Can you believe it: after almost exactly six months of teleworking and exclusively virtual socializing, I actually dared to participate in a “true” workshop. Of course only after I had directly contacted the workshop host before registration to give me information about his health and safety standards. Needless to say that it wasn’t just any random training course for which I exposed myself to the “great danger of human contact”, but the seminar “Thinking Circle” held by Matthias zur Bonsen and Jutta Herzog. As you may think, the expression “great danger of human contact” is a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but for me, it has two meanings in times of Corona:
- the danger of a potential infection with the coronavirus since 12 people were working together intensely for 4 days in an admittedly very large and well-ventilated room and
- the danger of deep and touching encounters and experiences.
And it is exactly that second form of “danger” that continues to intrigue me over and over again when I come to Oberursel near Frankfurt to participate in one of Matthias’ and Juttas workshops. Then, I always ask myself: How do they get people, i. e. the participants, become so open, thus creating such close encounters? For those who are just about to put away the newsletter because it sounds way too esoteric by now, I would like to highlight that the subject matter of these seminars, as in this case, are BUSINESS MEETINGS! Maybe it’s not about the most usual business meetings we are all familiar with and where only those people speak who are the quickest and loudest. And neither about those meetings where only half of those people were invited who would really have something to say about the issue. And neither about... (well, please feel free continue the list four yourself).
Thinking Circle is about creating room for thinking together, also about creating something really new by thinking together. This novelty may refer to new strategies, new products, new solutions, new organizational forms, a new method of resolving conflicts – simply everything.
It starts with just sitting in a circle (you may well remember the circle of chairs in the childhood?). Yes, you are very much unprotected without tables and laptops; so you don’t have a choice but to concentrate on the meeting. The potential of this method is to enable people to really listen to each other. In doing so, an opportunity is created that new thinking processes are triggered in those who are listening, but also in he or she who is currently speaking. In one of my recent newsletters where I talked about emotions, I said that individual employees and entire teams would find better solutions when they feel safe – the so-called psychological safety. It is exactly this safety that you also need for listening and speaking. The speaker needs to be assured that, in any case, he may finish speaking as long as he is still thinking and has not yet expressed all of his thoughts; and the listener needs to be assured that he is given sufficient time to listen and that he will be given a chance to speak in any case. This sounds very straightforward, and that's what it is. However, the framework for the large majority of meetings does not account for that. We frequently interrupt each other and only give those a chance to have their say who push their way through to the center stage. It is a treasure of thoughts and potentials which remains on the seabed due to our typical meeting practices.
Therefore, Thinking Circle is working with simpler formats, such as speaking in rounds where an object indicating who is allowed to speak – the talking piece – is passed around in the circle. This practice has the effect that everyone is assured to get his share of speaking time. This talking-piece round may be repeated several times until you have the impression that this approach no longer results in anything new. It is important to listen without judgment, because even caveats or concerns may be new or are at least uttered for the first time and thus are highly relevant for the issue in question.
Another approach starts with the talking piece being placed in the center. The person who wants to say something takes the talking piece and, after he really has finished thinking and speaking, places it back in the center for the next speaker to take it again. The golden rule is: whoever has the talking piece must not be interrupted. This approach slows down the discussion and is used when an open discussion (like we are familiar with, only with very attentive listening and without interrupting the other) becomes too heated or too fast.
The most important elements of the Thinking Circle that I absolutely want to mention in this context are shared responsibility and taking turns in leadership. Each participant seeks to ensure that the rules that have been agreed and that contribute to a good dialog are complied with. This sharing of responsibility is a relief for all, but above all for the boss.
The chair of the meeting is given the wonderful name of “host”. He is responsible for stating a clear objective for the meeting as well as for the issue(s), but also for providing a room for getting together. The second additional role is that of the “guardian”. Together with the host, the guardian is responsible for ensuring a high quality of discussion. The role of the “scribe” ensures that by making important notes during the meeting all other participants can concentrate on the dialog and on thinking together. These three additional roles are rotated if possible for each meeting so that each participant once has the chance to be the leader.
Back to my specific workshop experience: We did not only learn the theory about thinking together with the help of the Thinking Circle, but instead learned how to use the tool in practice for most of the time. It was very exciting to see what a difference this – even in my view – entirely new framework makes compared to other traditional meetings. I remember quite a few critical situations that arose in past workshops where a Thinking Circle would have contributed to clarifying things up and pacifying the situation itself.
In a nutshell: Thinking Circle will from now on accompany me at all meetings and workshops and I will use it whenever there is the need to think something new. Of course my first experiments will be in the form of online meetings, in line with the restrictions due to the coronavirus. I am looking forward to it!
This text first appeared in my newsletter 'Innovation on Wednesday'. It is published every other Wednesday. For subscription click here