Community-Based Co-Laboratory of Democracy

The case study I chose to discuss is “Community-Based Co-Laboratory of Democracy. The case is about a community using the SDP to define the future of the community as a whole. First, the study discussed how the community generated 42 distinct intentions in one working session by voting subsequently and subjectively. Next, during the afternoon session stakeholders used strategic dialogue to discuss the 12 most important intentions and a tree was developed to depict the level of importance.

Of the 12 most important intentions, the two most important intentions to the group were identified. Overall, SDP in this situation proved to be a better technique for group decision making over the Robert rules of order. Therefore, one should consider SDP when group decision making is involved if their current process is not effective.

Christakis, A. N., & Bausch, K. C. (2006). How people harness their collective wisdom and power to construct the future in co-laboratories of democracy: Information Age Publishing.