This month’s circle tale comes to us from Penny Hamilton in Brisbane, Australia, sharing the story of shifting a series of in-person workshops to online, without losing the circle experience.

Creating an Online Circle Experience in Times of Physical Isolation

In Queensland, Australia, communities have experienced rolling disasters including drought, fire, floods, and cyclones in the past twelve months. I was invited to take a lead role in the development of a new program designed to support people who take on roles in communities responding to crisis. 

The intention was to offer people an opportunity to reflect, replenish, and restore their sense of hope and ability to move forward and continue the work ahead of them. The key foundation to this program was to generate an experience of connection, to create and hold space for people to find their way through individually and as a collective… and to do this using The Circle Way.

A core design team was gathered, and the program began to take shape. But our design took a sharp turn when COVID-19 arrived on our shores and physical distancing shifted our plans from in-person workshops to an online offering across three sessions.

The challenge now became how to create and hold this space with people online.  This raised the question: What if each person had an individualized sense of the circle they could carry with them beyond our time together, that would help them connect with themselves and each other, and find ways to sustain their personal and collective wellbeing to enable the ongoing work of recovery?

A Presencing Visualization and Invitation to Craft Your Own Circle Experience

Early in the first session we brought people in with the following words:

“If we were in person we would be sitting in a circle of chairs and with items in the centre that are symbolic of the purpose of our gathering. We might have images of this community and the people engaged in the work of community recovery, some nature in the form of greenery, maybe some flowers; whatever felt fitting for this meeting in this place. 

Given our physical distancing restrictions we find ourselves online, which could be seen as a less personal way of being together, but on the flipside, it has presented an opportunity to think differently about creating our space together. Rather than the hosts creating the whole experience, you can create a more personalized experience based on your preferences and imagination.

We have a short visualization to help us settle in and create our own sense of comfort, safety, and connectedness that brings circle into our Zoom experience.

Make yourself comfortable where you are seated with your feet flat on the floor.

Either close your eyes (if that is comfortable for you ) or rest your gaze on something and soften your focus.

Take two deep breaths right down into your lower abdomen.

Start to create an image in your mind of your ideal circle for this conversation:

• Where is your ideal circle? Is it inside or outside? 

• What are you seated on? Chairs, floor, wooden stump, or the ground? 

• Imagine we are all seated in your circle shape and we are all there in support of each other, creating a sense of comfort and connection around the circle.

• What would be in the centre? A fire? Some images? A symbol of your recovery work? Something of beauty? A candle?

• What threads connect us in this circle? What is our common call for being here together? How many common threads sit unknown for now… waiting to be discovered in our conversations together?

• Take a moment to consider what will make this a safe-enough space for you? We have a host and guardian working to hold this space… we have some agreements in place… you also have the option to ask for a pause if needed… if you need further support who would you ask?

• Take a few minutes now to take in the whole picture… your ideal circle environment… feeling held in comfort, connection and safety.”

An Invitation

The next part was an invitation for people to think about what they might bring to symbolize their circle experience; it could be an image, photo, object, or candle. People were invited to keep the artefact somewhere they can access it anytime to sustain their sense of connection to the circle of people they are travelling with, and to also sustain the feeling they created for themselves of comfort, connection and safety.

These items contributed to the sense of a centre as they complement and personalize the imagery in our design; we used this as a reference point throughout the sessions to invite presence and connection.

We are also including a kit of physical items people will receive prior to the online sessions to prepare them for the activities and give a sense of connectedness. Items included a workshop journal, colouring pencils, and an object or item sourced locally as a talking piece or artefact. 

What People are Saying 

We are in the midst of piloting the program and feedback on this has been very positive. One participant said the creation of the circle experience was a stand-out for her, and she began thinking right away about going into her garden to collect leaves and blossoms that she would bring to her workspace and the circle.

Another participant said she loved it and had been trying to find virtual ways to create the “in-person” experience of circle that many value so much, and is now bringing this to her next virtual community of practitioners meet-up.

My co-host Jan tried out this style of presencing with a different group who were checking-in online, and participants said it helped them feel grounded; another that she had imagined a scene in nature. 

As we continue to host these sessions our practice with this will evolve and grow, and I look forward to seeing where it takes us.

Penny Hamilton, based in Brisbane, Australia, works with circle-based methodologies to engage people in creative ways to meet, think together, ignite leadership, make collective decisions, innovate and find solutions that move groups toward their vision. She works alongside leadership, community members, people with disability, and teams to unlock their collective wisdom and step into their personal leadership. She has contributed to this body of work as a process designer and host, teacher and coach of participatory processes including The Circle Way, World Café, Open Space Technology, and Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter.