The interactive small group format is critical for increasing and improving public participation in politics. There are many good reasons for this. To begin with, small goal-oriented groups of compatible individuals that meet regularly to talk together almost always produce a really good quality of camaraderie and community. Many people describe their own involvement in small close-knit groups as peak times of their lives.

The impact of small face-to-face groups is demonstrated daily in family units and clusters of friends. The cooperative collaboration of peer groups from sports teams to work clusters of all kinds have observably powerful influence on those involved, as well as those who benefit from their effort. When they function well, governmental and organizational legislative committees can be excellent examples of productive small-group interactions. Howard Dean’s rise from relative obscurity to front-runner status in 2003 was due in part to the emergence of a large national network of politically oriented small group “Meet-ups”. Similarly, small groups of five to ten people that meet, talk, and pray together on a regular basis are a central feature of Saddleback, one of America’s biggest and most powerful “mega-churches.” In general, compatible goal oriented groups, once they are formed and functioning effectively, tend to be highly motivated to continue their work together.

Activist Solutions is proposing to create such a network of small close-knit groups of ordinary people who are interested in thinking together about the needs of the nation, develop creative ways to address those needs, and effectively formulate strategies for getting the best of the ideas they produce publicized and possibly implemented.

The proposed group structure itself is very straightforward. As previously noted, no group will have more than seven members, including one facilitator. Some will have less. The groups will be small enough for each member to speak and get responses to what they say at every meeting, both face-to-face and online.

For most people, smaller numbers are far less intimidating. Any group of over six or seven people begins to feel like an important crowd. Close relationships between individuals in small groups are more easily formed and they’re more likely to last and deepen.

The group’s work will probably be smoother, more cooperative, and more effective, as well as much more enjoyable, if all the members get to know each other well. They’ll need to learn to trust each other enough to offer and receive honest information. Familiarity with and understanding of each other’s ideas is necessary to effective and creative work together.

Small group interaction of this kind can be particularly impactful in face-to-face discussions in which feelings about the issues, as well as thoughts, are transmitted. To create this freedom and trust, the emotions and ideas expressed should be as positive as possible. Everything said needs to be understood by all members to whatever extent good facilitation can accomplish this. Questions will be encouraged and answered as clearly and completely as the group or anyone in it can manage. Clarity and brevity will be stressed as very important group values.

In a good small group environment, it’s possible for most people to learn to accept and profit from the necessary constructive criticism that will be offered. This is always coupled with suggestions for improving, refining, or even replacing an idea with what the original proposer considers a better one. Learning to accept and use critical input in this way is important to the process of developing good solutions to problems, as well as to the process of individuals learning to become good problem solvers.

It’s also clearly easier in a small group to keep track of the changes in each other’s proposals as a result of suggestions and to help improve each of them as they develop.

In all these ways and more, working in ongoing small groups that meet regularly offers many advantages. The most important of these is that it allows as much time as needed for each participant to express their ideas and to hear those presented by others, with enough time left for free interaction about each idea. Thoughts deepen and proliferate exponentially in the experience of all of the people in an ongoing group responding to each other’s reactions to largely the same ideas, as they evolve over time.