65th Annual Conference

Thursday, February 21

Afternoon Workshops

2:45-6:00 P.M.

Workshop 25

Searching for Common Ground: Working with Politicized Groups in Divided Communities

Chair:   

David D. Chrislip, BA, MS, MPA, Principal, Boulder, Colorado

The American tradition of politics as a contest among interests erodes civility and destroys social capital. Workshop participants will explore how progressive communities use constructive group processes and strong facilitative leadership to re-imagine adversarial stories about how civic change occurs in order to reach common ground.
didactic-experiential-sharing of work experiences-demonstration
 

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:
1. Analyze the civic context in a community and assess its implications for how public decisions are made.
2. Choose an appropriate intervention strategy for making public decisions.
3. Describe the principles of collaborative engagement and the role of leadership.
4. Compare and contrast the strategies and leadership roles for working with large groups in a community setting with strategies for working with groups in a therapeutic setting.
5. Discuss the broader importance of collaboration as a means for building the “civic community”.
 

Course References:

1. Chrislip, David D. The Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
2. Heifetz, Ronald. “Adaptive Work.” Bentley, Tom and James Wilsdon, eds. The Adaptive State. London: Demos, 2003, pp. 68-78.
3. Lasker, Roz D. and Weiss, Elisa S. “Broadening Participation in Community Problem Solving: A Multidisciplinary Model to Support Collaborative Practice and Research.” Journal of Urban Health. The New York Academy of Medicine, Volume 80, Number 1, March 2003.