A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community By Adam Russell Taylor Recommended by: Bob Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Thinking about alternatives is an important part of the One Million Rising training. In the words of the president of Sojourners, Adam Russell Taylor, whom I heard speak recently, to build a “more perfect union,” we need to be focusing on three priorities: Blocking, Bridging, and Building. We are focused a lot on Blocking bad things happening, but have little power to do that. In the future, we can work on Bridging, but that will take a very long time and will entail millions of one-on-one relationships.
Here are some sources of ideas from a podcast by Baratunde Thurston, which began in 2020 and has four seasons of episodes. The overall theme is encouraging thinking about “citizen” as a verb. The four pillars for doing this are:
To participate, not just vote, but to show up for each other and publicly participate by discussing concerns, debating policy choices, advocating, etc.
To invest in relationships, by deepening our interconnections with our community, family, neighbors, etc..
To understand power, by learning about the fluidity of power and the various ways we the people can use it for our collective benefit.
To value the collective, by working towards outcomes that benefit the many, not just the few.
The four seasons of episodes (ranging from 11 to 16 episodes each season) consist of interviews with folks who are thinking about and demonstrating democracy-building activities. It’s a wonderful resource for ideas. They include international, national, statewide, and local leaders.
Recommended by: Bob B. – “Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, provides services and training for those wishing to transform conflict into collaboration.”
In a country marred by deep conflict, city, county, and state officials face mounting pressure to engage diverse stakeholders in resolving contentious and complex public policy issues. The Convergence Learning Lab’s training and consultation services empower leaders with the necessary skills to bridge these divides resulting in more productive public meetings, more constructive community engagement, and, ultimately, better outcomes for constituents.
Lab services are built on our unique, evidence-based collaborative problem-solving methodology which has been used to successfully address seemingly intractable political, social, organizational, and community-based issues.
Our process has proven consistently successful at producing the kinds of results that drive impact.
Convergence’s success offers a beacon of hope for the majorities of Americans frustrated by divisiveness that change is not only possible, but that we have the tools and the knowledge to bridge even the starkest divides with consistency. In addition, our success highlights the rich set of tools, practices, and resources that others can use to achieve similar successes.
We select issues that are ripe and amenable for Convergence and stakeholder-participants to collaboratively “unstick,” and frame a discussion-onramp to the issue that is both crucial and disarming.
We convene diverse tables of participant leaders and doers, many of whom oppose each other so stridently they never thought they could talk to one another.
We facilitate participants to build trust, find common ground. Participants abide by a set of ground rules including honoring all points of view, respecting the confidentiality of the conversation, and listening carefully when others speak.
We generate consensus solutions collaboratively among dialogue participants through establishing guiding principles that create a framework for the policy discussions to come. Once stakeholders are aligned on a bigger vision, they are ready to work together to produce new ideas and solutions.
We deliver societal impact and on-the-ground implementation of the solutions. By design, a Convergence project strives to engage stakeholders to take action on their ideas after the dialogue stage is completed, or in some instances, even while the dialogue is going on. Convergence itself does not formally endorse stakeholders’ proposals – it remains policy neutral – but often plays a stewarding role to maximize the impact stakeholders can achieve.
Bringing people together across divides to tackle today’s toughest challenges
Recommended by: Bob B. – “(NCDD), a nonprofit membership organization that maintains a database of collaborative organizations around the world.”
What We’re All About
The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) is a network of innovators who bring people together across divides to discuss, decide, and take action together effectively on today’s toughest issues. NCDD serves as a gathering place, a resource center, a news source, and a facilitative leader for this vital community of practice.
Dialogue and deliberation are innovative processes that help people come together across differences to tackle our most challenging problems. In a time when we are increasingly told how divided we are in so many ways in our nation and in our world, teaching, spreading, and supporting the skills of dialogue and deliberation are vital.
The NCDD website is a clearinghouse for literally thousands of resources and best practices, and our highly participatory national and regional conferences have brought together more nearly 3,000 practitioners, community leaders, public administrators, researchers, activists, teachers and students since 2002. We keep in touch monthly with 28,000 people involved in public engagement and conflict resolution work.
Above all, NCDD provides opportunities for members of the broadly-defined dialogue and deliberation (“D&D”) community to share knowledge, inspire one another, build collaborative relationships, and have a greater collective impact.
Below you’ll find our contact info, mission, details about our membership, and more. You can also read the full story of NCDD’s beginnings and learn about the NCDD team. And, of course, if this resonates with you, please consider becoming a member or making a donation to NCDD!
Why did the Coalition form?
NCDD exists to support the growing “dialogue and deliberation community” — a broadly-defined community of practice involving practitioners, scholars, activists, public officials, nonprofit leaders, process geeks, students, and others who engage and mobilize people to come together and strengthen understanding of each other and issues in ways that supports community-building and collaborative problem-solving.NCDD was formed in 2002 in response to a clear need for an infrastructure for learning and collaboration among those who approach D&D from a variety of disciplines, including public policy, social work, communication, education, social justice, social activism, and organizational development. The Coalition was a result of the first National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation, held near Washington, DC in October 2002.
NCDD is an educational organization and a Community of Practice. Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain or topic area. In other words, communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
Our members make up the core of our community of practice. As of January 2021, the Coalition’s membership has grown to include 700 organizations and individuals. Our website visitors, social media group members, conference attendees, and over
28,000 newsletter subscribers are also part of this ever-growing community of practice.
