest host Darlene Durfey
    - Environment: The Great Turning Presentation by Jim Rough
    - Corporate dominance of our system guest host Paul Everett
    - 109-Social Injustice guest host David Whitfield
    - 96-Healing Global Warming with Kees Kolf and Sam Gibbony, etc.

    • Many Social innovations complement the Wise Democracy strategy:
    - 114-World Cafe with Nancy Margulies
    - 115-Sociocracy with John Buck
    - 116-Open Space Technology with Peggy Holman
    - 23-Non Violent Communication with Jorge Rubio
    - 47-Economics of Henry George with Jeff Smith & Tom Grecko
    - POCLAD with Mary Zeppernick
    - Adlerian Psychology with Robert Powers
    - Reuniting America with Joseph McCormick
    - Citizen Inititative Review with Ned Crosby and Pat Benn
    - 59-Corporate Monitoring Project with Mark Latham,
    - Citizen Deliberation with John Gastil,
    - 75-Alliance for Democracy with Dave Lewit and Ignacio Castuera
    - 117-Engaging Emergence with Peggy Holman

    • Key in this approach is Dynamic Facilitation:- Dynamic Faciliation guest host Marcia Perlstein
    - 98-Choice-creating guest host Paul Everett
    - Early Historyof Dynamic Facilitation guest host Paul Everett
    - DF and Healing Trauma with Dr. Bart Blinder
    etc.
    - 121-Terminology of Dynamic Facilitation guest host DeAnna Martin
    - 91-Empowerment guest host Linda Showler

    — Plus more
  2. Key article as published in "The Life Connection" (2010): "Wise Democracy: A strategy for involving citizens, transcending partisanship, and solving impossible public issues" by Jim Rough

  3. Key Audios: The Next Step Podcast with Jarett Sanchez

    • Rosa Zubizaretta on Dynamic Facilitation, May 25, 2009,

    • Jim Rough on "Wisdom of the Circle," Oct 27, 2009
    (This audio lays out the vision and possibilities of Dynamic Facilitation, the Wisdom Council, Circle Organization, Creative Insight Council, etc.)

  4. ODN 09 Presentation: Wisdom Council: A Tool to Create a We the People ... by Jim Rough and DeAnna Martin

  5. 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 Botswana (Matlho Kgosi - 4/12/06)

    Selected OUTCOMES of the WISDOM COUNCIL
    1) Personal empowerment (Linda Showler, N.D., 8/14/06)
    2) Transforming 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) 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)
  6. Key BOOKS describing the Wisdom Council Process

    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.
  7. More articles:

    a) Transforming the Public Conversation ... by Jim Rough

    b) An Experimental Framework for Community Democracy ... by Richard K. Moore

    c) A Rebirth of 'We the People' ... by Jim Rough

  8. 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.
  9. See More resources
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