{"id":5201,"date":"2016-04-11T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=5201"},"modified":"2016-04-13T00:45:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T08:45:40","slug":"its-not-always-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/its-not-always-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s not always easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today a client emailed me with a small anxiety about setting up a meeting room in a circle. \u00a0The work we will do together is about rethinking relationships in a social movement and the concern was that it was already unfamiliar enough territory to work with. \u00a0Setting up the room in a circle might cause people to “lose their minds.” \u00a0I get this anxiety, because that is indeed the nature of doing a new thing. \u00a0But I replied with this email, because I’m also trying to support leadership with my client who is doing a brave thing in her calling:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hi there:<\/p>\n

I understand the worry about a circle. \u00a0People are often anxious with that kind of set up. \u00a0I would invite you to reflect a bit further on that, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

My experience is two fold. \u00a0First, people are usually more familiar with a circle than you might imagine they are, and second some people even experience a secret relief that the room is set up that way (this was the case at the recent\u00a0meeting we were at together: several people said to me \u201cthank God the room was set up in a circle. \u00a0Then I knew we were REALLY going to do something different.\u201d) \u00a0This is one of the reasons why one on one contact prior to the meeting helps. \u00a0It allows you to gauge the anxieties a little more accurately and perhaps address them. \u00a0It also allows you to talk about why we would use a circle set up. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a good reason to create an unfamiliar room set up: it helps to disrupt mental models and invites new ways of thinking. \u00a0Organizing differently starts with how we organize ourselves to do the work. \u00a0For groups that are trying to address change in behaviours or thinking, a change in the physical room set up makes a difference. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a good summary of what I am talking about from Peter Block.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Peter Block\u2019s work is important in this respect and he talks about some shifts that, when we begin enacting them before hand, help to create the conditions for change.<\/span><\/p>\n

My strong advice would be against giving up on the circle, especially if you haven\u2019t yet had a chance to chat with people about how we are seeing the day going. \u00a0Often in invitation documents I refer to the fact that \u201cwe will be meeting in circle and in small groups. \u00a0While that may be unfamiliar to some of you, we are doing new work together and new work comes from organizing ourselves differently!\u201d \u00a0It will cause people to stop and reflect and engage with what you are doing, and it will make their acceptance of the invitation a more authentic yes. \u00a0I would be surprised if, even knowing about it before hand, people decided not to come on the basis of the room set up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today a client emailed me with a small anxiety about setting up a meeting room in a circle. \u00a0The work we will do together is about rethinking relationships in a social movement and the concern was that it was already unfamiliar enough territory to work with. \u00a0Setting up the room in a circle might cause people to “lose their minds.” \u00a0I get this anxiety, because that is indeed the nature of doing a new thing. \u00a0But I replied with this email, because I’m also trying to support leadership with my client who is doing a brave thing in her calling:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"It's not always easy. #circle #facilitation","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[22,48,44,6,16,9,5,7,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaboration","category-community","category-design","category-facilitation","category-leadership","category-learning","category-open-space","category-organization","category-world-cafe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-03-01-17.33.04.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-1lT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5209,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5201\/revisions\/5209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}