How We Meet is Who We Are
The way we gather says a lot about us.
Take a moment and do an audit of the communal spaces you gather with others in:
Coffee shops
Work meetings
Family mealtimes
Faith communities
Grocery and retail stores
Sporting and gaming events
Professional development classes
Here are some questions you might ask as part of this audit:
What is the physical form of this space?
What does the physicality of the space imply about the values of those who create/maintain it?
Who is allowed to speak in this space and when?
When you’re in this space, is there an agenda? Who sets it? (Who doesn’t set it?)
Who holds power and rank in this space? Who doesn’t?
How is this space facilitated? Is it co-created by participants or designed by one person or a committee?
Does this space feel generative or does it largely exist for the maintenance of the status quo or "how things have always been?"
What is the level of depth at which people interact with each other most often while in this space? (Ex. surface level, deeply intimate, no interaction, etc.)
What energies do you most often feel while being in this space or thinking about being in this space?
There are obviously plenty more questions you could ask.
The point is: The way we gather says a lot about us.
adrienne maree brown, the brilliant community organizer, author, and healer, says this:
There are moments in facilitation [and of holding space with others] when you can feel the way to the future unblock, when you can feel the room burst forward on behalf of the species. In those moments, I can feel the tingling prickling aliveness of interconnection, of history, of futures becoming possible.
📝 Questions:
How are your gatherings inviting new futures to become possible?
And if they aren't currently, how might you be part of such an emergence? (Whether in this space or by leaving this space and entering another.)
🧰 Resources:
Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, by adrienne maree brown (book)
Community: The Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block (book)
A Framework for Gathering (free PDF for small groups)
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