What is an Assembly?
An Assembly is the standard meeting format of the Collective Thought Foundation and mainly consists of a moderated group discussion on a given topic. The topic can be prepared by the moderator beforehand or decided upon in the moment.
An Assembly tries to fulfil three requirements: to be engaging, feasible and useful. An engaging setup brings people together and fosters an environment of trust and openness within which to discuss heavy topics. This helps participants to respect one another and encourage them to voice contradicting opinions without fear of prejudice and marginalisation. Feasibility is necessary to arrive at the outcome and it is achieved by selecting a limited number of participants, allocating a reasonable amount of time for the discussion, setting up achievable topics and other similar actions. Usefulness lies in the learning participants gain from the conversation and the chance to build on the arguments collected for future discussions.
After the assembly, a short report is drafted to outline the conclusions and the main discussion points which can serve as a starting point for new ideas and considerations.
General features:
moderated group discussion
standard set of guiding principles
in-person or online
between 5 and 10 participants
2 to 3 hours of meeting
intro with examples and mind-teasers
a short break in the middle
wrap-up conclusion
The approach behind an assembly
Phase 1: Fostering different perspectives
At the beginning of the meeting—and at other times—it is important to value individual ideas, even if they are controversial, provocative, or false. By encouraging different perspectives, the goal is to make people feel more confident in their own view, even when others disagree. Different perspectives not only generate contrary opinions; they can also reveal multiple shades of the same opinion. Overall, diverse viewpoints are valuable when they promote constructive disagreement, avoiding the pitfalls of unchecked criticism, which can breed resentment, frustration, and defensive reactions.
Phase 2: Providing an equivalent starting point
It is very important that all the participants feel equal to each other. Here ‘equal’ refers to the starting point and must not be confused with 'interchangeable’, as each individual is made unique by a specific set of skills, traits and characteristics that will make a difference in the collective process. Some opinions may carry more weight than others, but we cannot predict whose will be more influential in advance. The three guiding principles—equality, honesty, and freedom—provide a solid common foundation for every participant.
Equality principle: respect what other people say.
Honesty principle: do not lie to others nor to yourself.
Freedom principle: never feel forced to say something.
Phase 3: Reaching consensus
The goal of an assembly, including the actions of the moderator, must be that of providing structure without content. The structure can be designed to, for example, face a particularly spiky topic, compare different perspectives, come up with a new definition or reflect on the consequences of certain decisions. The content, on the contrary, must be left to the participants. Even when some material is provided beforehand, the participants should remain able to independently analyse the content provided, reject it or even overrule it and come up with a completely different opinion. Building a collective thought is broader than any individual participant—a space where everyone is included, but not all equally; it is never final, unchangeable, or absolute.
Other types of special assemblies