3rd International Facilitators Training School: Structured Dialogic Design (SDD)® Process

3rd International Facilitators Training School: Structured Dialogic Design (SDD)® Process

Future Worlds Center Press Release
For Immediate Release

For more information, please contact Elicia Reed:
elicia@futureworldscenter.org or +357 22 873 820

Revolutionary international facilitation training school focuses on Co-Laboratories of Democracy and the science of Structured Dialogic Design (SDD)®.

Future Worlds Center of Cyprus in collaboration with the Institute for 21st Century Agoras of California, USA are organizing the third International School for Structured Dialogue, a groundbreaking approach to authentic and disciplined dialogue facilitation.

(Nicosia): Cypriot non-governmental organization, Future Worlds Center, and the U.S. based Institute for 21st Century Agoras, invites all who are interested in becoming active Structured Dialogic Design Facilitators and Mediators to learn more about the science of SDD® at the 3rd International Facilitators Training School in Nicosia, Cyprus from 25-27 July 2011.

Structured Dialogic Design (SDD)® is a truly democratic approach to facilitation and mediation where all participants have an equal opportunity to voice their ideas and opinions. The use of the Cogniscope II software helps to structure these ideas, cluster, and map their mutual interdependencies. Further information about this process can be found on the Institute for 21st Century Agoras website http://www.globalagoras.org/.

The training will include theoretical foundations exploration, practical applications, re-discovering the science of structured dialogue, role-playing, lectures, and virtual lectures (webinars). The school intends to offer 3 credits towards the professional certification program.

Instructors include the Father of Structured Dialogic Design, Dr. Alexander N. Christakis, Professor of Informatics at the University of Piraeus, Greece, Nikitas Assimakopoulos, SDD Facilitator Dr. Yiannis Laouris of Future Worlds Center, Author and SDD expert, Thomas Flanagan, Executive Director of the Institute for 21st Century Agoras Kenneth Bausch, and Marios Michaelides, Senior SDD Facilitator from the Cyprus Government’s Academy.

Participation is for anyone who would like to work towards professional certification and anyone interested in learning more about the Co-laboratory of Democracy approach and the science of SDD®. The fee for the school is 350 Euros, which includes the registration fees and certificate, coffee and snacks, all reading materials on CD, two books discussing the theory and practice of the science of dialogue, access to the SDD® International School website for materials, a limited version of the Cogniscope II software, and the Gala dinner.

To register, please visit: http://www.sddp-international.org
To receive a brochure and registration form email elicia@futureworldscenter.org

ENDS

For Reference on SDD®:

Forty years of research, development, and testing, in a variety of complex situations, both in the private and public sectors, have produced the Structured Dialogic Design Process (SDDP) that engages stakeholders in participative democracy through disciplined dialogue. Workshops using SDD are called Co-Laboratories of Democracy because they enable people to harness their collective wisdom and power to construct the future.

Three decades of research have revealed unshakeable human burdens that undermine successful dialogue. The first two types of burdens include well-documented research into (a) human limitations of cognition, and (b) group pathologies (individual, group, and collective). The third burden relates to (c) the current focus of critical theorists, namely: the impact of power relations.

In a larger context, organizations and societies must be responsive to their stakeholders if they are to sustain their viability and vigor. The movement toward “flat hierarchies” in business recognizes the importance of wisdom that a company possesses everywhere in its chain of command. For example, in the context of the postmodern management paradigm, to increase productivity management gurus urge companies to practice varieties of participative democracy by establishing cross-functional teams that share leadership in order to meet the demands of change more efficiently.

The virtues of participative democracy stem from its openness to all kinds of opinions from all kinds of stakeholders. When people and their positions are respectfully listened to in an activity, they are involved. When decisions are made on an equitable basis, people support those decisions and are likely to work for their implementation.

The principal utility of a participative process would be to enable people to participate in finding solutions to complex problems affecting the quality of their lives independent of their discipline, experience, or educational background. It also would lead to cooperation with the other stakeholders of a particular situation, by excavating the wisdom of the people through structured dialogue.

(http://sddinternationalschool.wikispaces.com/What+is+the+SDD+process%3F)

FWC leads European Consortium that offers free language lessons via mobile phone

Cypriot non-governmental organisation, Future Worlds Center, invites those who are too busy to attend a language course or those who do not want to attend a traditional language course, to try “MobLang” as a perfect tool to help leahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrn the basics of a new language in a fun way. With a few minutes each day MobLang teaches you the most common phrases. Special exercises help you with the pronunciation while you practice your newly learned words and phrases. MobLang is easy to install on your mobile and simple to use.

MobLang is a project funded by the European Union that provides tools to study a new language through mobile technology. It allows users to get to know the language and deepens their knowledge about other cultures. More information can be found at the MobLang website http://www.moblang.eu/.

The MobLang project is officially entitled “Intercultural Dialogue & Linguistic Diversity via MobLang” and is within the Framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme / Transversal Programme / Key Activity 2: Languages (European Commission, EACEA). The local Cypriot organizations Future Worlds Center and the University of Cyprus Language Centre are teamed up with partners in Europe from Greece, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The consortium offers a variety of languages to learn such as Albanian, Basque, Greek, Irish, and Turkish.

Participation is for anyone who wants to learn some basic language skillshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif via their mobile phone. The cost of the actual course is free for the first 150 people registered. There is no participation fee; however, a donation of €10 will be appreciated to cover costs for a SD card. All those who register after the first 150 are kindly required to donate a higher amount.

The MobLang mobile course is supported further with regular Language Cafés for socializing with individuals who speak the language being learned, watching short movies, and going shopping or to a café to practice vocabulary with native speakers. The duration of the course is 1-2 months (depending on participant’s speed). Participants attend at least once at Language Café in order to receive the program and install it properly on their mobile.

To register, email moblang.register@cnti.org.cy or call (+357) 22-892909.