One of the simplest, most ancient, and profound methods for helping to elicit a group's collective intelligence is the practice of people sitting in a circle listening deeply and speaking from the heart. The circle format encourages a focus on dialogue - people learning and exploring together in an open-ended way - rather than on getting through an agenda or completing tasks. Many circles invite in the presence of the sacred through a simple ritual of lighting a candle or taking a few minutes of silence to begin the meeting. As Tom Atlee (founder of the Co-Intelligence Institute) says, "Even the simplest, most unsophisticated circles are experienced as revolutionary by people who've known little more than the hectic, banal, adversarial or repressed communication modes typical of our mainstream culture."

 

 

Leading social change networks and organizations who have adopted the circle format as a central practice

 

Wisdom Circles (www.wisdomcircle.org)

Wisdom Circles is an organization that encourages and supports the practice of wisdom circles for self-discovery and community building in small groups. They offer a free Wisdom Circle Format, with "Ten Constants" that serve as guidelines for the wisdom circle process. They have also published a book called Wisdom Circles, A Guide to Self-Discovery and Community Building in Small Groups (Hyperion, 1998). Wisdom Circles is based in Oakland, California.

 

Millionth Circle Initiative (www.millionthcircle.org)

The Millionth Circle Initiative is a grassroots, international volunteer organization of women who believe that circles are the means through which world consciousness will change. The Initiative was inspired by Jean Shinoda Bolen's book The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World (see below for details). The initiative is affiliated with the Women's World Summit Foundation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, an international NGO accredited to the United Nations, and is informally linked to numerous organizations, networks, and individuals throughout the world.

 

PeerSpirit (www.peerspirit.com)

PeerSpirit is an education and service company that promotes and teaches an original group process methodology called PeerSpirit Council. The co-founders of PeerSpirit are Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, both authors in the field of personal and social change. Their circle process draws substantially from Christina Baldwin's book Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Bantam, 1998). They offer seminars in a retreat setting several times a year to teach their circle process.

 

From the Four Directions (www.fromthefourdirections.org)

From the Four Directions is a global leadership initiative that uses the PeerSpirit Circle process to support local community leaders all around the world. From the Four Directions is a project of the Berkana Institute, an organization founded by Dr. Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science (Berrett-Koehler, 1999). Amongst other things, From the Four Directions:

·       works around the globe to organize local conversation circles among citizen leaders so that they might name their hopes and challenges, learn from colleagues, and act courageously to move their hopes into reality;

·       provides technical expertise, coaching, networking and resources for people to start circles and ensure their success; and

·       connects local circles to one another to weave a global network that can emerge as a global force for change.

 

Spirit in Action: Circles of Change (www.spiritinaction.net)

Spirit in Action is a non-profit organization dedicated to building a successful movement for spirit-centered social change in the US. Central to their work is their "Circles of Change" program which brings together small groups of diverse activists for the purpose of building community; developing new ways to bring spirit into social justice work; articulating a collective vision; and taking action for individual, cultural and systemic change. The Circles of Change grow out of an initial round of thirteen sessions with eight to twelve participants from a local community. Their circles model supports participants to: embrace a broad understanding of spirit; invite spirit into groups that are culturally diverse and committed to social and political change; create a positive, long-term vision for local communities and national society; build community across differences and work through conflict; and include self-care, relationship-building and dialogue in their action for change.

 

United Religions Initiative: Cooperation Circles (www.uri.org)

United Religions Initiative (URI) was founded in 2000 by an extraordinary global community committed to promoting enduring, daily interfaith cooperation and to ending religiously motivated violence. The URI includes thousands of members in over 50 countries representing more that 100 religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions. The heart of URI is the global network of locally organized "Cooperation Circles." The Cooperation Circle is the basic unit of URI membership and consists of local or virtual groups that include at least seven members and at least three different religions, spiritual paths and indigenous traditions.

 

Study Circles Resource Center: Study Circles (www.studycircles.org)

The Study Circles Resource Center is the primary project of The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. The project is designed to help communities develop their own ability to solving problems by bringing lots of people together in dialogue across divides of race, income, age, and political viewpoints. They work with neighborhoods, cities and towns, states, school districts, schools, and college campuses, paying particular attention to the racial and ethnic dimensions of the problems they address. Study circles are small, diverse groups of 8-12 people who meet together in the spirit of dialogue and deliberation for several two-hour sessions. They aim to connect deliberative dialogue with social, political, and policy change.

 

The Simple Living Network: Simplicity Circles (www.simpleliving.net)

Simplicity Circles are small groups of people who gather together to support each other to simplify their lives. Hundreds of Simplicity Circles have formed as part of the burgeoning Voluntary Simplicity movement involving tens of thousands of people around the world. Simplicity Circles are usually organized around the principles outlined in a book by Cecile Andrews, The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life (HarperCollins, 1997).

 

Peace X Peace: Connecting Women for Peace (www.peacexpeace.org)

Peace X Peace connects women's circles in the United States with women's Circles everywhere in the world - directly via the Internet - for the exchange of information and personal experiences that typically result in mutually supportive actions. Their internet-based Global Network facilitates direct online communication between women-led circles across the US and Sister Circles around the world.

 

Circles of Ten: Women for world peace (www.peacecircles.net)

Women for world peace create support groups for women focused on nonviolent, solution-directed, social change and experiential, educational, peace circles that promote peacemaking activism locally and internationally.

 

 

Books

Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture, Christina Baldwin. 1998. Bantam.

Baldwin describes how the process of men and women sitting in circle to decide key issues in their community lives was a ritual practiced universally by indigenous cultures and is being re-discovered by modern groups everywhere as a powerful tool for organizational and community development. Baldwin gives detailed instructions for getting started, setting goals, and dealing with conflicts safely and respectfully.

 

Wisdom Circles: A Guide to Self-Discovery and Community Building in Small Groups, Charles Garfield, Cindy Spring and Sedonia Cahill. 1998. Hyperion.

Wisdom Circles provides a detailed outline for creating your own spiritual, social, and/or consciousness-raising group. The authors outline "Ten Constants," guidelines that form the essence of Wisdom Circles.

 

The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life, Cecile Andrews. 1997. HarperCollins.

Andrews sets out seven steps to simplify our lives, and detailed instructions on how to form and sustain a simplicity circle - a support group for those seeking to live by the principles of the Simplicity Movement.

 

The Way of Council. Jack Zimmermann & Virginia Coyle. 1997. Bramble Books.

This book includes an introduction to the concept of council, extensive material on how to lead councils, and descriptions of the numerous settings in which councils are being used.

 

The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World. Jean Shinoda Bolen. 1999. Conari Press.

This is the book that launched the Millionth Circle Initiative, a grassroots network of women's circles intended to change global consciousness. It is a slim volume, but poetically written to inspire women to create circles as vehicles for social and psychospiritual change.

 

Sacred Circles: A Guide to creating your own Women's Spirituality Group. Robin Carnes, Sally Craig. 1998. HarperSanFrancisco

Carne and Craig set out a circle format specifically designed for women's spirituality groups, to provide safe spaces that foster the development of the unique gifts of women.

 

 

Guidelines for doing circle work

Basic Guidelines for Calling a Circle, available for free download at www.peerspirit.com.

These guidelines are based on Christina Baldwin's book "Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture."

 

The Wisdom Circle Format: The Ten Constants (www.wisdomcircle.org/format.html). These guidelines were developed by Wisdom Circles, and were inspired by councils of indigenous peoples, informed by support and dialogue groups, and drawn from their own experience. The Ten Constants create a safe container that allows participants to tap their innate capacity to relate to each other in a context of wisdom and compassion.

 

Circle Starter Kit, available at www.fromthefourdirections.org, includes video, CD, articles and guidelines on circling, and a resource book.

 

 

Circle work trainings

Art of Hosting and Convening Conversations, a three day training offered periodically by the From the Four Directions network (www.fromthefourdirections.org)

 

Circle Practica, a training seminar in a retreat setting offered several times a year by PeerSpirit facilitators Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea.

 

 

Research

Circles of Change Report: Transforming the Way We Do Change (2005). (http://spiritinaction.net/ezpublish/index.php/spirit/circles_report)

This report presents the results of a two year evaluation process by Spirit in Action of its Circles of Change curriculum. The report documents Spirit in Action's findings on supports for, and barriers to, integrating a spirit perspective into social change work and the impact of Circle participation on individuals and groups.