The Circle Process

13 August 2008

The Circle Process - A Proposal for Community Dialogue and Action

The Alchemical Nursery Project proposes to organize a weekend conference on holding circles in community, including training and work within circles, for the stakeholders in the movement for sustainability in Syracuse to come to agreements and build trust in order to work together for a most effective and powerful coalition. When everyone has a voice, and the circles are facilitated in a way that generates discussion and allows for everybody to work through the process and come up with the solutions for how everyone can best work together, everybody will be invested in the resulting decisions. Nobody should feel that their voices were not heard, or that their ideas were not included, and thus, everybody will be committed to making it work. And when everybody is committed and agreements are in place, magic happens, and quickly!

Below are some excerpts from “Seeds of Change - Using Peacemaking Circles to Build a Village for Every Child,” written by Carolyn Boyes-Watson. This article speaks to the age-old tradition of holding circles in community to come to decisions together.

“The Navajo people refer to the circle as ‘a gift from the creator to keep us in harmony’ (Meyer, 2002). It is a traditional method for solving problems inherent to all human communities. In traditional communities, the circle served as a powerful tool to seek solutions and restore harmony when troubles arose. The circle is an indigenous form of dispute resolution that offers an alternate structure of communication broadly adaptable to an array of contexts (Price & Dunnigan, 1995; Ross, 1996).”

--> The problem that many have identified in this city is not that there are few people interested in making positive change, but that there is not enough partnership and collaboration, meaning that many people are working on similar projects, isolated and unaware of other’s similar initiatives. Vying for community time and energy for a multitude of purposes means we are spreading ourselves thin, rather than coming together and finding where gaps need to be filled, or where synergies lie and partnerships should be formed. A coalition of all stakeholders in a sustainable Syracuse would be a perfect way to strengthen our work and create a powerhouse of synergistic action that is required for the dramatic changes we endeavor to inspire in our communities. How do we form a coalition without people feeling their voices are being squelched, or that their hard work is being co-opted, superseded or ignored?

“The structure of the circle reflects an egalitarian worldview. Generally, no one observes at a circle: Everyone present is part of the circle. Regardless of age or status, all people have a place in the circle, and every place is equal because every voice is valued. The egalitarian structure of the circle demonstrates the understanding that many different perspectives on an issue exist, all of which are needed for a full understanding of the problem. Although each individual has a unique contribution, all present are nonetheless part of a continuous whole, which represents a force greater than the sum of its individual parts.

The rhythm of the circle process reflects the wisdom of the medicine wheel: The four interdependent continuous phases of the circle are marked by certain ceremonies. Circles begin with an opening and introductions; there is a time for check-ins at the beginning and at the end, a time for making connections and for identifying issues and seeking solutions, and a time for closing the circle ‘in a good way.’…

The importance of opening and closing in a good way is related to the wisdom that it is not possible to achieve a good outcome through a process that does not model what one hopes to achieve. Robert Yazzie (1994), Chief Justice of the Navajo Supreme Court, said that to the aboriginal mind, ‘You cannot get to a good place in a bad way’ (p. 188).”

--> This quote brings us back to the idea that a circle process, one that is based in the process of consensus building and cooperative decisions making, leads to the creation of a truly sustainable movement - one comprised of people working together in service for common goals of a sustainable city.