2007 Authentic Leadership Summer Program

Deep Democracy: The Art of Effective Decision-Making with Myrna Lewis & Sera Thompson

How do we tap the potential for innovation and action in any group or team? How do we shift recurring group patterns that block productivity and creativity? As executives, managers, consultants and teachers, how can we work fearlessly with underlying group dynamics to facilitate quantum growth in the collaborative potential and collective wisdom of our teams?

In this module you will enter the world of Deep Democracy, a hands-on approach that is widely applicable and a valuable tool for those facilitating meetings or any process where decisions need to be reached. It will provide a practical framework through which individuals, teams or groups can address areas that are often experienced as difficult, problematic or painful. The skills are easily learned, and easily used. No previous knowledge or experience is required, just a willingness to try something different and the ability to observe without judging or controlling.

Based on the pioneering work of Amy and Arny Mindell, Deep Democracy assumes that there is enormous wisdom and value in conflicting opinions. Deep Democracy doesn't attempt to get everyone to agree on the same approach or idea. It allows us to build real buy-in to group decisions — which recognizes and includes the wisdom inherent in minority views, rather than simply ignoring or overriding them. Deep Democracy creates heightened awareness at an individual and group level of the unconscious processes that often hold the key to real progress.

The methodology does not view difficulties as "pathologies" in the group or in any of its members, but rather as creative possibilities which need assistance to unfold. The emphasis on health rather than dysfunction provides a safe container, which allows individuals, groups, teams and organizations to change with surprising rapidity and grace.

Through this module you will also gain a heightened personal awareness of the roles you may unwittingly adopt in a group, the impact of your ability to be compassionate and maintain neutrality, and what is happening within yourself and how you can apply that insight to facilitate more effectively. Through this process you will also gain a profound understanding of the decision-making process.

Myrna Wajsman-Lewis is a South African consultant and social entrepreneur. She holds a masters in clinical psychology, has practiced as a social worker, and has been recognized as a teacher for her work with autistic children. She developed Deep Democracy together with her late husband Greg to assist businesses in South Africa in building a new paradigm of shared leadership and racial equity as apartheid was dissolving. Over the last 15 years, Myrna has trained hundreds of people in using the Deep Democracy method. It is practiced widely in business, community and public sector organizations; in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Israel, Russia and South Africa. Myrna works extensively consulting to businesses in South Africa and the UK and has been awarded an Ashoka Fellowship for her work bringing these skills to children in South African schools, and to HIV Counselors in the townships near Cape Town.

Sera Thompson is a consultant, conversation host and change agent who has lived and worked in Southern Africa, the UK, Canada and the United States. She facilitates and trains diverse groups in many contexts around the world. Her core work is in creating spaces for collaboration, innovation, and committed action. She does this by designing and hosting change processes, strategic dialogues, conferences, best practice and innovation exchanges, and leadership trainings.

For the past few years she has been using the methods and perspective of Deep Democracy in her work with clients in the corporate, non-profit and educational sectors — as well as in Pioneers of Change — a global network of young practitioners of Social Change, which she helped lead for over 2 years. She has trained dozens of leaders and facilitators from Africa, Europe, the UK and North America in Deep Democracy. Sera is deeply involved in the Shambhala Institute as a multi-year alumni, program designer/host and governing council member. She has been practicing Buddhism since her early teens and teaches meditation in the Shambhala Tradition.

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