Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (Research in Public Management): Christakis, Alexander N., Bausch, Kenneth C.: 9781593114817: Amazon.com: Books

Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery

Hardcover
$39.32

Paperback
$52.99

$52.99

FREE Returns

FREE delivery Friday, January 3. Order within 18 hrs 18 mins

In Stock

$$52.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2025

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$24.98

Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials such as access codes, etc. May have some wear or writing/highlighting. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! See less

$3.99 delivery January 7 - 13. Details

Or fastest delivery January 3 - 8. Details

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$52.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from and sold by HPB-Red.

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

$52.99

FREE pickup Friday, January 3

Or Prime members get FREE pickup Monday, December 30. Order within 18 hrs 18 mins.

Amazon Locker - Pyrus

1.76 mi | Ashburn 20147

How pickup works

In Stock

$$52.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Returnable until Jan 31, 2025

Payment

Secure transaction

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (16) from $20.00 + $3.99 shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Alexander N. Christakis

Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (Research in Public Management) Paperback – Illustrated, February 1, 2006

by Alexander N. Christakis (Editor), Kenneth C. Bausch (Editor)

4.7 9 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$52.99","priceAmount":52.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"52","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"IyXE9910QjPfLNwMmdBsG9oi28PLjv00GLooWddchca1GhX%2Bob2HTZ9Mr6WJRe%2BS%2BaG9zl7nWL%2FlqlLYR%2FndzSMQInPdqwFr974qoP1rb5KtLFu77DO3mbJ9E4%2BNK0SaaoAG0hd3bIU%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$24.98","priceAmount":24.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"24","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"IyXE9910QjPfLNwMmdBsG9oi28PLjv00o6gKN3sapZTnSUTiICAf0%2BkL0fFca0DGEQK0liCJaI04isuAIDm9gWlBN3g8sn%2BIX7IqEyx5CZwma4HNfW%2FzQOf5HEVXwHmfPSwCbEKMwbxux%2B2f%2FTb67D8gjS7hGewxuGaMqOe18peFvFiDsI5Mbf5JyFY4yRV5","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}],"desktop_buybox_group_2":[{"displayPrice":"$52.99","priceAmount":52.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"52","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"IyXE9910QjPfLNwMmdBsG9oi28PLjv00GLooWddchca1GhX%2Bob2HTZ9Mr6WJRe%2BS%2BaG9zl7nWL%2FlqlLYR%2FndzSMQInPdqwFr974qoP1rb5KtLFu77DO3mbJ9E4%2BNK0SaaoAG0hd3bIU%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"PICKUP","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":2}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

We have all experienced the benefits of dialogue when we openly and thoughtfully confront issues. We have also experienced the frustration of interminable discussion that does not lead to progress. Co-Laboratories of Democracy enable large, diverse groups to dialogue and generate positive results. Many group processes engender enthusiasm and good feeling as people share their concerns and hopes with each other. Co-Laboratories go beyond this initial euphoria to: Discover root causes; Adopt consensual action plans; Develop teams dedicated to implementing those plans; and Generate lasting bonds of respect, trust, and cooperation.Co-Laboratories achieve these results by respecting the autonomy of all participants, and utilizing an array of consensus tools including discipline, technology and graphics that allow the stakeholders to control the discussion. These are explained in depth in a book authored by Alexander N. Christakis with Kenneth C. Bausch: Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (Information Age, 2006).Co-Laboratories are a refinement of Interactive Management, a decision and design methodology developed over the past 30 years to deal with very complex situations involving diverse stakeholders. It has been successfully employed all over the world in situations of uncertainty and conflict. On Cyprus, for example, it has been used to bridge the divide between the Turkish and Greek factions on the island. It is currently being employed on that island to help Palestinian authorities organize their government.Co-Laboratories in one day can draw together a diverse group of people on an issue, elicit authentic feelings and respectful listening, generate agreed upon language, and identify leverage points for effective action. Participants will be able to generate a consensual action plan. Co-Laboratories generate real respect, understanding, and cooperation among participants and do it rapidly.

Report an issue with this product or seller

Print length

308 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Information Age Publishing
Publication date

February 1, 2006
Dimensions

6.14 x 0.7 x 9.21 inches
ISBN-10

1593114818
ISBN-13

978-1593114817
See all details

The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review

The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Customer reviews

9 global ratings

5 star
66%
4 star
34%
3 star
0%
2 star
0%
1 star
0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Amazon Customer
It reveals an authentically democratic if not the first scientific ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
It reveals an authentically democratic if not the first scientific approach to dialogue; a process that resists the reduction of ideas to the dualism if yes and know right and wrong and reveals their relative influence on each other through a root cause analysis. It neutralizes narcisism and power and reveals that the wisdom of groups is almost never the concensus of a group. It reveals a computer aided approach to dialogue where all the presenting ideas are defined all the votes for the influencing factors are recorded and it produces an influence map that is the beginning of a new narrative. Most importand it is a process that is thouroughly doccumented and therefore iterative so it can be revisited, reassembled and redesigned..

Read more

Helpful

Report
Dena Michele
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2016
Verified Purchase
Helpful for dialogue of idealized design work. Arrived promptly.

Read more

Helpful

Report
David Mackett
A Practitioner's Perspective
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2007
Others have reviewed this book's scientific basis, its historical context, and the hopeful message it delivers for the future of democracy in the world. I can give you another perspective, that from a practitioner of the Structured Design Process (SDP) as described in the book.

I have applied SDP in literally dozens of fishery, oceanographic, and marine mammal research and management applications over the final 17 years of my career, from 1982 through 1998, and I can attest to the method's effectiveness. My only regret was that I didn't have the the SDP methodology available to me in the first 22 years of my career!

Starting in 1982, Dr. Christakis, as a contractor, began to guide me towards in the installation and practice of SDP (we called it Interactive Management) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. I was at the time recently appointed as the Planning Officer for the Center and given the assignment to develop the lab's strategic plans that would mesh with the overall National Marine Fisheries Service's strategic plan. I suppose my education and experience as a fishery biologist and statistician and my practice of systems analysis were thought qualifications for the job. However, my reaction after about two weeks of reading background materials and investigating possible ways to proceed was, "What kind of MESS did I get myself into?

I had left the world of simple problems and entered the world of complex problematiques - though I had no idea I had done so until somewhat later.

Fortunately, I remembered a training class I had taken some years before, taught by a colleague of Dr. Christakis, wherein complexity arising from interacting problems was defined and Interpretive Structural Modeling was explained and demonstrated by Christakis. I placed a phone call to Dr. Christakis for HELP! He came to our rescue and helped me install the processes and to train the staff that ultimately led to our success in many research and management programs over the next 17 years.

Since that beginning in 1982, SDP was applied to define problems and develop strategic and operational plans for programs as wide-ranging as the International Antarctic Research Program, marine mammal research, Northwest Hawaiian Islands fishery resource surveys, endangered species research and management, tuna fisheries and resource research and management, architectural requirements for a new laboratory based on the strategic plan for research, management of the salmon resources of Northern California, State-Federal fishery research programs and many many more.

Three interacting characteristics that remained constant throughout all of the problematiques to which SDP was applied were 1) involvement of a wide-range of stakeholder interests, 2) a multi-disciplined approach was required to define the problems yet alone to resolve them, and 3) no one or two people had sufficient expertise to understand all the interactions among problems yet alone the expertise to develop possible solutions that would be successful. In other words the problem complexes needed the attention and work of many people who do not necessarily speak the same technical language. Facilitation, at the very least was needed but a full blown Structured Design Process(SDP) was the ultimate answer. Why this was so for my problem and a wide-range of complex situations (problematiques) facing our human endeavors, is explained very well in the book.

Without getting into those reasons here, let's look at the situation you are in that might be similar to mine in 1982. Got a mess on your hands? Do you face a complex socio-economic-technical situation requiring many, often disparate, stakeholders, academic disciplines, or technical specialties just to define the problem yet alone resolve it? If so, this book is for you.

Have you ever been involved in (or worse, in charge of ) an enterprise or project that starts with wild enthusiasm (usually with uncritical acceptance), proceeds quickly to disillusionment, followed by total confusion, leading to a search for the guilty and the punishment of the innocent and ending with the promotion of the non-participants? (Iraq?) If so, this book is for you.

Do you know the difference between ordinary problems and a complex interacting set of them - a problematique? Do you know that the methods of solving ordinary problems DO NOT WORK when applied to complex problems? If not, this book is for you.

Suppose you feel that you do face a complex problem requiring, for example, the integrated knowledge of biologists, sociologists, economists, and engineers, or one crying out for the integration of computer science, anthropology, herpetology, hydrology, geology, architecture, and the law, but you do not know how to bring these disparate disciplines together efficiently and effectively to avoid the dreaded disillusionment and confusion? If so, this book is for you.

Perhaps you cringe at the mere idea of bringing a diverse group of stakeholders or subject matter experts together in one room to produce a plan. Does the thought of dealing with the prima donnas, the loudmouths, the politically connected, the meek, the officious, the gate keeper, the humble, the know-it-alls, and the smart Alecs in a planning meeting give you heartburn? If so, this book will be worth at least 10 bottles of Mylanta to you.

In short, if you face any of the situations I've just outlined and you're serious about your job, you MUST LEARN and APPLY the scientifically-based STRUCTURED DESIGN PROCESS (SDP) as explained by Christakis to be successful. Good Luck!

David J. Mackett

Las Vegas, NV

Read more

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Daniel Shaw
Democracy is Possible, Here's How
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2006
Many Americans may feel pessimistic about the possibility for effective democracy, How People presents an essential formula for citizen empowerment based in the logic of democratic decision-making. One may well ask, "In a complex situation, how is it possible for a diverse group to come to a democratic decision?" Even when it comes to making a decision as individuals, we rarely apply consistent rules of logic. Christakis ("Aleco") and Bausch lay out the logical formula for arriving at a decision, perhaps for the first time. More than 30 years ago, Aleco, a physicist, began his quest to apply the laws of logic to democratic decision-making. His system, the Structured Design Process (SDP), makes possible effective participatory democracy. Without a logical process, and a `transparent' process, without tools to manage complexity, Democracy is not possible. I hope this article will convince you, as I am convinced, that SDP is the best model for Democratic dialogue, that nothing less will do.

Not surprisingly, the process has numerous stages, and processes, and requires from the participants an ongoing commitment. Christakis and Bausch identify four stages of decision-making: Definition, Design, Decision, and Action Planning. Everyone holding a stake in the outcome is invited to participate. SDP requires a strict distinction between the roles of the facilitators, who guide the process, and the participants, who control the content of the discussions. Defining a "Triggering Question" is perhaps the most important factor to the successful outcome of the group acting together on shared concerns. Often a small group will conduct interviews and write a "White Paper" to provide a starting point in discussions. For example, a triggering question may be, "What are critical current and anticipated issues (or challenges) to be addressed in order to achieve our strategic vision?" A group is then engaged in a sustained dialogue to articulate as many relevant observations as possible. This complexly inter-related mass of observations is called a problematique. The goal then becomes to clarify meanings, and to cluster these observations into groups of items with significant similarities. The relationships between these ideas, the direction of influence, is then mapped using Root Cause Mapping software. If a group focuses on importance, rather than influence, then they will choose the wrong priorities.

In the Design Stage, action options are identified, grouped into categories, then their complex inter-relationships can be graphically mapped. Because the software generates a graphic of the relationship between ideas, action options with the highest leverage become obvious. In the Decision Stage, participants design alternative action profiles, then vote on which action profiles would be most effective.

SDP is designed to use software tools to simplify decision-making within highly complex situations, and to overcome what the authors call "The Burdens of Dialogue". Participants can focus on a limited and manageable number of relationships while the software keeps track. As the process advances, the method of that progression is completely tracked and made public.

Without the SDP, there is really little hope for citizen empowerment and the logical advance of Democracy. Christakis and Bausch have succeeded in identifying the essential components of Democratic decision-making. Even the groups most engaged in our Democracy are rarely themselves operating democratically. Each of us must learn the basic formula for democratic decision making, and apply that process in the development of our organizations. Incredibly, the techniques and tools of democracy are just now being honed, but, it seems that to keep up with the times, the tools of Democracy must be continually sharpened, and applied to the task, otherwise they will surely turn to dust. Christakis and Bausch's SDP is the toolbox, and if we want Democracy, thankfully, we can now apply the best tools.

Read more

Helpful

Report

Get to Know Us

Make Money with Us

Amazon Payment Products

Let Us Help You

English United States

© 1996-2024, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates