Sign Up for December’s Tech Tuesday on Common Ground for Action

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Courtney Breese

Registration is now open for December’s Tech Tuesday event featuring Common Ground for Action. Join us for this FREE event Tuesday, December 1st from 2:00-3:00pm Eastern/11:00am-12:00pm Pacific.

In 2013, Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums collaborated with Conteneo, the developer of the San Jose Budget Games, to produce a platform that could allow truly deliberative online public forums. The result is Common Ground for Action, a simple, intuitive tool that allows participants to examine options for dealing with the problem, weigh tradeoffs, and find common ground, with beautiful visuals that let you actually see the shape of your conversation as it evolves. And because CGA works in any browser, there’s nothing to download, nothing to update – no technical mumbo jumbo.

CGA works not only for National Issues Forums issue guides, but also for localized adaptations of those guides, or in fact, any deliberative framework on any wicked problem.

On this call we will be joined by NCDD Members Amy Lee from the Kettering Foundation and Luke Hohmann from Conteneo, who will tell us more about how this tool was developed and demonstrate how it works. Amy will also tell us more about the current schedule of forums, and how you or your organization can utilize this FREE tool!

Don’t miss out on this opportunity – register today!

Tech Tuesdays are a series of learning events from NCDD focused on technology for engagement. These 1-hour events are designed to help dialogue and deliberation practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. You do not have to be a member of NCDD to participate in our Tech Tuesday learning events.

More about Common Ground for Action…

CGA can be helpful for any conversation where you need:

the ability to convene people from diverse locations
the ability to convene people who may not be able or willing to participate
in-person
the ability to let people talk together about an issue
visuals showing the group’s evolution in judgment
an easy-to-analyze record of the entire forum.

Other important facts about CGA:

It’s free!
It’s easy to become a moderator – 2 simple online sessions!
It can be used to augment in-person deliberations as well.

Confab Call Launches Nevins Democracy Leaders Program Partnership – Apply Today!

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

Wow. Our NCDD team was blown away by the amazing response from the field to the announcement we recently made about the launch of our partnership with the McCourtney Institute for Democracy‘s new Nevins Democracy Leaders Program and the Confab Call we hosted on Wednesday to educate organizational leaders on how they can apply to host a Nevins Fellow. We had nearly 70 registrants for the call, including some of D&D’s leading organizations, and the excitement on the call for what this program can do for the field was palpable.

In case you didn’t hear about it, this week’s Confab Call featured a presentation from NCDD member John Gastil on the brand new Penn State program that will serve to place D&D-trained students into funded fellowship positions with organizations focused on D&D, transpartisan dialogue, and civic renewal. We had a lively conversation, and John shared tons of helpful info and background about this amazing opportunity to support our field while developing the next generation of its leaders.

If you couldn’t join us for the Confab Call conversation, we strongly encourage you to listen to the recording of the call to learn more about the program and how to apply.

After the call, NCDD Sustaining Member David Nevins – whose gift to the McCourtney Institute has endowed the program – shared some of his reflections on last summer’s pilot fellowships and his excitement about the full launch of the Nevins Democracy Leaders Program:

My vision of the program was very much based on the symbiotic relationship between the Fellow and the organizations that the Fellows engage with… The letters I received from [last summer’s first two Nevins Fellows] in which they said things like “this summer changed my life” or “thank you for allowing me the opportunity to gain real world experience in deliberative democracy and trans-partisan politics” shows that experiences were rewarding and perhaps even life changing for the interns.

Thus my goal of a relationship equally as valuable to all parties involved seems to have been achieved. I could not ask for more in these early stages of the program, and I am confident that with each additional experience the program will blossom beyond my initial expectations.

We at NCDD share David’s confidence for the future of this great effort and are proud to be part of this transformative work.

If you are in leadership with an organization that would benefit from working with a Nevins Fellow, we encourage you to submit an application today! Please note that for priority consideration in the next round of fellowship matches, you must apply before the end of the day on Monday, November 2nd. Applications received after Nov. 2nd will still be considered, but may be put on the wait list for the next round of fellowship matches. We’ve already received over 20 applications, and competition for fellowship placements is going to be stiff, so make sure to apply ASAP!

To learn more about NCDD Confab Calls and find recordings from past presentations, visit www.ncdd.org/events/confabs.

Missed the Confab Call on Brain Science? Watch It Now!

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

Last week, NCDD hosted another installment of our Confab Call series, and we are excited to report back about how great the conversation was. We were joined by around 35 members to hear a wonderful presentation from NCDD members Mary V. Gelinas and Susan Stuart Clark titled Planning from the Inside Out: How Brain Science Supports Constructive Dialogue and Deliberation. You really missed out if you weren’t there with us!

Mary & Susan’s talk was incredibly educational and had a lot of useful nuggets of knowledge on what the field of brain science can teach us about making D&D work more effective. We discussed how a poorly structured meeting can activate our fight or flight response, that public comment periods can create severely limiting performance anxiety, and how something as simple as inviting folks to pause for a deep breath can dramatically shift the way participants are connecting in a meeting – plus a lot more. There were so many D&D applications of brain science that we could have spent several more hours more talking about it!

If you missed this Confab Call conversation, we encourage you to check out the recording of the call by clicking here. We also recommend taking a look at Mary and Susan’s slideshow presentations that they were kind enough to share with us, and you can find those by clicking here.

Thanks so much to Mary and Susan for all the valuable information and to all of those who participated in the call!

To learn more about NCDD Confab Calls and find recordings from past presentations, visit www.ncdd.org/events/confabs.

Join a Confab Call on Brain Science in D&D THIS Thursday!

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

As we announced last month, NCDD is hosting another one of our ever-popular Confab Calls this Thursday, October 15th from 2 – 3pm Eastern. This call is titled Planning from the Inside Out: How Brain Science Supports Constructive Dialogue and Deliberation and will feature the insights of two of our long-time NCDD members on how lessons from brain science can help us plan D&D processes that use emotions skillfully to help groups find common ground while helping us as practitioners be better prepared to play our roles.

Make sure you register today to save your spot!

Our presenters, Mary V. Gelinas of Gelinas James, Inc. and Susan Stuart Clark of Common Knowledge, both apply the principles and teachings of brain science regularly as part of their D&D practices, and in this interactive discussion, they will share how a better understanding of key brain science topics can help us understand what’s going on “in our heads” when we participate in public meetings so that we can design better processes. The call will cover:

Triune brain theory;
What emotions are, along with why and how they get evoked in meetings;
Some key lessons from brain science for designing and conducting effective group processes;
How brain science can increase our ability to be instruments of change

Mary and Susan will share examples of the brain science they use in their work to provide a starting point for call participants to ask questions and share their own insights and experiences, so come with your questions and stories!

This Confab Call promises to be both interesting and highly applicable, so you don’t want to miss it! Make sure to register today, and invite a friend who might be interested! We look forward to talking with you all on Thursday!

Recap of Sept. Tech Tuesday Call with QiqoChat

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

Earlier this week, we hosted another installment of NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series, and if you weren’t there, you missed a great call! This Tech Tuesday event featured former NCDD board member Lucas Cioffi, the founder and creator of the versatile online engagement platform, QiqoChat, along with open space facilitator Michael Herman.

Lucas and Michael gave about 25 participants a virtual tour and demonstration of some of the varied and thoughtfully curated functions of the QiqoChat platform, which impressed quite a few of us. We also shared an insightful conversation on hosting online dialogues, the lessons learned from Lucas and Michael’s “online open space on open space” event, and what it takes to build these kinds of online tools. It was a great discussion!

If you want to listen in on what you missed, then we encourage you to check out the recording of this Tech Tuesday call by clicking here. Lucas was also kind enough to write up some answers to the questions from the call along with a few links for more info, which you can find here.

If you want to know more about QiqoChat and online dialogue, we encourage you to register for their online event this Wednesday, Oct. 7th at 12pm ET called All You Ever Wanted to Know about Online Dialogue. You can also participate every Friday at 1pm ET to participate in QiqoChat’s experimental 30 minute “dialogue cafes” to get an in-person taste of the platform.

Thanks again to Lucas, Michael, and the folks who participated in the call! To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/events/tech-tuesdays.

Don’t Miss Our Tech Tuesday Call with QiqoChat

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

As we recently announced, we are hosting another one of our free NCDD Tech Tuesday webinars this Tuesday, September 29th from 12-1pm Eastern/9-10am Pacific, this time featuring Lucas Cioffi and Michael Herman, the creators of the phone-based dialogue and video chat tool QiqoChat.

QiqoChat supports a variety of online D&D processes, and it is a great tool for practitioners to be familiar with. But spots for the webinar are filling up, so make sure to register today!

This Tech Tuesday event will be full of great insights on hosting online engagement events as well as a demonstration of the QiqoChat platform’s capabilities. Lucas and Michael have also hosted two online open space conferences for a global audience, and we will discuss the rich lessons they took from those experiences as well.

Join us this Tuesday to learn more about the wide world of open space and online facilitation – you won’t want to miss it!

Register for NCDD’s October 15th Confab on Brain Science

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Courtney Breese

Join us on Thursday, October 15th for NCDD’s next “Confab Call.” We’ll be talking with NCDD Members Mary Gelinas and Susan Stuart Clark about how brain science supports constructive dialogue and deliberation. The confab will take place from 2-3pm Eastern (11am-12pm Pacific). Register today to secure your spot!

What’s happening “beneath the surface” when people are participating in public meetings? Many conveners are nervous about emotions: those of the public and sometimes even their own. Understanding what evokes the potentially difficult emotions of fear and anger as well as the potentially constructive sense of compassion and hope, along with the conditions that help people notice and effectively manage such emotions, is critical to designing and conducting productive processes.

Mary V. Gelinas of Gelinas James, Inc. and Susan Stuart Clark of Common Knowledge both use the burgeoning findings from brain science to work with clients and plan interactive group processes that use emotions skillfully to help groups find common ground. They also use it to prepare themselves to facilitate such processes. They will share highlights about:

Triune brain theory;
What emotions are, along with why and how they get evoked in meetings;
Some key lessons from brain science for designing and conducting effective group processes;
How brain science can increase our ability to be instruments of change.

During this interactive session Mary and Susan will highlight the key elements of brain science they use in their work to provide a stepping off point for participants to ask questions and share their own insights and experiences.

Mary V. Gelinas, Ed.D. is the managing director of Gelinas James, Inc. and co-director of the Cascadia Center for Leadership. She is a committed student of how brain science and contemplative practices can strengthen the design and conduct of inclusive and collaborative processes. Her blog “How We Talk Matters” provides inspiration, tips, and tools to create constructive conversations about consequential questions.

Susan Stuart Clark is the founder and director of Common Knowledge, a mission driven organization dedicated to a more inclusive and innovative democracy. She works at the intersection of sectors and cultures, using insights about neuroscience to help people interact with “other.” A research deputy for the Kettering Foundation, Susan serves on the board of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and as an advisor to civic tech groups.

About NCDD’s Confab Calls…

NCDD’s Confab Calls are opportunities for members (and potential members) of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

Sign up for September’s Tech Tuesday with QiqoChat

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Courtney Breese

Registration is now open for September’s Tech Tuesday event featuring QiqoChat. Join us for this FREE event Tuesday, September 29th from 12:00-1:00pm Eastern/9:00-10:00am Pacific.

QiqoChat is a tool for phone-based dialogue and video chat. It supports dialogue methods such as online open space, Conversation Cafe, and liberating structures.

We will be joined by Lucas Cioffi and Michael Herman, who will provide a demonstration of the QiqoChat platform and discuss the lessons learned from hosting two open space conferences for the worldwide community of open space facilitators.

NCDD Member Lucas Cioffi served on the board of NCDD for three years. He is an Iraq War veteran and is the software developer that built QiqoChat. Michael Herman been a facilitator and trainer of many methods and approaches since 1991 and an active Open Space community member since 1996. Michael and Lucas co-convened the first ever “virtual open space on open space” gathering in July 2015.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about this platform and how it has been utilized – register today!

Recap of Confab Call with “21st Century Democracy” Authors

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

Earlier this month, we had yet another great NCDD Confab Call, this time with 55 of our members. We had a ver informative presentation from and lively discussion with prominent D&D scholars Matt Leighninger and Tina Nabatchi, all of which was centered on the lessons on public participation infrastructure that they’ve compiled into their new book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy.

If you didn’t participate in this one, you really missed out! The discussion was so lively and the questions were so rich that we couldn’t even fit it all into the 60 minute call. But don’t worry, we recorded the presentation and discussion, which you can see and hear by clicking here.

Want to learn more about Matt & Tina’s work on public participation? You can find some great downloads from their book at http://bit.ly/PP21CDresources.

Looking for more confab inspiration? We encourage you to check out some of our past Confab Calls for more great conversations and ideas.

Register for Aug. 5th Confab Call with Matt Leighninger & Tina Nabatchi

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Roshan Bliss

As we mentioned last week, we preparing to host another great NCDD Confab Call this Wednesday, August 5th from 2-3pm EST, this time with D&D gurus Matt Leighninger, executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and Tina Nabatchi, associate professor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell Confab bubble image School of Citizenship and Public Affairs! The call will focus on Matt & Tina’s new book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy. Have you registered yet??

You won’t want to miss this call because not only will Matt & Tina be sharing some of their knowledge about the most cutting edge D&D practices, but they will also be welcoming input from our community to help improve and expand upon the book.

Make sure to mark your calendars and register today because spots on this free call are filling up! We can’t wait to have you all join us on the 5th.

Never participated in one of our confab calls? You can learn more about what they’re like by visiting www.ncdd.org/events/confabs.

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