Learning Community
Building community through shared learning experiences
in wise democracy, wholeness, and co-intelligence
Community Calls
Real-World Co-Intelligence (RWCI) Community Learning Calls (online, Zoom)
Join us bi-monthly on the 4th Friday of the month for a series of conversations with practitioners sharing learnings from their recent work projects.
In addition to focusing on practice, our RWCI calls are designed to illustrate the connections between practitioners’ work and the elements our Wise Democracy Pattern Language. The format includes brief practitioner presentations, time for group input, and insights from Tom Atlee relating to co-intelligence. Everyone is welcome — no prior experience necessary!
Community Resonance calls (online, Zoom)
These are new, bi-monthly opportunities for people who resonate with the institute’s explorations in wise democracy and co-intelligence (what intelligence looks like when wholeness, interconnectedness and co-creativity are taken seriously). Join us if you want to be part of a space of community, support and exploration, join us to share what you are working on, a specific idea or inquiry, or simply to hang out and learn from others.
Upcoming Community Calls
Friday November 22nd 2024 - Reflections on the U.S. Election
With the U.S. election present in people’s minds, our next Community Resonance Call will be dedicated to reflecting on where we are and explore both “what is”, and “what is possible now?” We’ll be slowing down, taking turns deep listening and speaking, practicing co-intelligence as best we can. Register here
Previous Calls
You can view previous community learning calls on the RWCI playlist on the CII YouTube channel.
Friday Oct 25th 2024 - Kaliya Young: The Internet Engineering Task Force
For this RWCI Kaliya presents her pioneering analysis of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Kaliya has utilized the Wise Democracy and Group Works pattern languages to highlight how the IETF manifests co-intelligence and self-organization more effectively than almost anything we've seen before!
The IETF, responsible for the protocols and standards that underpin the global internet, is an extraordinary case study of how decentralized systems can foster self-organization, collaborative innovation and decision-making.
Friday August 23rd - Macleans ‘ The People’s Verdict’ (RWCI call)
One weekend in June 1991 Canada's news magazine Maclean’s convened a dozen Canadians who had been scientifically chosen by a polling firm. Together, they represented all the major sectors of public opinion and demographics in Canada. In other words, they were selected for their differences—profound differences that reflected deep divisions in their fragmented country. Maclean’s gave these dozen people three days to develop a consensus vision for Canada. Amazingly, these ordinary citizens succeeded in their mission...
Friday May 24th - Nonviolent Global Liberation Community (RWCI call)
NGL is a community of practice dedicated to bridging the gap between the current global crises of scarcity, separation, and powerlessness towards a world of flow, togetherness, and choice. Since 2017 they’ve been experimenting with radical nonviolent approaches rooted in gift economy principles, facilitative leadership & collaboration. Four NGL members including Miki Kashtan joined us for the call.
Wednesday March 27 2024 - Official book launch event for Tom Atlee’s new book about Co-Intelligence
Tom Atlee, old friends and new of the Co-Intelligence Institute gathered to hear Tom tell the story of his new book "Co-Intelligence - The Applied Wisdom of Wholeness, Interconnectedness, and Co-Creativity."
This interactive session included Tom sharing excerpts and poems from the book, group discussion and Q&A.
February 2024 - Patricia A Wilson: Stories of wisdom and heart in community-based change
Patricia Wilson is Professor Emerita in the Community and Regional Planning program at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. Sharing stories from her extensive experience witnessing, researching and facilitating community engagement around the globe, she highlighted wisdom, heart and co-intelligence at play in creating social change.
January 2024 - Rich Wilson: The Convention of the Future Armenian
Our featured guest Rich Wilson, CEO of Iswe, founder of Involve UK and co-founder of the Global Climate Assembly joined us to share the story of the innovative Convention of the Future Armenian which brought stakeholders and randomly selected citizens together to discuss the future of their nation in Yerevan, March ‘23.
December 2023 - Sita Magnuson & Pasqualina Azzarello: Dreaming Together to Co-Design the Future
Join us in conversation with Sita Magnusson (facilitator and process designer) and Pasqualina Azzarello (Arts & Culture Program Director at Easthampton City Arts) to explore their work with the Easthampton Futures Project, an experiment in citizen-driven Planning in 2019.
November 2023 - Exploring Capacitance and Appreciative Thinking
This call took place the day after Thanksgiving in the US. So rather than host a featured guest for our usual Real World Co-Intelligence (RWCI) learning call we held an intimate session to explore the challenging, juicy intersection between two Wise Democracy Patterns: Capacitance and Appreciative Thinking. We loved the resulting discussion!
Watch the recording
October 2023 - Yen Lin ‘mashbean’ Huang: the story of Taiwan's remarkable digital democracy
Our featured guest was ‘mashbean’ Huang, from the Ministry of Digital Affairs in the Taiwanese government. We heard the story of Taiwan’s digital democracy with its origins in Taiwanese cultural practices, self-organized grassroots movements, the emergence of vTaiwan and now the work of the Ministry of Digital Affairs.
September 2023 - Russell Razzaque: Open Dialogue, a co-intelligent therapeutic approach to Mental Health
Our featured guest was Professor Russell Razzaque who brought Open Dialogue to the UK’s National Health Service. We explored a Co-Intelligent approach to mental healthcare, a great example of the 'whole system in the conversation'
June 2023 - Beth Tener: Unlocking Community Potential
Our featured guest for June's call was Beth Tener, a collaborative systems consultant, network facilitator, and leadership development coach . This community learning call focused on Beth's work as co-designer and co-host of the SeaCHANGE conference - Reshaping Tomorrow through Creativity & Community that explores how communities can work with the arts for healing and social change and amplify the work of BIPOC artists.
May 2023 -Indra Adnan: A conversation on place-based systemic transformation
For some time now, Indra and collaborators with the Alternative UK (and now Alternative Global) have been asking the question “If politics is broken, then… what is the Alternative?”. The answers led Indra and others to focus on catalyzing Community Agency Networks (CANs) in different parts of the UK and the world. In this session, we discussed with Indra about her model for developing CANS, and the work of being a systems convenor.
Watch the recording
April 2023 - Exploring "Teaching Power": A film about radical democracy in Malawi
We explored the stirring story of a highly successful Citizens’ Assembly in Malawi. Edwin Msewa, lead organizer, and Patrick Chalmers, the film-maker joined us in April. During the call, we watched the film together, reflected on its impact, and heard Edwin and Patrick's stories about organizing and filming this extraordinary process. Sadly, due to a technical fault, the video recording of the call is unavailable
You can watch the 21-minute film Teaching Power here
March 2023 - Nancy Glock-Grueneich: Supporting Each Other in Responding to the Climate Crisis
Nancy Glock-Grueneich, educator and social change strategist, has been practicing Climate Coaching. She works with co-intelligent practices as she supports others in stepping into Climate Empowerment. In this call we learned from her experiences in coaching and mentoring climate activists. Nancy shares three stories and leads us through a simple yet powerful framework that she has developed. Watch the recording
February 2023 - Andy Paice, Eva Trier & Paul Thistlethwaite: Learning from the Cheshire East People’s Panel
Designing citizens’ deliberation using holistic principles. With guest practioner Andy Paice and facilitators of the People’s Panel. Watch the Video On This Process
January 2023 - Shamichael Hallman: Reimagining the Civic Commons
January’s guest practitioner was Shamichael Hallman, a social, civic and tech innovator. His fellowship work at Harvard University includes exploring how design and planning can make for socially inclusive cities and welcoming public spaces. Watch his TEDx talk "Reimagining the Public Library to Reconnect the Community" Watch the recording
December 2022 - Exploring the Austrian Climate Assembly
Guest practitioners Jenna Büchy and Robert Pakleppa, who were involved in designing and facilitating the Austrian National Citizens Climate Council highlight their work in this interactive conversation.
CII Courses
explore wise democracy, wholeness, and co-intelligence.
Our small, highly interactive online courses are led by members of our teaching team, including Tom Atlee, Rosa Zubizarreta, Andy Paice, and Natalia Rogovin.
We invite you to email us at cii@igc.org if you are interested in a custom workshop for your organization or community.
UPCOMING COURSES
Exploring The Prime Directive
NEW DATES COMING SOON
The Prime Directive in Practice: A Short Class
The Prime Directive is to appreciate, evoke, and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole. After a brief introduction to the Prime Directive by Tom, we will explore how to apply it in various situations and projects—real or imagined—offered up by participants. For each example, we’ll consider what “the whole” might be, its potential for wisdom and resourcefulness, and how these might be appreciated, evoked, and engaged—both ideally and practically—for its benefit and the benefit of other wholes that might be involved. We’ll seek to enhance participants’ capacity to look at situations and projects through the lens of the Prime Directive and to start using it to make a positive difference.
Each session is limited to 16 people.
This course is free, with a suggested donation ($30-$100+ as able)
To accommodate people in different time zones, this course is offered twice. Use the correct link to the right to register for the session you want to participate in.
Please only register for one session.
Patterning Ritual
New Session Coming - Check Back!
Join us for an interactive workshop using the Wise Democracy Pattern Language to clarify co-intelligent intentions for the New Year.
Learn about and use the Co-Intelligence Institute’s patterning ritual—a tool developed in early 2022 that supports individuals and organizations in using the Wise Democracy Pattern Language—to find clarity in moments of transition.
This interactive workshop will offer space to reflect on the year past and consider the year ahead. We will explore the patterns to invite clarity about challenges you want to lean into; resources and strengths you can draw on; and patterns you feel energized to activate with others in your community, network, and/ or organization.
No prior experience with the pattern language is required, though familiarizing yourself with the patterns prior to the workshop will deepen your inquiry. This workshop will require the use of a computer, and headphones are recommended. If you need to dial in, we recommend you have access to the digital cards (download here), or the physical cards, which you can order here.
NEW SESSION COMING SOON
Check Back
Our rapidly-evolving field is filled with conversations about on-the-ground work and leading-edge ideas and inquiries. We host learning experiences to:
Surface new perspectives
Discover opportunities
Help the field evolve.
Members of the Co-Intelligence Institute community frequently participate in, spark, and host events relating to transforming democracy and understanding co-intelligence in our work and lives. These may be public or invite-only, small or large.
Gatherings & Convenings
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January 2023
Wise Democracy Pattern Language Patterning Ritual
February 2023
4 session Book group on “Winds of Change” with author Rivera Sun -
January 2022
Cospiring Cointelligencia: An Unconference for those inspired by Tom AtleeJune 2022
In-person convening about Democracy Reform. Tom Atlee consulted regarding networking, ideas, and design for 9 months prior to the invitational June event in Kentucky. -
July 2021
Virtual talk: “Democracy and Process” for the Rotary Club of El Cerrito.Virtual Workshop: “Multi-Process Synergies for Community Sense-Making” at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation 2021 Summer Learning Springboard.
Virtual Presentations: “Messages from the field for inspiring collective action” (Tom Atlee) and “The Pol.is Survey” (Andy Paice) at The New Paradigm in Politics 2021 Online Global Symposium.
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May 2020
Virtual Presentations: “Wise Democracy” and “The watershed experience of my life: The Great Peace March” to the UK Mutual Gain VirtualCuppa Group. -
April 2019
Virtual workshop: "The Wise Democracy Pattern Language Card Deck” at the Climate Change and Consciousness International Conference, assisted on-site by Charles BlassAugust 2019
Workshops: "Wise Democracy Pattern Language” and "What could be done with the challenge of mass migration that would advance the development of regenerative culture?” at the Bloom Network’s Pollination conference, San Francisco. -
February 2018
”Power, Participation and Wisdom” workshop by Andy Paice at the Notwestminster conference on local democracy in the UK.
June 2018
Keynote talk "Catalyzing a society’s empowered common sense” at the participatory communication research (PCR) section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Eugene, OR. -
November 2017
Wise Democracy Pattern Language workshop by Andy Paice at the Innocracy Conference in Berlin, (European civil-society conference that explores innovation in democracies).October 2016
Workshop: "Leveraging and Scaling-Up Group Dialogue and Deliberation to Bridge Larger Social Divides" at National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation conference, with Rosa Zubizarreta, https://www.ncdd.org/2016-workshops.html
October 2014
Keynote Presentation: "Big Empathy: Creating a Wise Democracy and a Caring Economy” at the Growing Beyond Ourselves award ceremony, the Hawthorne Valley Center for Social Research
https://web.archive.org/web/20150222184743/http://thecenterforsocialresearch.org/credere-grants/credere-presentations/
March 2012
Community and Bioregional Resilience - Tom and John Abbe Organized and facilitated this Open Space Conference in Eugene, OR.
https://occupyeugenemedia.org/2012/02/28/conference-on-community-and-bioregional-resilience/July 2009
Virtual TED talk; “Wise Democracy”, at TEDx Warwick UK
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnrZvmE6DQ
September 2008
Workshop: "Replacing Force with Consciousness: A Co-Evolutionary Dance Toward Nonviolent Social Systems" (with Peggy Holman) at Nonviolence as a Way of Life conference, Eugene, ORAugust 2007
The First Story Field Conference, conceptualized by Tom, co-organized with Peggy Holman
"Invoking a New World through Story"
http://www.storyfieldconference.net/
May 2005
Conference (co-organized): Evolutionary Directionality, Emergent Complexity, and the Future of Humanity (with Peggy Holman and Michael Dowd) http://thegreatstory.org/ev-salon1.htmlJanuary 2001
The Wisdom Council Project proposed by Adin Rogovin was engaged by the CAAC of the HSC to organize a focus group of Lane County citizens who use social services. Four 3 hour sessions were scheduled. Facilitator Jim Rough facilitated all the sessions.
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