Human-Centered Facilitation
Shifting Transactional Workplaces to Relational Workspaces
Supporting organizations in shifting from a transactional workplace to a relational workspace by centering connection, cultivating community, and harnessing the power of the collective.
Overview
Combining two powerful frameworks, The Circle Way (TWC)© and Technology of Participation (ToP)©, human-centered facilitation focuses on organizational culture and healing and offers a new approach to gather and conduct business not-as-usual. Using circle methodology as a foundational framework, coupled with a Technology of Participation (a highly participatory approach to facilitation), teams are offered a space to come together and be seen as their whole self rather than a position or title. Using this approach, we slow down to hear, to be heard, to see, and be seen. The hybrid approach invites in both spaciousness and structure, it allows us to tend to people, process, and product. It allows us to build relational infrastructure through co-creating spaces that foster safety and invite vulnerability and empathy as a way to deepen trust, build stronger, more resilient teams, and bring us into relationship with one another. From a place of greater resilience and more authentic relationships, we are better able to communicate, lean into difficult conversations, and ultimately shift from a transactional work place to a relational work space.
As circle practice takes hold in organizations, community groups, and families, it creates a social container strong enough to bring conversations out of hiding. The questions under the statements, the longing under the doing, the story under the check-in, the confusion under the confidence comes into metaphoric firelight offering us the possibility that we may heal our collective wounds.
- Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, The Circle Way
Facilitation
Each new facilitation inquiry begins with an invitation to engage in a highly collaborative process intended to shape the overall outcomes and design of the desired session. The design process centers relationship-building from the beginning and seeks to draw out what is most needed for the people, from the process, and for a product. Though sessions can range across a diverse spectrum (depending on need and desired outcome), the work happens one-on-one with each client to ensure a whole person approach throughout the entire process.
Training
Through training, organizations become grounded in The Circle Way method and application of the process. Integration of The Circle Way into the everyday work environment is an essential step in making the transformational shift from a transactional workplace to becoming a relational workspace. By learning how to apply the method with intention and attention, organizations can better support their people in enhancing a healthy, positive, and productive organizational culture through:
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Establishing Authentic Relationships: Invite vulnerability, embrace empathy, and harness the wholeness of the collective as a way to create an environment in which relationships can exist in their full and authentic richness.
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Strengthening Team Development: Deepen trust, foster connection, and improve communication between team members in order to create strong and resilient teams.
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Cultivating Inclusive Leadership: Create and build staff buy-in, ownership, and empowerment by ensuring all voices are heard and inviting leaders to engage as co-creators of the process.
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Restoring Trust and Building Resilience: Restore trust among peers/co-workers/teams as a path to deepened relationships and building resilience within and across the organization.