How to be Wise Together

Whether you are solving the problems of the world, or seeking a way forward on your project, how are you helping people be wise together to generate smarter outcomes?

The world is full of wicked problems and I sometimes feel overwhelmed. But then I look at the array of work being done to help people be wise together and I’m filled with hope and the motivation to make my own contributions where I can. And there are lessons to be applied in our everyday work as well.

Just some interesting efforts I’m aware of to help people be wise together include:

The People’s House project, from Emily Jenke and the team at Democracy Co. This is an effort to work with Parliamentarians to establish deliberative forums where randomly-selected community members come together to learn about, discuss and provide insights to their elected representatives on questions that matter to them

The DMDU Society, which is more academic but focussed on Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty. While lots of the work of members seems to be about models and tools, there is definitely an element about participatory processes, getting people in the room together to tackle deep uncertainty. As I write they are having their 10th annual conference in the Netherlands and I’m seeing a lot of conversation around climate change and how to address it.

The New Democracy Foundation, which aims to “discover, develop, demonstrate and promote complementary alternatives which will restore trust in public decision-making”. New Democracy works with governments on projects that enable ‘everyday people’ to have thoughtful input into challenging areas of public policy. Get in touch with Kathy Jones or Iain Walker to find out more.

In these and other initiatives I see some common elements that can tell us something about what effective collaboration to be wise together looks like, such as:

·      Going beyond the experts or directly affected and interested to involve more representative groups with more comprehensive experience and perspectives.

·      Focussing on supporting collective learning based on solid and comprehensive information.

·      Supporting deliberation, or thinking time.

·      Sharing stories and building relationships across diverse groups.

·      Someone – the decision-maker – authentically listening to and giving regard to recommendations.

How are you building these into your project work, to ensure authentic collaboration, more wisdom and better outcomes?