DEEP DEMOCRACY

Deep Democracy is an approach that helps individuals, relationships and / or groups address issues, make decisions and resolve conflict. At its core, it is a cutting edge facilitation and conflict resolution methodology that is pragmatic and easily acquired. It provides a new way of seeing situations and the necessary skills to improve decision making, gain true buy in, enhance productivity and performance and achieve breakthroughs in seemingly impossible-to-solve issues.

Since Deep Democracy’s inception in South Africa, it has spread to the UK, America, Canada, Russia, India, Ireland, Denmark, Zimbabwe and Israel. The success of the Deep Democracy method has been proven in a variety of situations including conflicting teams or groups, racial tension, change management and restructuring, counselling and in education. Today Deep Democracy is being taught in seven countries around the world and to people of all ages, from all walks of life.

In essence Deep Democracy is about fostering awareness within and of oneself, in dyads and in groups. Alongside this it provides, practical and pragmatic tools and techniques that are simple yet powerful. These teach you how to enhance personal and team effectiveness, improve the quality and inclusiveness of decision-making and to get people to say what they need to say. In addition it sees challenges and conflict as vehicles for growth.

At the heart of Deep Democracy is an avant-garde theoretical model based on new physics thinking, Role Theory. Developed by Arnold Mindell, Role Theory offers a perspective that literally changes ones understanding of the relationships and interpersonal dynamics that are occurring at all times. It does this by shifting the focus away from individuals and looking at groups in relation to energy fields. This switch is liberating and opens up novel ways of dealing with groups. Another important principle in Deep Democracy is the idea that a well functioning group is dependent on all the voices, positions and views in a group being heard and valued. In fact it recognises that the unpopular / disavowed opinion or the minority view has a wisdom. As such decisions can only be sustainable if the group recognises and incorporates the wisdom of the unpopular opinion into the majority decision. Failing to do so will inevitably result in sabotage by the minority.Consequently Deep Democracy ensures that through a process of facilitation the minority's views and concerns are genuinely addressed and that their wisdom is incorporated into the majority decision. Understand that this is not an attempt to get everyone to agree on the same idea or approach. Nor is it a ‘terrorism’ of the minority. Rather it is way of ensuring that the minority buys-in to the majority decision by incorporating their wisdom. Deep Democracy’s unusual facilitation process nurtures involvement and participation and frequently results in a lively openness and transparency and a very powerful strengthening of groups and collaboration. Deep Democracy is a methodology that: Promotes heightened self awareness Ensures individuals are treated with respect and that their wisdom is facilitated and incorporated Facilitates working with and empowering people including diverse groups/members Builds a shared vision through ensuring that the minority’s views and concerns are genuinely addressed and that their buy-in or support is obtained Achieves breakthroughs in groups on impossible-to-solve issues Facilitates the building of community Facilitates decisions needed to create transformation and change Recognizes the emotional dynamics within a meeting and provides the tools to deal with these dynamics

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