Kitchen Table Democracy Organizing Kit

Participatory Democracy: Group Dynamics for Effective Problem-Solving

Participatory democracy is the cornerstone of a civil society. It can be empowering, exhilarating, and relationship-building as well as messy, frustrating, and time-consuming. There can be a fine line between achieving one outcome or the other but, fortunately, the skills and tasks that can lead to a positive outcome can be learned, shared, and practiced.

This section summarizes some of the democratic arts the Ultimate Civics team has developed through hands-on experience. It is a guide to help empower groups of people to interact cooperatively, identify shared values, build collective visions, and take collective action.

If more information is desired, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom offers core training in the democratic arts in a ten-session study group. Books, professional facilitators, and training are also available, but the best training is usually found in the group dynamics of doing.

People

Diversity: If you want to build something that lasts, you need support from all members of the community. Support can be earned by building diversity into the process.

In one polarized situation, a small group of people committed to reaching consensus on the building of a sustainable community recognized the need for diverse leadership representing all fractions of the splintered community. They identified people who group members could approach individually and invited them to a public educational meeting on sustainable communities. The leaders were asked to sign an open invitational letter that was published in the local paper as a half-page ad. Thus invested in the public meeting, the leaders came, drawing with them a diverse crowd from the community. The sustainable community project was successfully launched.

Leadership: Commitment from and involvement by informal leaders builds community support.

Your leaders might include local elected officials as well as other members of the community who are respected for their skill set whether it is an ability to get “stuff” done, listen compassionately, draw others into projects, mentor youth, or offer wise council. These leaders are the movers and shakers in a community – the connectors, the doers, whose presence at a meeting will draw others to that meeting. They can be teachers, religious leaders, union bosses, or volunteers with non-profit organizations. They are perceived as approachable and integral to the community. Having on-the-street communication with these leaders at grocery stores, schools, sport events, etc., is a key component of building community support.

Commitment: Everyone needs to be committed to the process of working together. A successful process leads to successful outcomes, not the other way around.

Place

History of collaboration: Strong social capital – trust and cooperation – offers new working groups benefits of trust in the process and understanding of roles and expectations.

When events such as economic collapse or disaster tear the social fabric and polarize citizens, it is easier to restore trust and rebuild society in communities with a history of cooperation. Similarly, it is easier to start community groups or activities in communities with a strong history of cooperation than in ones that do not. It is human nature for people to work together.

Collaborative groups become leaders in the community: People measure success based on doing (accomplishments) as well as ways of doing (process).

Process

Providing a process for people to feel comfortable working together leads to building trust and relationships – the main components of successful collaboration.

Have a neutral meeting place: People will be more comfortable if they perceive the meeting place is on neutral ground.

In one polarized community, the volunteer working group agreed to lunch meetings but couldn’t agree on where to meet. Each of the local restaurants was perceived as either liberal or conservative. Finally, the group decided to hold brown bag lunch meetings at the library meeting room. This simple yet critical decision set the ground-work for successful collaboration.

Seat people in a circle around a table or open space: There is no leader in a circle. Everyone is equal.

Establish ground rules: If everyone plays by the same rules, people will feel equal and welcome.

Establish some ground rules at the first meeting. For example, “We agree to not interrupt and to listen to each other, be respectful, and give everyone equal opportunity to speak.” Agree on a way to enforce the rules – and do it. Review the rules or post them at every meeting. Change or add rules as needed.

Agree to a group decision-making process: Consensus supports collaboration as it seeks creative solutions that draw elements from all the ideas arising from a group process rather than selecting one or two.

For example, the Community Unity exercise uses majority consensus by compiling and prioritizing everyone’s ideas in a public process. Beware of unanimous consensus! This allows one dissenting person to control the outcome.

Find common ground: No matter how slight or seemingly immaterial at first, this is key to a successful collaboration.

In one community, collapse of the main economy led to extreme polarization and hostility over economic diversification options. Protests and lawsuits seared relationships. At the first meeting to work on building a sustainable community, people took turns explaining their purpose in volunteering. Imagine everyone's surprise when people discovered they were all there because they were tired of fighting and they wanted to work together! This was enough to build a solid foundation for success.

One way to find common ground is to have people focus on what they like about their community instead of what they don’t like. A perceived lack of common ground is usually the result of focusing on things that divide us rather than things that unite us. This lack of common ground is one of the key contributors to the Democracy Crisis . People usually share much more in common than they hold as differences. Finding common ground builds trust, heals community, and restores democracy.

Establish a shared vision and concrete, attainable goals: The Community Unity exercise offers a simple way to help people identify shared values, build a common vision, and take collective action.

Establish a public record of events: Those who come into the process later can catch up more easily and be personally invested in the outcome more quickly.

Allow time for networking: Visiting builds trust and relationships, the cornerstones of collaboration.

People need unstructured time to visit. The brown bag lunch group mentioned above included several business people who agreed to meet for exactly one hour. The agenda was drafted accordingly. However, the first meetings consistently ran over by 10 minutes because people took time to visit and settle down before the meeting started. When visiting time was included in the agenda, the meetings finished on time.

Communication

The language of collaboration is different than the language of polarization. It is a language of compassion. International mediator Marshall Rosenberg calls it, “non-violent communication.” It strengthens our ability to remain civil, even under trying conditions.

Responsible speech: When we take responsibility for our own feelings (irritation, frustration, anger, joy or amusement, etc.), we diffuse the energy of potentially divisive situations and build trust. We make it clear that I am not blaming you for my misfortune. This allows people to deal with public issues rather than personal issues.

Responsible speech challenges individuals to hear their own deeper needs and those of others. Rosenberg teaches people to articulate observations that trigger likes or dislikes; state personal feelings triggered by the observations; express what personal needs are connected to the feelings; and follow with a specific request of the other person that would enrich our personal life.

For example, at a public meeting over logging, people were arguing and shouting. Finally a fisherman said to one angry logger, “Both of us need jobs (observation), but I am afraid (feeling) this clear-cut logging will damage fish habitat and the fisheries will fail (need). What can we do to protect both of our jobs?” This opened the door for communication. Eventually, participants agreed to move forward with certified sustainable forestry rather than clear-cut logging.

Listen to understand: Putting yourself in another’s shoes allows you to access and understand the human feelings and needs of another – and yourself – which leads to understanding and collaboration.

Speak your truth: Be up front and honest. Say the same things in public as in private. Do exactly what you tell people you are going to do. This builds trust and a foundation for collaborative partnerships and processes.

Outcome

Do not be attached to a specific outcome: Ability to compromise, be flexible, and adapt are necessary skills for working together.

Group dynamics can co-create new creative solutions that escape individuals. Holistic problem-solving demands a holistic approach. Integration of body, mind, emotion, and spirit will yield different solutions than strict, mind-based problem-solving. Trust in yourself and the wisdom of the collective. Let your ego go and enjoy the process of group problem-solving.

People want to see early success: There's not much tolerance for talk and no action.

In polarized situations, often just bringing people together and opening dialogue at meetings can be judged by the community as an early success. The Community Unity exercise yields prioritized action steps agreed upon by majority consensus. Even “baby steps” – small incremental action – can lead to major change.

Resources

Don't reinvent the wheel – we don’t have time. Employ the resources available in your community and state [LINK to MAP]. Please share what you find with us so we can offer those benefits to others and expand the movement.

Meetings need facilitators with organizing and interpersonal skills who can guide the process fairly. Facilitators should be matched to the community and political/social climate.

Ideally, facilitators come from within the community itself. This empowers a community. Such peer outreach also makes services accessible, helps tame the meeting (are you really going to yell at your neighbor?), reaches people through peer pressure (hey, all my friends are going!), and puts a human face on the meeting.

However, neutral facilitators from outside the community can be critical to opening dialogue in polarized communities. If outside facilitators are hired, one goal of the people at the meeting can be to observe, learn, and train participants to facilitate future meetings. Not everyone will want to facilitate, but those who do should be encouraged.

If the situation is multi-racial as well as polarized, we have found groups are more likely to reach consensus if the lead facilitator is from the minority or First Nation. Oppressive mindsets and attitudes are deeply imbedded in oppressor cultures, often to the point where individuals are not aware of behavior that is perceived as offensive to others.

Students from local high schools or community colleges can use the Community Unity exercise as a class project to facilitate a community meeting, collect social data, and disseminate results to participants and local papers. Adults often behavior more civilly when children are present!

Speakers from other communities that have accomplished goals similar to what your community has chosen can inspire and motivate people. The more real the person, the better.

Hosting speakers from other communities can also be used as a shared fund-raising event for the local and outside groups.

Time, energy, and money: Organizing makes the best use of everyone’s resources.

Building a popular movement for a sustained effort is best accomplished through group work that uses staff and volunteers. Ideally, Kitchen Table Democracy gatherings will eventually channel their work into that of existing local groups.

For example, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has an issues committee on Corporations v. Democracy. The national committee feeds information for the local chapters to use. The local chapters respond with feedback on how to improve the process.

The popular movement to abolish corporate personhood starts around our kitchen tables. Think nationally and act locally!



Back to Host Kitchen Table Democracy