Inquiry Circle ~ from OSonOS in Halifax to PoP in Berlin

[Marei Kiele]

  Dear Lisa, having witnessed your circle only from the distance in Halifax I tried this out at Practice of Peace in Berlin and we had a marvelous session! Starting with four participants, by and by the community grow up to 11 (fifty-some participants all together at PoP) and then by and by people left ~ and the last three participants went on and on (after I had left the session to make sure I got my lunch). Several people later came to me and thanked me for offering this session ~ one saying she had to leave because she was touched so deeply. Regarding the name of the process: Posting the session on the second day I invited people to come to an 

    "Inquiry and Listening Circle".  This was born out of my need to create space for deep listening ~ during the first day everybody seemed to be filled with words we wanted to get out. Important was to agree in the beginning that we would have no further questioning or investigation, just one question and one answer. And that I mentioned to "gift" the other person with a question ~ which seemed to create an appreciative climate and soon led to people thanking for being asked and thanking for the answers they had received. I started the circle with a question that was inspired by what Harrison had presented in the morning. He had introduced the grief cycle and had explained that after having gone through all the stages of grief there comes the day when the question arises: "What are you going to do with the rest of your life?" This question I chose as our starting point. And the other questions arising covered everything from "If you had a child what would you wish for it to become," over "what did you have for breakfast today?" to "What question would you like to answer? And please do so." I can highly recommend this easy, easy process to everybody interested in meaningful conversations. Greetings to my family in open space,Marei  
  "Lisa Heft" <lisaheft at openingspace.net> schrieb:  Hi, Jimmy -- [I have changed to title of our message to more closely reflect the content, as it has shifted from finding folks in San Antonio to describing what is an inquiry circle. That will make it easier for anyone who may be looking up topics in the OSLIST archives at some future time.] Chris mentioned in an earlier message an Inquiry Circle I hosted at the Open Space on Open Space world gathering in Halifax this August - and Cliodhna had indeed asked us to share a description - so: thank you, Jimmy for explaining it (I’ve been away with precious little time at my computer). Jimmy wrote:< A format that I witnessed at last year's National Coalition for Dialogue and Democracy conference was an inquiry circle among a group of speakers before a plenary.  Six speakers spoke for several minutes on what they saw in the future for dialogue and deliberation.  In the inquiry circle, the facilitator posed a question to the first speaker.  The first speaker answered that question.  They then posed a new question for the next speaker, etc., until all had answered a question.  The went around a couple of times. Thus, a small group on stage had a type of dialogue that the large group witnessed.> That is indeed where I learned it.  I was so excited, also, to experience an audience-engagement panel process.  A further detail - after the facilitator gave a question to the first panelist, who answered it, shared a few thoughts on the subject and 'gifted' a question to the next panelist, and so on through the ‘panel’ of invited speakers - then the facilitator turned to the audience with the last panelist's question to gift it to us.  The audience was sitting at small round tables seating 4 or 5 people.  We continued the inquiry process at our individual tables.  After going around the table, the full group was reconvened in plenary to share threads and thoughts. It was a really marvelous experience, as it was in our great group in Halifax.  I just love it - it is a wonderful co-created experience inviting deep listening and mutual appreciation. Cheers from Berkeley, California, USA (I may be returning to San Antonio Texas next for further work with the OpenSpaceniks there - ask Don, Jimmy and maybe you can join us),  Lisa

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