Alternatives for Challenging Morning Circles

[Peggy Holman]

Sometimes we know a  highly emotional time is coming, particularly in multiple day OS's.  What best serves the group when we know this is coming?

After years of experiencing the rhythm of groups at work, I almost always know when people are bringing "downloads" with them into the morning circle.  (It is particularly easy to predict when something powerful happens the evening before.)

For those who read the description of the Story Field Conference (SFC), Wednesday morning was a turning point.  The morning circle was intense and very controversial, and for most, highly productive.  As I have reflected with other colleagues on the choice we made to use the morning circle as a reflection space, I have wondered if our choice is what best served the group.  In my conversations, three alternatives emerged, each with its strengths and short comings.  I've shared them below.  

I'd love to hear how others have handled such challenging moments.

appreciatively,
Peggy

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When you know there will be lots to process in the morning, here are three options:

 

*  Do it in the circle

*  Send the energy back out into the breakout spaces

 *  And a non-traditional thought:

Take 30 minutes in groups of 4, then 30 minutes in the large circle

 

  

Doing it in the large circle

The pros:

*  If it is a well hosted space, it can the safest space in the room for those who bring a different voice.  

*  When there is as much to be surfaced, the benefit of it being a collective experience can be a turning point, creating a deep sense of shared experience and community.



What can be lost:

* People who find the space too intense check out.  If the gathering is held in a location that is easy to leave, they would likely be gone for good.  

*  It sets up a dynamic that everything of significance needs to happen in the big group

*  This significant opportuity for people to have the experience of the fractal nature of conversation is lost 

*  It breaks the lived experience that this is a system in which the parts that care about someting are handling it on behalf of the whole. 

 

 

Keep the morning circle short and send the intensity into the space

The pros:  

*  People experience the fractal nature of conversation

*  People learn and experience that ideas can and do filter back into the whole.  

*  It allows people to meet their own needs; those who are focused on "let's get it done" can do so and not be subjected to stuff they don't want to be subjected to.  There is no tyranny of the whole operating.  Much easier to follow the law of two feet.





What can be lost:

* a different group of people check out - the ones who have trouble speaking out because they don't have a safe space

*   some people take their angst into butterfly conversations, which can help it come out in the larger whole.  By going sideways first in the small, helps clarity and confidence surface in the large circle.  

*  A risk is that the conversations never happen.   





Reflect in small groups that feed back into the whole
In the context of OST, it is the least known, since it isn't part of the traditional form.  (Variation: Having a home group, or buddy; can be a volunteer function)

The pros:
*  It ensures some level of personal processing.  

What can be lost:
* a risk is the most important angst is dissipated
*  May be most comfortable because has a foot in both worlds, allows processing time though it may not generate the benefits of disturbance.  
*  May be best way to suppress what might be creative dissonance.  


One last note from the Story Field Conference: my bias would have been to send people out to handle their "stuff" via breakout sessions and butterfly conversations.  My colleagues - Mark Jones, Candi Foon and Anne Stadler - felt that this would have caused the most marginalized voices to remain silent.  As you reflect on your own experiences, I'm particularly interested in this aspect of dominant culture voices and those who are least heard or seen.

BTW, I don't think there are right or wrong answers on this.  Each alternative results in something useful and something lost.  I'm just interested in understanding the consequences of our different choices so that we can grow in wisdom and consciousness.




________________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
(425) 746-6274 

www.opencirclecompany.com


For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to: 
www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook 

"An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get burnt, is to become 
the fire".
  -- Drew Dellinger

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