1. FROM ENGAGEMENT TO
PAIN CONSULT
EMPOWERMENT
Concept design workshop
A Dialogic Design Workshop
Peter Jones, OCADU Toronto
Agoras Institute

2. What brings you to this session?
What do you care about that led you here?
What concerns are reaching out for possibility?
What might we learn together?

3. What is dialogue?
Is dialogue just a collective conversation?
Buber Dialogic encounter : I-Thou
Gadamer As a fusion of horizons
Bohm About the process of reflection itself & the
willingness to change our thoughts & selves
A committed conversation for understanding.
From discovery to the co-creation of meaning.

4. DESIGN WITH DIALOGUE
Wicked problems require a design approach.
Not individual designers – social design.
Autonomy & authenticity conserved.
Due care to minimize impacts of power in planning.
Engaging all stakeholders of a problem system.
Systems principle of (Ashby’s) Requisite Variety:
Sufficient variety of inputs that match system variety

5. PROGRESSIVE DIALOGUE
Conversation Discovering
Dialogue Understanding
Deliberation Action

6. Sensemaking in Conversation >
Social design starts with a conversation for possibility.
Open, interactive, discovering what’s available & possible.
How can I help?

7. Sensemaking in Dialogue >

8. ART OF HOSTING
A way of being and a set of practices & principles
that prepare us to convene strategic conversations.
Principles include: Practices include:
Hosting Ourselves Circle
Deep Listening World Café
Emergence Open Space
The “Container” Five Breaths

9. Structured Dialogue
Methodology developed to address root causes of wicked problems
• Created in 70’s, after notables failures to solve world problems.
• Used in Cyprus peace dialogues, WHO disease mgt, forestry, education
Consensus among very disparate stakeholders
• All decisions are collected through inclusive “supermajority” voting
Elicits root causes AND interconnections
• Grounded & sustained by systems science, visually describes system
Radically democratic
• Exacting method for equality & autonomy in engagement

10. Democratic - For complexity & power
• Cyprus Reunification Dialogues (1990 – 2011)
EU project for Israeli-Palestinian dialogues
• WHO Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis Partners, Clinicians, Villagers &
Pharma from multiple agencies (1999)
• Transnational Indigenous Leaders Dialogue on Globalization:
40 Indigenous leaders from Americas and New Zealand & experts
• US Forest Service - Forest Service Priority Setting (2003)
• Alternative Energy Future Planning, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance

11. “Obamavision” Wiki
11

12. Resolves Groupthink
• “When concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-
group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative
courses of action. (Janis, 1971)
• Spreadthink:
Unable to reach any genuine consensus, or even majority view
toward component aspects of a complex issue
• Clanthink: When like groups maintain concurrence within group
• Linkthink: When people “link” like ideas in concurrence
Warfield: “Facilitators who try to bring groups to a consensus without the aid of
some methodology that resolves the difficulties caused by Spreadthink may well
be driving the group to Groupthink, and thus helping to arrive at a decision that
lacks individual support and, usually, lacks substance.

13. FROM ENGAGEMENT TO EMPOWERMENT

14. Design-Led Civic Engagement
• What is the possibility of citizens empowered to collectively
create new community services?
• People co-creating services once expected of government
• Collective actions become services that serve more needs
• Learn from the small-scale community-led projects around the
world where people are leading the way

15. Agenda
• Welcome & Introductions
What is a community that you belong to that could benefit from increased participation?
• Dialogue 1: Current Examples
What are the some stories from here or around the world of community-led local services?
• Dialogue 2: Possibilities
For your neighbourhood, what service could community members invent or radically improve?
• D3: Idea Selection : Host a small group for an idea
• D4: Idea Design : Break out to co-create the idea
• D5: Design Harvest
• Reflection & Close @ 7:00

16. Idea Design Questions
1. What personal or community need does this service address?
2. How might this service involve the community to deliver
maximum value?
3. What, tools, resources or incentives would community
members need to help them initiate and implement this
service?
4. What support could government provide to kickstart or sustain
this service?