1. Deep Democracy: waarom, hoe en wat?

This is the podcast "Nower Talking, Deep Democracy in Action". Democracy. All voices, different benefits, together, become wise. Easy to say, but difficult to do. Especially now in this time where democratic values are heavily under pressure. How do you do that? You can speak frankly and openly listen to others, even if that's exciting. And how do you help others to do that? In this podcast series, Frank Weijers takes you with him in the essence of deep democracy. Let's use our differences. I wish you a lot of inspiration. Welcome to the very first episode of the podcast "Nower Talking". I'm Frank Weijers and I'm going to tell you in this very first episode what deep democracy actually is. What those words "deep" and "democracy" mean. Why do we do something like that as deep democracy and how do you do that? And in the next episode we go a little further into that. Well, democracy, democracy means hearing all voices. And hearing all voices also means that all voices have to be articulated. So you can see right away that there are two sides to that. Making sure that everything is pronounced correctly, but also making sure that everything that is pronounced is heard correctly. And we are generally not so good at that. Now we don't talk about democracy, but about deep democracy. And the word "deep" actually means that we also have attention for all feelings and emotions that play a role in communication and interaction between people. And we're not that good at that either. Especially in our western culture. Especially in the context of the organizations at the moment that emotions begin to play a role. Patience, anger, what then also. That we then look at each other on our chair and look at each other again. And that there is such a mumbling of "let's keep it professional". Well, I think it's quite professional if we really play a role in the interaction that we have with each other. Well, why is deep democracy so important? And especially at this time it is so important. At this time, in democratic values, we are really under pressure. We are increasingly losing each other. It becomes more difficult to speak out. We can no longer listen to each other so well. Well, exactly that indicates that there is actually a lot of bad conversations to be taken together. And yes, the question is actually very simple. How can we now make sure that these conversations get better? Or is it conveyed in those two sides of a good conversation, that you speak out rudely and listen to each other openly, how can you now get that right for each other? Well, then it's important to look at what that actually means. Speaking rudely. And I would say it so well, that I then say, and that's nice, that word "vrijmoedig", that you feel free to say what you want to say. And if you don't feel completely free, that you are then enough to speak out rudely. And at the same time, if I say this, I know that there are circumstances in which it is not so easy, in which people don't feel safe enough to really speak out completely. And then there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that we create environments that people experience as safe enough. So, the other side of a good conversation is to listen to each other openly. And that means that you really listen to what others have to say. That also means that you get rid of your own opinions, of all those filters that you have up there, which means you hear what you hear, you want to be established in what you actually think. If we hear things that don't fit in our system at all, well, then we will just listen selectively. And if we hear things that really stand on our values, standards and opinions, then we put it away, then we put it away as stupid, or wappies, or whatever. So then we really stop listening. Yes, that's how many bad conversations take place. Especially when there are emotions that are not yet possible. So then there is little democracy and not deep at all. Well, looking at this, we have something to do. Why is there something as deep as democracy? It is to ensure that we use the potential in a diverse group as well as possible. That is actually almost the short description you can give about it. The word "diverse" you would then be able to get out, because every group is in the beginning diverse. And it is because we are all different. And because we are all different, we all look at the same reality in a different way. That we look at the same reality in a different way, yes, you can say that may be a bit difficult sometimes, but you can also have a lot of pleasure from it. And we have pleasure when we can really speak freely, so freely speaking, and also listen openly to each other. When two people are in a conversation with each other, and they speak freely and they also listen openly to each other, then the result of such a conversation is always that they share more with each other afterwards than everyone for themselves. So it is the use of the potential of a group, and that group is actually always diverse. Diversity is always there because we are all different. How do we do that now, deep democracy? So how do we bring that into practice now? Well, we actually have a very uniform didactic approach to that. We actually do two things. We have something like interaction and decision-making. And that interaction means, yes, we talk to each other, listen to each other, and that also means that we, because now we are different from each other, and therefore look at the same reality differently, you can also say, in a conflicting way, look at the same reality, that means that we come into conflict with each other. Well, conflict does not have such a good name. Conflict has, in the daily use of language, often a bit of the connotation of something annoying, something hushy, something, yes, it can even go even worse, until war and other events. But conflict, in a literal sense of the meaning, is to differ together. And then I say, look, how nice is that to differ together? Because then you can also use that difference very well together. So as I say now, how deep do you fit that democracy? Then I say, you do that in interaction and decision-making. In the interaction you have, say, the right conversation, you can hardly speak out and listen to each other openly. And the better kind of conflict, and the better kind of conflict, means that we can use the differences as well as possible. And if we can do that, then it often means that we have to make decisions in groups with each other somewhere. How nice is it if we don't make decisions by, for example, an autocratic decision. The boss determines what we're going to do. It would be a bit of a model, Putin or Trump. But we do that in a way where we say, well, we're interested in what the majority thinks of it, but we're also interested in what the minority thinks of it. With other words, such a decision actually consists of a majority decision, with which the wisdom of the minority is added. And the advantage of such a kind of decision, is that it's a very inclusive decision, because everyone is involved in it. The advantage of such a decision is that everyone feels heard, so it stays on the hook, and that we get a very good decision in terms of quality, because we use the wisdom of everyone in the group. Does that also make decisions in an optimal way? Yes, certainly, that also has a disadvantage. Namely, it takes a bit longer. It's an autocratic decision, and of course it's easy to take one. But a really inclusive decision, a deep democratic decision, you want to use the wisdom of everyone in the group. Yes, and that takes a bit more time. Well, we've come to the end of this first episode. I hope that you will see you soon for the second episode. Read more and learn about Deep Democracy. Look at DeepDemocracy.nl And those super practical blue, red and yellow books by Frank, check out www.spelenmetheruimte.nl or order them at www.managementbook.nl