The 300-page book, The World Cafe, was written by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs and published April 2005. In the first comprehensive book on the World Café, co-founders Brown and Isaacs introduce readers to this simple yet powerful conversational process for thinking together, evoking collective intelligence, and creating actionable results. Beautifully illustrated with stories contributed by World Café practitioners, this is still the most definitive compendium of Café Know-How available. Available in Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Simple Chinese, Complex Chinese, German, Korean, and Thai. Below is an […] (continue)

The Wise Democracy Project was initiated by Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute with impetus and tremendous help from Martin Rausch in Switzerland, between July 2016 and March 2017. The Wise Democracy Project has been created to inspire the formation of a community of practice around approaches and innovations that can further the development of a democratic system capable of generating wise public policy and collective activities. “Wise” in this context means taking into account what needs to be taken into account for long-term broad […] (continue)

ConverSketch provides high quality multi-media explainer videos for businesses and organizations to succinctly share their story or a product. These popular videos use hand-drawn illustrations and narrative to connect you with the right audience and encourage them to learn more about your story. Using graphic recording helps the group synthesize information, facilitates collaboration, creative thinking, sustained motivation for action, and brings energy to the group. Complex systems are visualized and the conversation is organized so that the group can free their minds from keeping track of […] (continue)

Worldwork is an experiential training seminar in conflict work and community building. The seminar provides a unique opportunity for people from all over the world to come together in a powerful forum for focusing on and working with social, environmental, and political issues using group process skills. Between two and three hundred people from over thirty countries and all walks of life participate in these 7 – 10 day gatherings. The large staff facilitates a diversity of learning experiences that include large group focus and […] (continue)

The term “Civil Dialogue,” as used by colleagues at Arizona State University, refers to a structured format for public dialogue. On their website, at www.civil-dialogue.com, they describe their work as “Using structured, public dialogue to build a bridge across the chasm of polarized viewpoints on hot topics, and to restore civility in public discourse.” The format was created at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and continues to be developed by John Genette, Jennifer Linde, Clark Olson, and other scholars. (continue)

NCDD member Jason Diceman, a Senior Public Consultation Coordinator with the City of Toronto, released a new version of his Dotmocracy Handbook: A simple tool to help large groups find agreement in August 2010. The Dotmocracy Handbook provides a unique set of easy-to-follow instructions for finding useful agreements among many people. At its core is the deceptively simple Dotmocracy sheet, which is a paper based facilitation tool designed to provide participants with equal opportunity to contribute to a reliable and transparent large group decision-making process. (continue)

Keypads are audience response devices that look like little calculators or remote controls. They are used in group meetings or events to collect audience responses or opinions, allowing audience members to interact with presentations, give feedback, and become more engaged in large-group settings. Keypads are often used as an added element in large-group deliberation and dialogue events. This resource lists and links to experts in keypad response system as well as mobile device response systems, as recommended by NCDD members in April 2010. (continue)

Large Group Interventions as a Tool for Community Visioning and Planning (April 2010) is an article by Janet Hammer, Director of the Social Equity and Opportunity Forum at Portland State University’s College of Urban and Public Affairs. Published in Community Development, the Community Development Society‘s quarterly journal, the article discusses the processes through which large group interventions work and their application in the field of community visioning and planning. Below is the article’s abstract. The full article can be found here. You may also be […] (continue)

The first edition of The Change Handbook, published in 1999, was the most comprehensive guide available on methods of organization and community change. The first edition provided a snapshot of a nascent field that broke barriers by engaging 'whole systems' of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. The completely revised and updated second edition overviews 61 change methods - up from 18 in the first edition. A great introduction to large-group methods for participatory planning and redesign. (continue)

A search conference is a large-group task-oriented 'conversation' (Emery & Purser 1996). Search conferences emphasize face-to-face interaction among stakeholders to create a new community. The process of meeting and discussion engenders new ideas. The venue and seating plan of the conference are designed to engender conversation and good relationship building. (continue)