Facilitating Deliberation

Why this book

Facilitating Deliberation: A Practical Guide is MosaicLab’s working textbook of deliberative-democracy practice, written by directors Kimbra White, Nicole Hunter, and Keith Greaves. The book reads like a handbook for practitioners running structured deliberative processes in the field, not a theoretical text about them.

The book is structured around the work itself. It separates the macro design of a deliberation (the structural decisions made weeks ahead) from the micro design of a single session (the choices made minute to minute in the room). It also treats readiness assessment — whether a sponsoring organisation is ready for a genuine deliberative process — as a category of its own.

What it helps you do

• Plan the whole process. Work through the macro-design template, readiness assessment, and stage-specific checklists before recruitment begins.
• Build the next session. Turn the current stage of a deliberation into a run sheet with relevant activities, timing, and facilitation guidance.
• Respond to the room. Find an activity for the group and context you have, or get next-step guidance when disagreement, low energy, or time pressure changes the plan.

The private MCP packages the book’s methods into 12 tools covering process design, session design, readiness, activities, principles, checklists, and decision frameworks.

A question you can bring

“I need to design a three-day citizens’ jury on local housing policy for 30 participants. Walk me through the macro-design template and help me fill it in.”

For this question, the MCP can bring together the macro-design template, macro-design checklist, and organisational readiness assessment, then help the facilitator work through them in context.

Why access is private

Because the book is copyrighted and the MCP contains substantial structured material from it, we cannot distribute the server publicly. We review access requests individually instead.

What happens next

Send your email and a short description of the process, session, or facilitation challenge you are working on. We will review the request by hand. If access is approved, we will email you with instructions.