Got a problem you need to solve? A challenge you have to meet? An opportunity you want to seize?

Can you do it by yourself? Probably not. These days it seems just about every important job or task requires the cooperation, or even the active support, of lots of people.

But getting that cooperation or support is seldom easy. People are busy; they’re under pressure; they have their own priorities, aims, and interests. Maybe they’re just hard to work with. Even when people have the best intentions, they see things differently. And that makes reaching agreement tough.

Ideally, getting a group to make up its mind would be as straightforward as you making up your own. That’s not realistic, of course. In our world at least. But it can be a lot more productive, and a lot less frustrating, than you ever imagined.

We can show you how.

Crowd-assisted Proposal Evolution (CAPE) is an easy-to-use email-based process that lets anyone introduce and develop ideas for responding to problems, challenges, and opportunities. With CAPE you elicit feedback that will help you determine early on whether an idea has the potential to be an effective, widely-supported solution.
All you need is a description, a few questions, and a list of email addresses for friends, neighbors, colleagues, or acquaintances. Whether the feedback is supportive or critical, you can continue using our free process to modify, refine, or improve your contribution to progress.

The CAPE process makes use of multiple communication media to collect participant input, including
• Face-to-face conversations organized around participants’ interests and schedules
• Email
• Online forums
• Social media
• Video chats
• Conference calls
• Hand-written comments
• Voicemails

CAPE relies on volunteer “curator-advocates” — self-selected from among participants — to move the process from conceptualization to implementation. The openness, transparency, and consensus-building that any group process requires for success is supported at every stage by our software. Whatever your purpose — drafting a club’s bylaws, composing a proposal for a community development project, or writing a country’s constitution, CAPE will make the task easier, more efficient, and ultimately more successful.

To learn more about how you can help your group or community think together, email us at think@civicevolution.org.