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" <[email protected]> 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 (Ive 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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