Page 174 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

172 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) 4 Decision making process At the outset, the facilitator should also be very clear about the process for coming to a decision. Deliberative processes can vary in the threshold they use for a recommendation being “agreed” – 80% agreement in the room is a common threshold. It captures wide support while allowing for some disagreement, noting that the group needs to strike a balance between making recommendations that everyone can agree 5 to and finding compromise where they can. Relationship building & group work - introductions, social styles, bias and critical thinking Once you’ve done the explaining of how the project will unfold, it is time to begin introduction exercises that introduce the participants to one another.These are activities designed to both get people to meet one another but also to give them a sense of who from their community is in the room. There are a few key activities here. The first is having everyone standing and getting the room to break into their different demographics. You might first ask them to split by their age groups, then come back together and split by where they live. The visual nature of having them stand and form their groups means people can clearly see that there is a mix of everyday people in the room. They can be told that this is the case but seeing the diversity and how people mix between groups tells a clear story. The second is introduce the idea that different people behave differently in social situations. There are many different ‘social styles’ exercises that can fulfil this function, you should choose your favourite (and one that works for your cultural background).