FOREWORD
When Did We Forget This?
I first discovered the power of the circle way in 1998 working with Christina and Ann. But that’s not an accurate statement—we don’t “discover” circle practice so much as remember it. As humans, our species’ memory is filled with circles, not just those we painted on pots and cave walls long, long ago but also the physical formations in which we arranged ourselves as we got to know one another. The extraordinary Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana writes in “The Biology of Love” that humans first developed language when we moved into familial groups.1 The closer we got to one another, the more curious and expressive we became. As soon as fire was discovered, some early version of us formed a circle around the fire, experimenting with new forms of expression. Circle is the way humans have always sat together and gotten to know one another.
It’s important to remember this long, loving lineage as we now daily sit in rows in classrooms, auditoriums, buses, and airplanes, looking at the back of each other’s heads. Or as we sit along the straight edges of tables and desks struggling to find a way to communicate and reach one another. After all these centuries of separation and isolation, circle welcomes us back into a shape where we can listen, be heard, and be respected, where we can think and create together. Circle is the means to draw us away from the dramatic and angry public exchanges that now are not just commonplace but seemingly the only option available for discourse. Sitting together as equals, slowed down, held by the shape, drawing on ancient familiarity—just what we need at this time!
In today’s world, dozens, if not hundreds, of group processes are available. In the midst of so much choice, it’s important to remember the long lineage of circle and its role in human community. Circle process is not a technique; it’s a heritage. It is a way to be together that is familiar to people everywhere on the planet. In indigenous communities, it’s easy to notice the presence of circle—as people sit in fields resting from their work, in homes and public places, even in airports as they travel. But generally, circle has been suppressed and forgotten. Cultures of hierarchy and control long ago abolished circle, because circle serves democracy. Those seeking to dominate and rule over others know instinctively that circle is dangerous to their desire for power. By its simple shape, circle includes everyone without distinction, welcomes and invites all to participate, and creates equality among those gathered.
So it is that this most ancient of forms becomes revolutionary in today’s world. And also most welcome. Welcomed by those who are excluded, by those who never speak to power, by those who don’t believe they have anything to say. In this way, it opens up the creativity and contribution of all who sat silent for far too many years. Circle ends our collective and individual silence.
The shape itself offers many benefits. Circle is the form of endlessness, continuation, calming down, pacifying. In a circle, there’s no beginning or end—once you’re in the circle, you’re there, participating in wholeness. Nobody is superior; no one is better than anyone else. We sit together in our differences in one nice, round shape.
We don’t pay nearly enough attention to shape, to the form of the meeting. We spend a great deal of time preparing content and agendas and dealing with politics but then barely notice the shape of the room in which we’re doing the work. We accept whatever’s in the room—the tables, the chairs, the disarray from the last meeting. We just want to get on with the work (and get out of there as quickly as possible). If we do start to rearrange the room, often colleagues ask us what we’re doing, why we’re bothering. Or they try to embarrass us and accuse us of becoming “touchy-feely.” But if we don’t work on the shape of the meeting, it’s predictable what will happen. Rectangular tables promote difficult discussions based on opposition; public forums with microphones at the front promote drama and anger; stages and speakers create critical observers; circles create coequal participants and reflective thinking.
As in architecture, form should follow function. Once we define what we want to accomplish in the meeting, it becomes important to determine the shape in which we’ll meet. No one form is good for every circumstance—every form has its uses.
Please let’s start paying attention to this! If you want to maintain power and control, keep using the forms that support that. If you need to convey information but not conversation, set the room for a lecture or teaching. If you want to include diverse colleagues and think well together, use the circle. But don’t assume for a single minute that you can mix up or ignore the form. It’s the most essential element to consider, predictive of the outcome of the meeting.
In this beautiful book, under the wise and loving guidance of Christina and Ann, you’ll travel into the ancient lineage of circle and learn how it has been brought forward into our modern organizations. You’ll see how deeply embedded this pattern of circle is, how it’s a true archetype of the human spirit, one that summons people everywhere to step into the conversation. As you read the stories and understand the practices, I hope that you will feel the stirrings of memory in you, that you will be taken to a place of recall of a time when we were sitting together, drawing on each other’s presence and perspectives.
Then and now, no matter what’s happening in the external world, human beings can get through anything as long as we’re together. May we take these practices to heart as our path going forward, out of the darkness of isolation into the clear seeing that circle makes possible.