Process & Participation
May 15, 2008
I had an interesting conversation about choice today with my friend and colleague Adin Rogovin. We noticed that increased choice may increase or decrease happiness. Choice -- seen by most people as supporting happiness -- can be overwhelming, or false, or of poor quality. Lack of choice -- normally thought of as a source of unhappiness -- can make life simple, supporting happiness if one's life situation is otherwise satisfying. (And, of course, there is the variable of one's choice of attitude about life. Openhearted acceptance of "what is" supports happiness, while fighting it can generate suffering. But this is another totally separate variable.)
If we deconstruct choice into its components -- creating options, recognizing them, identifying a "right" option, and then selecting it -- we open up a whole other area of evolutionary inquiry.
Continue reading "Reflections on the evolution of choice and collective intelligence"
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday May 15 2008
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May 08, 2008
A few days ago I stumbled on a new model for whole-system intelligence inspired by some work my friend Peggy Holman is doing with Journalism that Matters. These journalists are reexamining the kinds of stories they tell and their role in democracy, especially in light of how the rise of bloggers and other citizen journalists challenges mainstream media. Journalism that Matters is trying to revision that challenge into a create leap for the whole field.
I suspect this model is a draft and will shift over the coming months. This original version takes the form of four overlapping circles -- INFORMATION, CONVERSATION, VISION, and ACTION -- arranged in a circle such that they flow round and round to generate collective intelligence -- an iterative, creative, collective learning cycle. Here's how it goes:
Continue reading "Whole System Learning and Evolution -- and the New Journalism"
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday May 8 2008
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July 15, 2005
Juanita Brown's The World Cafe: Shaping our Futures through Conversations that Matter (Berrett-Koehler 2005) is a profoundly insightful and richly practical book, designed for evolutionary times. For me, it is already a classic.
One expects it to be a book about one conversational practice, The World Café, written by its co-founder. It is. And it isn't.
What it is -- most of all -- is an exploration of the power of conversations that matter -- ALL conversations that matter. It is also an exploration of the conditions under which questions that matter can be deeply and productively explored.
Continue reading "Conversations That Shape the Future: A Review of THE WORLD CAFE"
posted by Tom Atlee on Friday July 15 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005
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July 04, 2005
All forms of dialogue and deliberation serve our evolution into a culture of dialogue. Part of that evolution is the increased legitimacy and empowerment of forms that call forth more of society's collective intelligence and wisdom. As new forms of dialogue and deliberation demonstrate their effectiveness, they can be increasingly trusted by citzens and officials, and thus can (and should) become increasingly embedded in the institutions of social policy-making.
The increasing sophistication of dialogue and deliberation methodologies over the past two decades, combined with increasingly sophisticated communication and knowledge-management systems, as well as the spread of holistic philosophies and spiritual practices, suggests that we are rapidly increasing our ability to generate collective intelligence and wisdom through well-designed communications. We now face the task of bringing that capacity into the public trust and into official practice.
To clarify part of that developmental trajectory, we can map a spectrum (below) that reflects the growing empowerment and legitimization of citizen dialogue and deliberation. We can start with a category that embraces all types and qualities of such conversations and public engagements -- the ecosystem, if you will, of democratic discourse within which diverse species of dialogue and deliberation interact and evolve.
Continue reading "A Spectrum of Politics and Governance Grounded in Empowered Citizen Dialogue and Deliberation"
posted by Tom Atlee on Monday July 4 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005
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Reflections on the evolution of choice and collective intelligence
May 15, 2008
Whole System Learning and Evolution -- and the New Journalism
May 08, 2008
Conversations That Shape the Future: A Review of THE WORLD CAFE
July 15, 2005
A Spectrum of Politics and Governance Grounded in Empowered Citizen Dialogue and Deliberation
July 04, 2005
Scripture-based Deliberations on Public Policy?
June 25, 2005
Australia's Amazing Conference (and Work) on Deliberative Innovations
June 19, 2005
Further Info on New BC Voting System Initiative
May 22, 2005
Growing Together at the Emerging Edge of Evolution
May 22, 2005
New Voting System in British Columbia Wins and Loses
May 19, 2005
The Evolutionary Role of Citizen Deliberation
May 11, 2005
A Citizens' Consensus Conference on Nanotechnology in Wisconsin
May 04, 2005
Citizen Journalism vs Framing Issues for Deliberation
May 01, 2005
Brad Blanton's Campaign and the Transformation of Democracy
April 28, 2005
Tom Atlee Radio Interview May 1, 2005
April 14, 2005
Faux Majorities and Supermajorities
April 12, 2005
Power of Silence
September 05, 2004
Community Intelligence Resources
September 05, 2004
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