The Lewis Method of Deep Democracy

Is it possible to stay in dialogue around emotionally charged topics in ways that energize, create shifts in consciousness, and evoke new ideas for action? This is what we want to explore in this interactive session using the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy. The Lewis Method was created by Myrna and Greg Lewis to help South African companies and individuals recover and heal from the traumatic legacy of apartheid. The Lewis Method offers concrete, proven methods that support effective decision making, problem solving, and conflict resolution. The techniques surface undercurrents, engage all voices, and work through differences to find resolutions to seemingly impossible-to-solve issues.

Interrupting the Path to Violence: Using Deep Democracy to Identify and Mitigate Precursors to Violence

Join us at the Frontiers of Democracy conference!

Violence doesn’t just happen. There are often warning signs that appear long before a situation erupts. All too often, we don’t pay attention to these warning signs. We brush them off, discount them, or otherwise ignore them. Other times, we see the warning signs, but hesitate to intervene out of fear of making something bigger than it is, lack of confidence in our skills, or worries about ruining relationships. Our avoidance can backfire as tension grows and leads to separation or violence.

In this session, we will explore the Resistance Line, a tool developed by the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy, and use it to help us diagnose and intervene before conflicts become intractable.

Decreasing Polarization through Deep Democracy at the ACR Conference

Join us at the Association for Conflict Resolution annual conference!

Polarization isn’t just for politics. Across the US and the world, people are managing differences by dividing into us versus them camps. Some of this is good-natured (think sports teams), but much of it devolves into name-calling, oversimplification of issues, and demonization of the other side.

Deep Democracy, a method of conflict resolution developed in South Africa to support the transition away from apartheid, was designed to help transform destructive polarization. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn the Deep Democracy approach to interrupting polarization both through presentation and an experiential activity in which we use Deep Democracy techniques to address a polarity present within the group or conference.

Working with Resistance: A Deep Democracy Approach

As facilitators, our job is to help diverse groups come together, engage in dialogues that encourage positive collaboration across differences, enable groups to overcome resistance, access more of the wisdom inherent in the system, and craft solutions that stick. Resistance is a dynamic that slows down or sometimes even blocks the system from moving toward a decision. 

In this session, participants learn about the Lewis Deep Democracy, which was developed in South Africa after the fall of apartheid to help organizations recover from the legacy of racism. We will share a tool to diagnose resistance in a system. We will focus our attention on our inner systems and reflect on where we are with resistance.

Is your strategy stuck in the 20th century?

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