Category Archives: upcoming events

Bridging the Divides: Practical Dialogue and Creative Deliberation

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We are happy to share the announcement below from NCDD Member Rosa Zubizarreta of DiaPraxis, which is an NCDD organizational member. Rosa’s announcement came via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

Dear NCDD colleagues,

I am writing to let you know about two upcoming workshops in Dynamic Inquiry / Dynamic Facilitation. The first one is in Maine on March 27 – 29, sponsored by the Maine Association of Mediators. The second one is in NYC on April 17-19, sponsored by Focusing International.

We have a sliding-scale fee that ranges from $600 community rate to $1,200 corporate rate. In addition, NCDD members are eligible for a special discount rate we are offering during the next week: e-mail me at rosa[at]diapraxis[dot]com for more info.

So many good workshops out there! Each one valuable (at least all the ones I’ve taken!) and each one offering something unique.

Here’s what’s distinctive about ours: we offer an emergence-based, non-linear practice for transforming the energy of conflict into creativity, through cognitive empathy, welcoming initial solutions, and offering audacious invitations (so if you did appoint a committee to study the issue for a year, and they came up with a recommendation you loved, what might it be?) I’ve written a great deal about how this open-source process works, both in my book (www.fromconflict2creativity.com) as well as in various articles freely available on my website at www.diapraxis.com/resources.

What this means for practitioners: past workshop participants report feeling much more at ease in situations of conflict, developing practical skills for helping others shift from defensiveness to engagement, gaining more trust “in their bones” in emergent group process, and developing a greater ability to help groups shift into a state of creative flow. Due to the highly experiential nature of the workshop, many participants also report having personally transformative experiences during our time together.

Okay! If you’re interested, and would like to have a conversation, e-mail me to let me know.

Sign up today for our March 25th Confab with Kimberly Bain

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NCDD’s next Confab Call will take place Wednesday, March 25th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern (10:00 to 11:00 am Pacific). Register today to secure your spot!

Kimberly Bain holding up her "next steps" bubble at the 2014 NCDD conference.

Kimberly Bain holding up her “next steps” bubble at NCDD 2014

On this Confab, we will talking with Kimberly Bain, Global Chair of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), about the concepts in her new book, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide. In this guide and on the call, Kimberly will help us bring these ethical principles to life both for us as reflective practitioners and for our profession.

A Reflective Practitioner is conscious of the ethics and values of our profession and constantly reflects on how he/she personally resolves tensions within that ethical framework.  Awareness is the first step towards insight.  Consideration and reflection are in the interests of each of us, our profession as a whole and in the interests of those we serve.  We all must consider the ethics and fundamental values of our profession and be prepared when those values are challenged in practice.  As practitioners we must be continually mindful of how we exercise our power as facilitators when helping groups and communities achieve their desired outcomes.

Confab bubble imageKimberly Bain is Senior Partner in Bain Group Consulting, based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Kimberly is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, is Global Chair of the International Association of Facilitators and holds the appointment of Visiting Scholar in facilitation and mediation at Queen’s University.

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.

More about the book…

Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide is based on the International Association of Facilitator’s (IAF) Code of Ethics and Values, however it works also for other practitioners and organizations (NCDD, IAP2, ICF, etc.) as these ethical principles are universal.  Ethics and values set standards that help us as professionals hold ourselves and each other accountable.  But a Code of Ethics is only effective if it is continuously reviewed, discussed, challenged and reflected upon.

The IAF knows both the power of facilitation (i.e. better and more sustainable outcomes, higher levels of engagement and ownership of decisions, more effective use of resources, better decisions) and the dangers (i.e. coerced consensus, unequal outcomes, directed outcomes, breaches in confidentiality and loss of public trust).  As facilitators, and as dialogue & deliberation practitioners, “we are architects of trust” (The Reflective Practitioner, page 53).  We owe it to our clients, and to the public in which we serve, to act with an informed appreciation of the ethical issues and competencies needed to help groups/communities build consensus and produce meaningful outcomes.

More about Kimberly…

Kimberly Bain holds certificates in mediation and dispute resolution and has conducted over 200 court appointed mediations, as well as dozens of workplace interventions and community disputes. Kimberly provides professional facilitation services around the world, speaks regularly on facilitation at international conferences, and teaches at colleges and universities.  She has an Honours Degree from Queen’s University and a Master’s Degree from Carleton University.  Kimberly is author of Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide.  For more information about Kimberly or to purchase her book, visit her website at www.baingroup.ca.

League of Extraordinary Trainers Releases 2015 Schedule

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We are pleased to let you know that The League of Extraodinatory Trainers – an NCDD organizational member and one of the great partners who helped us put on NCDD 2014 conference – recently released their 2015 training schedule. LET offers excellent trainings that can help strengthen your public engagement practice, so we encourage you to check out the announcement below and register before the early bird deadlines!

And don’t forget: dues-paying NCDD members receive a 10% discount on all LET trainings, and a 20% discount if you register by the early bird date! Not up to date on your dues? Renew your membership today!

LeagueOfExtraordinaryTrainers-logoThe landscape of public participation and community engagement is changing. Rapid developments in technology, the rampant economic and political changes across the globe, widespread use of social media, and a decline in public trust have created new challenges for governments, organizations and institutions. Add to that the growing desire of citizens to participate in building the democratic architecture of their countries and communities, and it is obvious that a proven framework for public participation has never been more essential!

Public anger is an increasing fact of society. Growing global citizen outrage causes government gridlock, lawsuits, stopped projects, election losses, loss of time, money, and destroyed credibility.

IAP2 Foundations Program
(a revamped IAP2 Certificate Program – new July 1, 2014)

Foundations in Public Participation was designed with the input of successful practitioners who work with diverse populations and divergent circumstances throughout the world. This course will let you hit the ground running, armed with the knowledge and confidence you need to plan and execute effective initiatives for any area in which you may be working.

2015 Training Events:

Emotion, Outrage and Public Participation EOP2

This practical, hands-on workshop is a fresh mix of lecture, video, small and large group discussion and authentic, real world exercises that give you the answers, tools and ability to prevent problems, manage the tough public issues that you face and keep your organization on track and moving forward.

2015 Training Events:

We thank the League of Extraordinary Trainers for their continued support of NCDD and encourage you to find their complete training schedule by visiting www.extraordinarytrainers.com/schedules.

Register for Public Lands Seminar in Yellowstone

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We want to make sure that our higher ed NCDDers know that there are a few more spaces left for a great program on dealing with public issues being held in beautiful Yellowstone National Park this July 27 – August 1. The program is hosted for higher ed professionals by the AASCU. We’ve shared the NIFI announcement about the program below, and you can learn more from the program page here.

Public Lands Seminar Program PageHow does a democracy manage competing but often equally legitimate positions over public resources? How are the rights of all citizens protected in conflicts over public lands? How do universities design courses and programs to help undergraduates develop the understandings and skills necessary to think about, and become engaged in conflict management and resolution? How do we help undergraduates become more thoughtful, more engaged citizens for our democracy?

The American Democracy Project (ADP) is creating new strategies to answer that question. For the past ten summers, faculty and administrators from American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) campuses have spent a week studying political disputes in the iconic first national park in the world, Yellowstone National Park. The first year, 2005, we studied wolf re-introduction. Twenty-six (26) faculty members from 19 campuses spent a week in the Park, first studying the biology and the politics of wolf re-introduction.

But the most innovative part of the program is when we traveled outside the Park to talk to citizens and activists on both sides of the issue, to understand the controversy from their point of view. At the end of the week-long program, we considered ways that faculty might develop programs on their own campus that focused on (1) national public resource issues such as wolf re-introduction and (2) local public resource issues such as oil drilling on national seashores, wind turbines in state parks, and restoration efforts in wetlands.

For the last ten summers, we expanded the focus of the program to examine a variety of conflicts in the entire Yellowstone region, including bison and brucellosis, winter use, wolves, and grizzly bears. Our program is entitled Politics and the Yellowstone Ecosystem. In this program, we spend six (6) days in Yellowstone National Park in a combination of activities, beginning with a study of the science and history of the controversies, listening to scientists and Park rangers. Then we interview local citizens on both sides of the issues, including political activists, business people, ranchers, and other citizens.

The goal of this project is to develop new strategies and new approaches that colleges and universities can use to help undergraduates become thoughtful, informed, and engaged citizens. In a world too often filled with bitter partisan politics, this non-partisan project seeks to move beyond rhetoric and confrontation, providing students with new models that promote understanding and resolution. In a political environment where special interest groups tend to push people to polarized positions, we often try to seek common ground.

The program, held at Mammoth Hot Spring Hotel at the northern end of the Park, begins late afternoon on Monday, July 27th and ends at noon on Saturday, August 1st. The cost of the program is $1,395, which includes five (5) nights individual room lodging at Mammoth Hotel (each participant will have a separate hotel room or cabin); all instruction and instructional materials, AV rental, classroom rental; in-park transportation; and reception and dinner the first night, as well as several other meals. Space does not allow for guest participation in the full program. However, family members or guests may attend some classroom lectures, a few field trips, and evening films and presentations.

For more information on this program please contact:

George Mehaffy 202.478.4672  mehaffyg[at]aascu[dot]org

Jennifer Domagal-Goldman 202.478.7833  domagalj[at]aascu[dot]org

You can find the NIFI announcement on this seminar by visiting www.nifi.org/en/groups/registration-open-politics-and-yellowstone-ecosystem-july-2015-seminar-yellowstone-national. You can find the AASCU seminar’s page at www.aascu.org/programs/adp/SPL.

Register for the Citizen University 2015 Conference

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We want to encourage our members to attend the 2015 Citizen University annual conference this March 20th-21st in Seattle, Washington if you can. Citizen University conferences are impressive gatherings that do a lot to help galvanize leaders from many different sectors, and we know NCDD members will be able to both contribute and gain a lot by attending.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Citizen Power,” and here’s a bit of how the organizers describe it:

The Citizen University annual National Conference is like no other civic gathering in America. Hundreds of changemakers, activists, and catalysts show up to learn about power, build their networks, and recharge their sense of purpose. They come from across the country, the political spectrum, and a wide range of domains — from immigrant rights to national service, voting reform to veteran re-integration, civic education to Hollywood and tech. They are you.

Our theme this year is Citizen Power, particularly in the shadow of Ferguson and Staten Island, and the 50th anniversary of so much of the Civil Rights Movement. This is a time when citizens are solving problems in new ways, bypassing broken institutions, stale ideologies, and polarized politics. We are part of a movement to rekindle citizenship in America. We hope you’ll join us!

Regular registration for this year’s conference is $200, but you can still take advantage of the $175 early bird rate or even cheaper rates if you are a student, veteran, senior, or volunteer. The early bird registration cut off is February 28th, so make sure to register ASAP.

The conference has an impressive lineup of presenters and speakers and will be attended by lots of movers and shakers, including our own executive directory Sandy Heierbacher. If you’re planning to attend this year, make sure to send her a message at sandy@ncdd.org letting her know you’re interested in meeting up with her and other NCDD members who will be in attendance.

For more information on Citizen University, visit www.citizenuniversity.us/conference. We hope to see some of you there!

CM & Orton Launch Heart & Soul Talks and Trainings

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We are excited to announce that our friends at CommunityMatters – a partnership in which NCDD is a core member – are introducing a new series of online events on the Orton Family Foundation‘s Heart & Soul Planning process, which is also the basis of Orton’s new Heart & Soul Field Guide.

CM_logo-200pxThe series begins this Thursday, February 12th at 4pm Eastern with a “Heart & Soul Talk” conference call. The talk, titled “Use Community Network Analysis to Improve Participation and Results,” promises to be a great opportunity to learn about a useful tool that can strengthen the work that many of our NCDD members do.

The call will feature the insights of NCDD member Alece Montez-Greigo along with Alexis Halbert and Gabrielle Ratté Smith of the Orton Family Foundation. Here’s how the folks at CM describe the event:

Achieving community-wide participation is an admirable but often lofty goal. Identifying the multiple layers of community can be the difference between success or failure of a project. Orton’s Community Network Analysis (CNA) brings fresh new voices and solutions to the table and is a powerful way to understand who lives, works, and plays in your town and how best to reach them.

Alece Montez-Greigo, Orton’s director of programs, explains the tool. Community Heart & Soul project coordinators Alexis Halbert of Paonia, Colorado, and Gabrielle Ratté Smith, senior associate for strategic partnerships at Orton and of Essex, Vermont, join her to share their on-the-ground experience with CNA.

We encourage you to learn more about the Heart & Soul Field Guide from one of our recent entries in the NCDD Resource Center and to register for this first Heart & Soul Talk today. We hope hear you on the call next week!

Text, Talk, Act Conversations Return this April & May

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We are happy to announce that Text, Talk, Act – the youth mental health conversation initiative launched in 2013 by NCDD-supported Creating Community Solutions – is returning with two nationwide events this spring! As most of you know, TTA has been supported by NCDD since early on, and it has already shown a lot of encouraging results in past iterations.

This next round of conversations has two different dates and promises to be the best one yet! The first date is Tuesday, April 14th in partnership with Active Mind’s Stress Less Week. The second one, Thursday, May 7th, coincides with SAMSHA’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.

We strongly encourage our NCDD members to consider signing up to organize a Text, Talk, Act event in your communities. We know these events are helping make a difference in the lives of young people across the country, and we want to support this innovative way to engage young people in dialogue!

We are also excited to announce that groups that participate in this spring’s TTA conversations are eligible to win the contest for one of five $1,000 prizes for their school or organization! For those groups that can’t participate on either of these days, Text, Talk, Act will be open during all of April and May! Anyone, at any time, from anywhere, can participate in Text, Talk, Act by texting START to 89800 (or 778-588-1995 for people in Canada or those who may have blocks in place for the shorter number).

You can get involved today by registering to host an event here, and don’t forget to check out the toolkit CCS created to support event organizers.

Want to know more about Text, Talk, Act? You can learn more in the video below or by visiting www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/texttalkact.

NIFI & Kettering Launch “Changing World of Work” Series

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We recently highlighted the “Changing World of Work” event that the Kettering Foundation and National Issues Forums Institute – two leading NCDD organizational members – hosted last month, and we are excited to share an update from them on their launch of a year-long series based on that work. Read their announcement below or learn more by clicking here.

NIF logoAs you may be aware, the Kettering Foundation, the National Issues Forums Institute, and Augsburg College have partnered to plan and launch a year-long forums project titled “The Changing World of Work: What Should We Ask of Higher Education?”

The official launch of this project was held on January 21, 2015 at the National Press Club with speakers and panelists, and a video featuring closing comments by Kettering Foundation president, David Mathews. The event was recorded, and you can read more about the speakers and panelists, and watch the entire 3-hour proceedings at www.nifi.org/en/groups/stream-changing-world-work.

Coverage of the launch included an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The “The Changing World of Work: What Should We Ask of Higher Education?” issue guide and companion materials are now available at www.nifi.org/en/issue-guide/changing-world-work.

Please consider planning to hold forums using this new issue guide material during the coming year, and to encourage your friends and colleagues to become involved in this national project. A national report will be created based on information from the forums, so when you have details about a planned forum, please log in (if you haven’t yet done so, you can quickly register for an NIF website account at www.nifi.org/en/user/register), and post the information about your forums or other related events at www.nifi.org/en/events so that they will appear on the NIF calendar.

As always, thank you for all that you do for the National Issues Forums network, and for public deliberation around the country. Your efforts are appreciated very much.

Join us for our Feb 19th Confab on Newcomers, Latecomers, and Disrupters

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Join us on Thursday, February 19th from 12-1:30pm Eastern (9-10:30am Pacific) for NCDD’s next “Confab Call.” Register today to secure your spot!

On this Confab, we will be tackling the issue of working with newcomers, latecomers, and disrupters:  strategies for sustainable and productive engagement.Confab bubble image

Practitioners managing public engagement processes that run over months or years are often challenged by newcomers, late-comers, and disruptors:

  • The newly elected official who wants to have her say.
  • The neighborhood resident who finally gets involved when the bulldozers arrive on his block.
  • The activists who’ve been carefully biding their time and now hope to derail proceedings because “they were not consulted.”

How can you plan for their arrival?

This Confab will be led by NCDD members Sarah Read and Christoph Berendes. For more than 25 years, Sarah has designed collaborative processes to resolve regulatory issues, facilitated community dialogues, and led visioning and strategic planning efforts for a variety of organizations.  Chris was a project manager for online public engagement efforts for the Office of the Vice President and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the early days of the Web and has advised the Kettering Foundation, AmericaSpeaks, and the Democracy Fund on the use of social media to foster public engagement.

Using scenarios to illustrate the possibilities, Sarah and Chris will describe structures they’ve used for these kinds of challenges– on-ramps, off-ramps, and connectors — and the process elements that affect success – managing expectations, building and sharing knowledge (process and substance), setting boundaries, incorporating new information and ideas, evaluation and “flexibility,” and “harvesting as you go along.” They will also demonstrate simple web tools that can help, such as blog tags, maps, project timelines, charts, and trackers.

Participants will be able to share questions and examples of these challenges in advance and during the Confab.

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 each fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

Register Here

Join Everyday Democracy’s Orientation Webinar on Feb. 12

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If you’re not already familiar with the work of Everyday Democracy, one of our founding NCDD organizational members, we highly encourage you to register for their upcoming orientation webinar on Thursday, February 12th at 2pm Eastern.

EvDem LogoEvDem has been honing its dialogue-to-change model for years in a huge variety of communities and has developed a wide ranging suite of tools to support the communities they work with, and this webinar is a great opportunity to get an overview of what resources they have to offer and how you can engage with their great work.

Here’s how the folks at EvDem describe the webinar:

Are you new to Everyday Democracy? Do you want to hear about success stories of communities that have used dialogue to create positive change? Join us for a webinar on Thursday, February 12 at 2pm ET for an orientation of our approach to change…

During this webinar, we will explore Everyday Democracy’s approach to change through dialogue and action. We will give an overview to how the process works, what kinds of results we’ve seen from using our approach, and  share a few stories of some of the communities we have worked with.

Not familiar with Everyday Democracy’s work? Here’s a bit of how they describe what they do:

We help communities build their own capacity for inclusive dialogue and positive change. Our ultimate aim is to create a national civic infrastructure that supports and values everyone’s voice and participation.

Because structural racism and other structural inequities affect communities everywhere, we help community groups use an “equity lens” in every phase of dialogue and change – coalition building, messaging, recruitment, issue framing, facilitation, and linking the results of their dialogues to action and change. We provide advice, training and flexible how-to resources on a wide range of issues – including poverty, racial equity, education, building strong neighborhoods, community-police relations, violence, early childhood, and community planning.

This webinar will be a great chance to learn about the work and resources of one of the leading D&D organizations in the field, so we hope you will consider attending. You can learn more about the webinar on EvDem’s website by clicking here, and you can register for it by visiting https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5362336164849502721.

We hope to “see” you online next Thursday!