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About the Seminar
Topics from the Seminar Jim Rough, Instructor Other Jim Rough & Assoc., Inc. |
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Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
By Jim Rough
Imagine you are participating in a national body called a "Citizens’ Wisdom Council". The first one was started recently after the passage of the Citizens’ Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. You and 23 other randomly chosen registered voters have met for a week, and soon will disband. As you deliberated, a facilitator helped you ensure that your proceedings were collaborative, open-minded, and creative, and that every Council member’s viewpoint was heard and respected. You wait in anticipation of the closing event when your unanimous conclusions are read to the whole country.
Imagine that you are excited because the first several such Wisdom Councils resulted in a country wide discussion of a new quality. People spoke on issues from the heart. They listened to and respected each other. Even the reports on the television news were unprecedented in their depth and openness to new ideas. You aren’t surprised. This is exactly what you experienced in the last week. You were pleasantly surprised as 24 strangers of differing political, religious, economic and ethnic backgrounds went from stating their positions to speaking of their hopes and dreams for the country, from speaking in halting phrases, to speaking from the heart. Now, your non-binding words will be added to the developing history of "Statements of the People" resulting from this process, and will lead to voluntary discussions in a wide range of forums across the country.
If you find anything moving about this description, you have something important in common with Jim Rough’s new book "Society’s Breakthrough". Based upon his experience in helping people achieve break through conclusions and creative approaches to seemingly intractable problems in settings from saw mills to city government to Boards of Directors, Jim is proposing a visionary way of changing the quality of the dialogue in our country. I’ve been trained in his method, Dynamic Facilitation, and used it. I’ve seen it work in business teams. Thus, Jim’s vision of a Citizen’s Wisdom Council is rooted in a tested facilitation method. That is one of my personal criteria for taking a visionary idea seriously.
Another thing is that Jim takes a "both/and" approach. He sees the value of various approaches to what he calls "Big Truth" processes. I see the Wisdom Council idea as adding at least two important features. First, that the Citizens Wisdom Council will serve the function of changing the character of dialogue about society’s’ problems from sorting out different positions, to finding new, creative choices. Second, that a non-coercive and thoughtful outcome from the Citizen’s Council will spark a corresponding change in society as a whole.
Finally, Jim doesn’t present this as an all or nothing proposition. He calls on us to try it out in our local organization, workplace, corporation or community. This is a prescription for success, in my opinion. As people become familiar with the method where they live, the idea for the Citizen’s Amendment becomes more practical. He proposes Wisdom Councils for every large organization where it just isn’t possible to get everyone into the room together at one time.
I like the way this book is written. I found it interesting to read and well organized. From beginning to end, I feel that Jim has done an excellent job of laying out his proposal. I felt he addressed all of my questions by the ending, and still kept me wanting more. The "more" I’m wanting will come in putting this idea into practice.
I urge you to read this book for yourself. What are the challenges you see facing our country? People of many different political and religious persuasions have identified their dissatisfaction with the state of our democracy. What are your hopes and dreams for our still young experiment in government of, by and for the people? Jim’s ideas are a challenge to the cynicism of "conventional wisdom" that says things can’t be any different, and a call to action that offers both small steps and a vision of large scale change. It is an invitation to live by our deeply held values. At the very least you will come away from this book with a new way of addressing problems wherever you live and work. You can get further information on this book and Jim’s seminars at http://www.tobe.net.
Sterling Newberry is an independent conflict management consultant. He helps teams find creative solutions to knotty problems, and organizations to develop the potential of key employees, get more value from current personnel and increase employee satisfaction, creativity and retention. He can be reached through his website at http://www.mediate.com/opendoor, or by email at sterling@mediate.com.
www.ToBe.net---Jim Rough & Associates, Inc. - 1040 Taylor Street - Port Townsend, WA 98368 - phone: (360) 385-7118 - seminars@ToBe.net