Collective Wisdom 

The Collective Wisdom Initiative, a visionary project of the Fetzer Foundation, was designed to catalyze the “building of the discipline of collective wisdom, its study and practice”. One of their outcomes was an insightful classic, The Power of Collective Wisdom –  and the trap of collective folly.

Deepening Democracy: Awakening the Spirit of Our Shared Life Together is a “seed paper” from 2003, commissioned by Collective Wisdom Initiative. In it, Rosa explores the public sphere projects in collective wisdom projects described by Tom Atlee in his book,  “The Tao of Democracy”.

Dialogue Mapping

Dialogue Mapping is a high-tech “cousin” of Dynamic Facilitation. It’s a software-assisted method for welcoming everything that is in the room, thus helping participants develop a holistic and systemic perspective, along with breatkthrough solutions. 

Here’s another description of Dialogue Mapping from PictureItSolved, a visual thinking website.

Empathy Circles

Empathy Circles are a simple, effective, and enjoyable way to connect deeply with others while practicing reflective listening skills, a core element in many listening-based practices. Edwin Rutsch, the founder of Empathy Circles, sees it as a “gateway practice” for a large variety of modalities such as Restorative Circles, Non-Violent Communication, Human-Centered Design, Focusing, and Dynamic Facilitation.

 You can also find additional resources here, and learn more about how we have been applying this work in organizational environments.

Engaging Emergence

Peggy Holman’s awesome book on the principles underlying the larger family of emergence-based approaches for evoking co-intelligence.

Faster than 20

Eugene Eric Kim’s website and blog, on developing widespread collaborative literacy.

Human and Global Systems Redesign

Dr. Eisen’s timeless paper on human and global systems redesign explores how we might apply our skills at facilitating human emergence and self-organization, at various system levels. 

“OD is Simple” – the powerful Crosby tradition

A great essay by Robert P. Crosby, on the essence of Organization Development. One caveat: “simple” does not necessarily mean easy!

Robert Crosby is also the author of “Memoirs of a Change Agent: T-groups, Organization Development, and Social Justice“, as well as other books. His sons Gilmore Crosby and Christopher Crosby continue the family tradition of helping bring greater clarity and energy to organizations, while also sharing their learning with others.