GROUP DYNAMICS - The Growing Democracy Project

Important Resources

Organizations

Our elite class system is the predominant political and social force in our country at this time. And it has been that way since the beginning of not only our country but virtually all Western societies.

In spite of this America is rich in democratic practices, attitudes, dispositions, organizations, systems, traditions, and committed people. In order to grow our democracy we must use and develop all of these resources as well as create more powerful ones.

In this section we list significant organizations and people who are behind growing our democracy, not just fixing what we have. Our list has four categories: Culture, Group Dynamics, Organizing, and Practice.

We see these as the four key elements in building a long-term democracy movement driven by everyday people in all of our diversity. These four categories are also the primary areas of concentration in our Growing Democracy Learning Labs.

We have begun this list in September 2023, and will add to it continuously. Please contact us if there are people or organizations you think belong on our lists, and tell us why.

Thank you and enjoy your explorations of our resources.

The Growing Democracy Project rests on a clear vision of everyday citizens developing the capacity to talk with each other face-to-face with an uncommon genuineness that would make the world they share work as well as possible for everybody involved.

Surprisingly, honest communication—and that means communication which includes giving and receiving feedback—has powerful impact on three aspects of well-being: that which comes from experiencing pleasure, enjoyment, and happiness; that which comes from meaning, fulfillment, and individual autonomy; and the well-being that comes with deeper social connection.

Center for Efficient Collaboration

They describe themselves as a “collaboration consultancy that helps organizations tap their full potential and guides multi-stakeholder groups to alignment.”

They work from a big picture of “a world full of groups and organizations whose collaborative culture and awareness of shared purpose infuses everything they do. Their grounding in purpose drives them to align practices with values, prioritize effectiveness and resource-efficiency, and stretch to reach decisions that serve their mission. Their collaborative way of working means they co-create outcomes that attend to what’s important for everyone involved.”

We have worked with two of their members, and this is why we are listing them as an important resource.

Minds at Work

They provide a range of services including their Organizational Practice. They use a special approach they call Immunity to Change to help individuals and organizations to understand and overcome the forces that foil progress on individual and collective goals. They have worked with with units as small as a leadership team and as large as a company’s whole culture over many years.

They have written two books that describe their work through rich narrative and case studies: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberatively Developmental Organization and Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization. There is a 20-page summary of the first book here, and an adapted version of the Immunity to Change Worksheet here.