Christakis Case Study

Alexander N. Christakis in his book "How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom and Power" presents a case study in chapter 16 entitled "Wisdom of the People Forum". In this scenario, leaders of indigenous peoples of various ethnicities from countries and regions around the world met to devise a way to remove barriers to globalization within the context of their cultures.

During the first day of a conference held to discuss the barriers, participants used a Structured Design Process (SDP) dialogue to generate a list of 79 barriers. and create an Influence Tree. This tree consisted of four levels in its final form, among which the 79 barriers were categorized.

The second day consisted of a discussion of ways to remove the barriers thus allowing interactions between indigenous cultures. At day's end, 49 action options had been created to address the barriers.

On the third day of the conference, they met to create a list of action scenarios from the various action options. Small groups were formed and each of the small groups created action scenarios by selecting various action options and devising explanations for each.

The final product was a list of eight action options incorporated into a Consensus Action Scenario. These eight options consisted of identifying generic core values, the need to understand one's own culture before attempting to learn others, the need for strategic alliances and how to create them, the need to research and develop a diagram of indigenous organizations, the need to build a network of contacts to include indigenous and non-indigenous persons, the analysis of impacts, the identification of stakeholders, and the creation of an exchange program.

SDP enabled the group to complete their task in only three days.