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SARAH MACDOUGALL AND CHRISTINA BALDWIN

PeerSpirit Circling

Creating Change in the Spirit of Cooperation

Transformation can occur for the entire human race by the one-time discovery of a bit of knowledge that makes everyone different from that point forward.

—Na’im Akbar

Real-Life Story

In a PeerSpirit training session for the nursing administration of a hospital, 20 leaders and two facilitators met at a retreat facility for a day and a half. Their intention was posted on the wall: “We gather to find renewed vision for the department and develop support for each other in professional direction.” Participants were seated in a circle of comfortable chairs. To create a sense of shared space, there was a low table in the center with a mosaic that the group had fashioned at an earlier staff retreat. A tangible center, one of the circle’s enduring gifts to modern methodology, acts as an energetic hub that acknowledges the ways a group is more than the sum of its parts. As one CEO explained it, “Something larger than human ego is in the room.”

Before any conversation began, four agreements were articulated, establishing expectations of safety and responsibility.

• We honor confidentiality: Personal story is not to be shared without permission;

• We listen with curiosity and compassion, withholding judgment;

• We ask for what we need and offer what we can;

• We practice pauses in action to recenter and focus.

Circle is a social contract: All participants agree to principles of cooperation that set the tone of conversation and govern how the group fulfills its intention.

The agreement to pause is activated by a group member who volunteers to serve as “guardian.” This person, usually rotating session by session, has authority from the group to make some agreed-upon signal that brings interaction to a halt. This is often a chime or small bell. To initiate pause, the guardian rings the chime. To release pause, the guardian rings a second time and speaks to the reason for calling a rest in action. “We were interrupting each other” or “It seems timely to take a stretch break here.”

The circle begins with a round called check-in. Among the nursing leaders, everyone responds to the question, “What led you to this organization and what renews your faith in it?” The pagers and cell phones are off and workday details are far away. People pass a small stone hand to hand to take turns talking. They lean in, speak with heartfelt intensity, and tell a story that moves listeners to nods of recognition, laughter, and sometimes tears. Something happens in this manner of speaking and listening that is a combination of the circle design and the willingness of each person to risk exploring the dreams they have for the place they work.

About halfway round the circle one administrator says, “This is what I’ve needed—the sense that we are inspired by similar stories and want similar things. When we’re back at work, I can imagine listening to each other in a whole different way. So here’s my story …”

Circle fosters a basis of trust built on honest self-disclosure received respectfully. When a group knows the fundamental stories of its membership, they approach task, planning, and systemic change with confidence that they can think and work together.

As a result of this retreat, these nursing leaders set monthly and annual goals and designed a process of accountability held in circle. They realized that their ability to function as a professional team was dependent on their ability to build trust through integrating story and dialogue into agenda-based meetings.

The Basics

CIRCLE HISTORY

Circle as a form has been with us since the dawn of human culture. Circle is a foundation of human social heritage. PeerSpirit circling, a modern adaptation and innovation of this ancient social and spiritual process, challenges dominant ideologies based on concepts of hierarchy and individualism.¹ Coming into the circle is archetypal. People gather to share wisdom, make collective decisions, and take action for renewal and progress. Circle is the mother of all methodologies.

CIRCLE PROCESS

Prior to coming together in a PeerSpirit circle (figure 1), people intentionally prepare themselves by attending to personal needs. Circle begins by setting the circle space, including establishing a visual center. A check-in connects people, as they slow down and fully arrive. Circle participants then discuss and commit to abiding by PeerSpirit’s three principles—rotating leadership, shared responsibility, and reliance on group synergy—and its three practices: intentional speaking, attentive listening, and conscious self-monitoring. They also adopt group norms (agreements) arrived at through consensus.

Figure 1. The Components of the PeerSpirit Circle

Someone volunteers to act as guardian of the group energy, paying close attention to group process. The guardian uses some agreed-upon signal to call a stop action to group process, during which everyone pauses and in a moment of silence seeks guidance for what the circle needs next. Within this framework, circle members move into the business or intention of the meeting. Passing a talking piece, a tradition in PeerSpirit circles, ensures that everyone has a chance to speak without interruption. There are times in the circle process when discussion without a talking piece occurs, since some topics are more efficiently addressed using a free-flowing conversation. Intentionally constructing a framework for personal interaction grounded in calling forth the group’s collective wisdom or spirit facilitates clear communication. Circle is brought to closure with checkout, a talking-piece round to reflect on what has happened.

CIRCLE TODAY

The circle provides the basis for a culture of conversation in organizations. Principles, practices, agreements (group norms), and other structural components, such as setting intention, using a guardian of the process, and check-in and checkout, comprise the theory that guides the practice of PeerSpirit circling.

The components of circle come alive through their interaction. A clear intention leads to understanding what agreements need to be in place to fulfill group purpose. The center allows diverse opinion, option, and creativity to be figuratively placed for all to consider. By checking in and checking out, the whole group hears what is significant in the learning of each individual. The principles lead to outcomes that cannot be imagined until the process for discovering them is released. The practices develop a conversational culture, which fosters a self-empowering team that can move in coordination within the demands of organizational life.

Table of Uses

About the Authors

Sarah MacDougall, Ed.D. ([email protected]), is a dedicated educator who investigated the capacity of PeerSpirit circle methodology to transform individual lives and collective group process. Her dissertation establishes a theoretical foundation for the efficacy of PeerSpirit circle process as a means of fostering organizational change.

Christina Baldwin, M.S. ([email protected]), is an innovative facilitator, teacher, and writer. Her studies of group process methodology led to the concepts presented in Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Bantam, 1998). She has carried this work throughout North America, Europe, and Africa. She works with organizations in health care, education, religious administration, nonprofit, and association boards.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCES

Baldwin, C. Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture. New York: Bantam Books, 1998.

Basic Guidelines for Calling a Circle—http://peerspirit.com/htmlpages/circlebasics.html.

MacDougall, S. N. Calling on Spirit: An Interpretive Ethnography of PeerSpirit Circles as Transformative Process. Santa Barbara, CA: Fielding Graduate University, 2005. Dissertation Abstracts International, A66/06, p. 2407 (UMI No. 3178997).

Wheatley, M. J. Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2002.

ORGANIZATION

PeerSpirit—www.peerspirit.com

1. S. N. MacDougall, Calling on Spirit: An Interpretive Ethnography of PeerSpirit Circles as Transformative Process. Santa Barbara, CA: Fielding Graduate University, 2005. Dissertation Abstracts International, A66/06, p. 2407 (UMI No. 3178997).