Types of Civic Dialogue Continued

Deliberation, Public
This means that citizens are considering an issue carefully, hearing many sides and considering various possible outcomes and trade-offs, in an effort to come to useful public judgment about how the issue should be addressed. This is the core of deliberative democracy. See www.co-intelligence.org/deliberation.html.

Deliberative Polling
Hundreds of citizens are surveyed about an issue and then study it and deliberate about it. They are then polled again. Repeated demonstrations of this type have shown that people's views on an issue change when they have a chance to learn and think about all sides of it. See www.la.utexas.edu/research/delpol.

Dialogue
Increasingly this term is used to describe conversation in which participants all feel heard so they can actually learn and/or accomplish things together. Another definition: Shared exploration towards greater understanding, relationship and/or possibility. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-dialogue.html which, among other things, provides a useful list comparing dialogue and debate.

Dynamic Facilitation (DF)
An open-ended and highly creative process grounded in the power of people feeling really heard and following where their interest and energy take them, rather than a pre-established agenda. Groups are helped to wrestle creatively with difficult problems such that they often stumble into truly innovative insights and solutions together. DF includes a potent reframing of conflicts as concerns. It is most powerfully applied to community, state or national affairs in the form of Wisdom Councils. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-dynamicfacilitation.html

Intergroup Dialogue
People from different social identity groups meet for a series of meetings designed to help participants gain a deeper understanding of diversity and justice issues. See www.campus-adr.org/CMHER/ReportResources/Edition2_2/Intergroup2_2.html

Let's Talk America
Local citizens join in a bridge-building conversation about democracy and civic concerns using Conversation Cafe and simple guidelines for hosts and participants. See www.letstalkamerica.org

Listening Circle
A group of 3-30 (and sometimes more) people sit in a circle and take turns “speaking from the heart.” Usually the speaker holds an object (a “talking stick,” a stone, even a stapler) and, when done speaking, passes the object to the person on their left, who may then speak. There is no cross talk or interruptions. If a number of rounds are done, the dialogue tends to deepen. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-listeningcircles.html

Listening Project
Trained interviewers canvass a community with questions designed to engage people with community or national issues. The role of the interviewers is to listen well. People change during the interviews, often getting involved in addressing the issues they discussed. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-listeningpjts.html

Multiple-Viewpoint Drama
What does a public issue look like when you see all sides in their raw, dramatic expression? Anna Deavere Smith created two monologue docudramas acting out the actual statements of people she interviewed who were associated with riots in Los Angeles and New York City. This could make the human complexity of any issue more real to decision-makers and citizens in their deliberations. See www.co-intelligence.org/S-multipleviewptdrama.html

Nonviolent Communication
A process through which one person can empathize with the needs underlying another’s reactions and seek ways those needs can be served that satisfy everyone involved. It can be done in group settings, but even that usually involves working one-on-one. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-nonviolentcomm.html

Open Forums
Arny Mindell believes that the solutions to our conflicts and problems lie in the heart of the disturbances we try so hard to avoid, and we can find them there through a process that encourages all the voices involved to really speak to each other, and really be heard. See www.democracyinnovations.org/openforums.html and Mindell’s The Deep Democracy of Open Forums.

Planning Cells
Numerous simultaneous 25-person Citizen Deliberative Councils (cells), all addressing the same subject. Participants spend much of their time in five-person subgroups. The cells’ diverse final statements get integrated into one “Citizens’ Report.” Pioneered in Germany.
See www.planet-thanet.fsnet.co.uk/groups/wdd/99_planning_cells.htm

Public Conversation Project
Pro-life and Pro-choice activists shared their stories, beliefs and concerns in non-polarized dialogues sponsored by some family systems therapists, and achieved remarkable mutual understandings. The method has since been used with polarized environmental stakeholders and other groups. See www.publicconversations.org

Scenario and Visioning Work
A broad category of methods for creating shared visions or carefully considering different possible futures. Evidence suggests that looking into the future is one of the healthiest, most powerful things any group or community can do. See www.co-intelligence.org/P-scenario-visioning.html

Search for Common Ground
Get people on opposite sides of a polarized issue to debate each other — but with a twist: they have to "mirror" back to each other what the other said before they can reply. While clarifying their differences, they discover they share a lot more than they thought -— and sometimes come up with projects to do together! See www.sfcg.org

Salons
Informal, often regular gatherings of friends (or people in someone’s network) for high quality conversation about things they care about, often over food and drink, or tea or coffee, often in someone’s home. See The Joy of Conversation: The Complete Guide to Salons by Jaida n’ha Sandra and the editors of Utne magazine.

Study Circle
Ordinary people get together once or twice a week to study public issues together, explore what they think should be done about them and, often, take action together. Study Circles are often woven into broadly inclusive community programs around issues like race, police relations, and so on, which sponsor dozens or hundreds of simultaneous Study Circles and bring together all participants at the conclusion of the program. See www.studycircles.org

The World Cafe
Dozens or hundreds of people show up for a conversation about a topic that matters to them. They sit around separate tables (4-5 to a table) and, after 20-40 minutes of talking, they move to different tables to continue the conversation. After a few rounds of this, a lot of interesting ideas will have arisen and moved around the room. Highlights can be harvested in a final session all together. Co-Intelligence Institute www.theworldcafe.com

 

 Sample Questions