My Growing Taboo Awareness (…for Wise Democracy)
Taboo uses social pressure and self-censorship to keep us from thinking, talking or behaving in ways our social group doesn’t want us …
Creative Participation of the Whole – a North Star concept
What does it mean to engage the creative participation of the whole? That aspiration is both simpler and more complex than it …
Large-scale collective sense-making processes (Sense-making – Part 5)
I’ve long advocated the use of multiple processes in public and stakeholder engagements so that synergies among them can be tapped. Recently …
Generating Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Everyone
I share with you three seemingly unrelated things that actually have everything to do with each other and all of which I …
Waking Up into Wholeness, Dialogue and Mystery (Sense-making – Part 1)
A compelling, well-reasoned essay challenges us with the idea that we actually don’t know what’s going on – ever. A colleague responds …
Making Democracies Worthy of the Name… and More
Democracy is rule of, by and for the people. There are many ways to try doing that. This message looks at a …
The butterfly of citizen deliberative democracy is emerging around the world…
Powerful elite think tanks and mainstream media are beginning to favorably notice citizen deliberative initiatives that continue to rapidly emerge and evolve …
Giving the gift of gifting
I spend a lot of time consulting and collaborating with groups working to shift social systems and cultures in major ways. I …
Can a small citizen deliberation have more impact than a giant one?
Among the many trends I see in my work on democratic innovation I highlight two here, one in Canada, one in the …
Democracy of Citizens, Democracy of Stakeholders
Some people think that democratic decisions should be made by everyone in the community or country – or their representatives. Others think …