Circles for Work

How much time do you spend sitting in circles at work? Not going round in circles, that's a different thing :) I mean organising your meeting space as a circle of chairs with nothing in the middle? Most people, not so much. Most of the time, people organise their meetings either in a classroom style with a screen and a presenter at the front or huddled around a table.

These formats reduce complexity and uncertainty in meetings. You can see who is in charge. There's one or two people at the front or marked out as the chairperson. It's set up to help you focus on what is important - but for most people this means they don't get to decide what's important. Your job is to face front and pay attention. This reinforces the idea that a few people have the best ideas and everyone else is a recipient or audience. And of course it has echoes of an environment many of us had in childhood, the classroom with teacher in front and obedient children paying attention to her every word. It puts us in the audience into a passive and infantile state ready to receive the wisdom of the people in charge.

Trouble is, we're so used to this form that we often repeat it in sessions that are meant to be participative, creative and interactive. When I facilitate a group, no matter what instructions have been given beforehand, I'm always ready for the room to be set up with chairs facing the front, event space managers see the instruction for a circle and think "that must be a mistake, we'll do it like normal". So I'm ready to ask participants to turn this into a circle and when I do there's a palpable excitement about doing something different and they find it really difficult to form a regular circle co-operatively. Something weird is happening socially, I don't know quite what it is, but it could be that they know that a circle feels like a really powerful place and they don't feel empowered to create it, like it might be a bit dangerous - they'd rather the "high-priest" (me lol!) or his assistants should be doing, it's too sacred for them.

That power is real. Not only is the circle of chairs a great symbol of the infinite (it never ends, you can walk around it forever) but it's also much much much more equal. It's hard (possible but hard) to dominate the group - it's much easier for everyone to have a say, if they want to. And most importantly you can hear everyone and see everyone's face. You don't have to look at anyone directly (I'm often staring at the floor or the ceiling!) but everyone can see you. This is vitally important for us as socially-evolved creatures. We get loads more information from being face to face with others and able to see their whole body not just from the middle up when they sit behind a table. There's much less misunderstanding in my experience and creative work moves more quickly when we turn our chairs round and form a circle.