VHS Course: Learning to Make Good Decisions in a Group Setting

On Saturday, April 30, 2022, an adult education workshop on "Systemic Consensus Building" will be held at the Weiterbildungszentrum (Stenerner Weg 14 a). It will start at 10 a.m. and end around 3:30 p.m. Registrations on-line under www.vhs-bocholt.de or with the VHS. The participation fee amounts to 17 euro (reduced 14.50 euro). Speaker is the diploma social pedagogue and book author Josef Hülkenberg.

Content: What is "Systemic Consensus Building"?

Stress levels are rising. The tone is getting rougher. Corona, climate crisis, inflation, war in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, oil and gas becoming scarce - how do we still find the right solutions and decisions in the private and political spheres?

"Democracy thrives on the clash of interests and the struggle for majorities." This narrative overlooks the losers. Their attempts to boycott decisions that have been made and to win new majorities for themselves strain the social climate and damage democracy.

Contradictions to one's own ideas and interests do not have to lead to opposition. They also open up new perspectives for solutions. Allowing and accepting such diversity and filtering out the jointly supported variant overcomes the "ICK BÜN DORTEGGEN" and the political logic of struggle.

In conflict consulting and mediation, decision-making processes have long been successfully used that rely on understanding and broad acceptance. Systemic consensus building (SK principle), for example, promotes a culture of debate and decision-making that takes shared social responsibility seriously.

City hall redevelopment, the northern ring road or traffic route plans, etc. no longer have to lead to the limits of social coexistence. They can also be decided in a socially satisfying way that promotes the common good.

The VHS invites you to a workshop to get to know these procedures for jointly developed, sustainable decisions.

The principle of "systemic consensus" is based on the assumption that decisions made by groups, families, teams, etc. have the greatest carrying power when the resistance of the group is particularly low. Josef Hülkenberg will present how this can be achieved at the workshop, after which it will be practiced by the participants.

About the speaker

Josef Hülkenberg, a qualified social pedagogue, is active in political-social adult education. Among other things, he wrote the book "Nur mal angenommen, Demokratie ginge anders".