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The Learning Centre, established in 2003, is designed to create a fluid, creative system of documenting community building activity and delivering this learning to organizations. The centre has a threefold purpose: to broadly disseminate knowledge gathered through research and practical experience; to help communities increase their power through learning; and to generate knowledge about community engagement so as to advance the field. Learn more about the Learning Centre here.
John Ott is a co-author of the brilliant new book, and soon to be movement (my prediction), supported by the visionaries of the Fetzer Institute. This book is required reading for anyone interesting in collaborative social change. Based on nine years of research, The Power of Collective Wisdom shows how we can reliably tap into the extraordinary co-creative potential that exists whenever human beings gather together.
The book is practical and gives us not only the concepts and benefits of collective thinking but also shares with us methods that increase the likelihood of collective wisdom emerging when a group is gathered together. These methods include:
 Deep Listening – inviting us to be curious about what is really going on inside the person, the group, or the larger collective. It is an act of truly being present with others.
- Suspension of Certainty – watching for something new and often unexpected in and through the group enables our knowing together to be collective
- Seeing Whole Systems/Seeking Diverse Perspectives – shifting our attention from the individual to the group
- Respect for Others/Group Discernment – recognizing dissent as an avenue for new learning. Discernment is a capacity in groups for differentiation, permitting the emergence of new thinking and new images of what is possible.
- Welcoming All That Is Arising – bringing conscious attention to how gracefully we treat each other – recognizing different needs, respecting differences and celebrating our common identity.
- Trust in the Transcendent – appreciating an underlying and critical element that takes into account the spiritual dimension or natural order we tap into collectively. It is our ability - even expectation that we can be surprised.
The authors write,
"Collective wisdom refers to knowledge and insight gained through group and community interaction. At a deeper level, however, it is about our living connection to each other and the interdependence we share in our neighborhoods, organizations, and world community."
If you are interested in deepening your understanding of the conditions that allow wisdom to emerge within groups and the common characteristics that underlie many successful group methodologies, you will want to be sure to read this book.
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Courtesy of Carl Hiebert. |
