Wisdom Council Process

The process offers a relatively simple and inexpensive way to strengthen the self-organization and sense of responsibility among members of a larger system.

The actual working phase takes two days. Some planning will be required before to select citizens, organize the Council and potentially train the moderator.

First, citizen participants (10-30) are randomly selected to participate in the Council, with the support of a moderator trained in Dynamic Facilitation. Participants identify topics of public interest in their environment and creatively develop suggestions for improvement / solutions together.

The Vorarlberg Bürgerrät model has grown out of the Wisdom Council Process, and is one of its most successful applications to date. It includes 4 steps:

- City Council over 1.5 days: 10-30 citizens work out a joint statement with the support of two moderators

- Citizen Café: findings are presented to the public (50-100 people) and participants are then invited to join a deeper conversation at their tables before reporting to the larger group

- Responder team: a team of relevant professionals at the institutional level reviews the findings and monitors their implementation

- Documentation & next steps: the findings and results from the Café are recorded, providing informational groundwork for further conversation among community members and government

Energy level among participants, sense of belonging, desire to take responsibility to address collective challenges, sense of possibility

Amount and quality of suggestions for improvement and proposed solutions

The process relies on the Dynamic Facilitation approach and is originally based on a small number of randomly selected participants, but its actual application is flexible.