Deep Democracy
What is Deep Democracy all about?
In essence Deep Democracy is about fostering awareness within and of oneself and in groups. The method is practical. The tools and techniques are simple yet powerful.
These teach you how to:
- enhance individual and team effectiveness,
- improve the quality and inclusiveness of decision-making
- get people to say what they need to say
- view challenges and conflict as vehicles for growth
Since Deep Democracy’s inception in South Africa, it has spread to the UK, America, Canada, Russia, India, Ireland, Denmark, Zimbabwe and Israel. It has been used as a method for conflict resolution and mediation, organizational change and development, community development, leadership training and facilitation of group processes.
What can it do for me and my organization?
- Achieve breakthroughs in groups on impossible-to-solve issues and impasses
- Ensure you and others are treated with respect and that your and their wisdom is facilitated and incorporated
- Build a shared vision through ensuring that all views are genuinely included and that true support is obtained
- Facilitate decisions needed to create innovation, transformation and change
- Recognize the emotional dynamics within a meeting and equip you with the necessary tools to deal with these dynamics
How is this different from other toolkits?
First and foremost, Deep Democracy is practical and easy to use. There are a variety of soft tools that can be used at any point throughout a group process. These include role mapping, soft shoe shuffle, and schmooze amplification. The idea is to learn, apply and build capacity toward surfacing opportunities and challenges to move forward.
Second, it isn’t often a facilitation tool delivers on its promise. The success of the Deep Democracy method has been proven in a variety of situations including conflicting teams or groups, racial tension, change management and restructuring, counselling and in education.
Why should I bother?
We believe that everyone from community workers to human resource managers are beginning to recognize that band-aid solutions cannot address the struggles we are continuously encountering in our organizations and communities. We know we need to find common ground, put an end to negative cycles, work better together and move forward. The question is how. Deep Democracy is how.
Filed under: | No Comments »
