Part of what I do professionally is facilitate meetings for the Executive Council and the Officers of the Cantors Assembly. Yesterday and today we are meeting as a group of 11 at the Cleveland Aloft for two days of strategic planning, goal setting and action planning for the coming year.
One of the most transformative tools I use with this group is called Dialogue Circle. We, as a group of cantors, are all leaders in our own communities and many come from a strong performance background. This makes for a group of people used to being in charge, accustomed to speaking in public, and very very comfortable being the sole star of an event!
Dialogue Circle is deceptively simple. The group chooses an object (in our case it has been a tallit, a marimba and courtesy of the Aloft today it is a rubix cube) which is passed from person to person. Only the person holding the object can speak. They hold the rubix cube until they have exhausted what they have to say—everyone else at the table listens. No texting and checking phones, no getting up for coffee, no doodling on notepads. The rubix cube transverses the circle fully, and then, if necessary people raise their hand to receive the cube and speak again.
Time was that Cantors Assembly discussions were characterized by leadership by whoever could talk the loudest, and nobody ever got to express a thought without being interrupted several times to either be disputed, corrected or improved upon. It was a jangling exhausting experience and there was a certain aggressiveness in the room, with people according to their nature getting more and more animated, or more and more resigned.
Come the Dialogue Circle and there is a completely altered atmosphere. One of respect, relaxation and attentiveness. Meetings—the bane of our existence in the work world—are effective, pleasant and more akin to a lingering conversation over dinner than a battleground. And during the five years that we have been doing this as a group, we have noticed an incredible shift in our relationships and effectiveness as a group. Simple but powerful!
One of the most transformative tools I use with this group is called Dialogue Circle. We, as a group of cantors, are all leaders in our own communities and many come from a strong performance background. This makes for a group of people used to being in charge, accustomed to speaking in public, and very very comfortable being the sole star of an event!
Dialogue Circle is deceptively simple. The group chooses an object (in our case it has been a tallit, a marimba and courtesy of the Aloft today it is a rubix cube) which is passed from person to person. Only the person holding the object can speak. They hold the rubix cube until they have exhausted what they have to say—everyone else at the table listens. No texting and checking phones, no getting up for coffee, no doodling on notepads. The rubix cube transverses the circle fully, and then, if necessary people raise their hand to receive the cube and speak again.
Time was that Cantors Assembly discussions were characterized by leadership by whoever could talk the loudest, and nobody ever got to express a thought without being interrupted several times to either be disputed, corrected or improved upon. It was a jangling exhausting experience and there was a certain aggressiveness in the room, with people according to their nature getting more and more animated, or more and more resigned.
Come the Dialogue Circle and there is a completely altered atmosphere. One of respect, relaxation and attentiveness. Meetings—the bane of our existence in the work world—are effective, pleasant and more akin to a lingering conversation over dinner than a battleground. And during the five years that we have been doing this as a group, we have noticed an incredible shift in our relationships and effectiveness as a group. Simple but powerful!
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