Jun 13 2009
Circling round to story
Dear Storycatchers, I have missed you–missed writing to you and hearing back from you as we make our ways through busy days. The new book, which pulled me off this blogging schedule, co-authored with Ann Linnea, is at Berrett-Koehler Publishers in San Francisco–in fact, on this Saturday morning I am writing from the lobby of Hotel Rex, a few blocks from the B-K offices.
Yesterday Ann and I went through a process they call “Authors’ Day.” We met the folks who will be working with us in final editing, production, marketing, and publicity. At noon, all the staff in the building that day, including Steve Piersanti, President of the company, came to lunch where we talked about The Circle Way, A Leader in Every Chair, and then invited the group of just over 20 staff and guests to push back from the board table and form an oval of chairs. We used the Basic Circle Guidelines from our PeerSpirit website to set up a round of circle process and folks responded to an interesting question passing a beautiful glass disk hand to hand. We talked about the impact of hearing every voice in the room, and then had 20 minutes of dialogue about the book.
The question we used was offered by Fran Korten, editor of Yes! Magazine, when she presented at a conference on women and leadership May 1. As a great fan and avid reader of Yes! I was glad to meet Fran, give her a copy of Storycatcher, and carry on the profound work of her questions–so here they are for you to raise in your lives as well:
- What did you notice on the fringe of society 15 years ago that is now in the center?
- What do you notice on the fringe now that you hope will move to the center in the next 15 years?
- What are you willing to do to contribute to that happening?
I jumped up and said: circle, and the power of circles, especially as an empowerment process for women. And here is a brief rendition of that story.
In 1994 Ann and I had just moved to Whidbey and started PeerSpirit, Inc. I was writing a book called Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture. It was under contract to Bantam and when I submitted the manuscript there was deafening silence from my editor. Finally I phoned and asked what was going on… She told me they had no idea how to support this title. I bought back the rights and found a tiny press in Oregon, Swan Raven & Company, to bring out the first edition of the book. It sold 15,000 copies and connected us with a circle of colleagues with whom we are still in touch.
In 1997, I got a call from an agent who wanted to represent the book to larger presses. He sold it back to my Bantam editor and I rewrote Calling the Circle in the edition that has been available since 1998. Unfortunately, the circle concept was still so edgy that the book was categorized as “ritual/psychology” and most often shelved in the witchcraft/occult section of the bookstore–not exactly mainstream! Meanwhile, we kept doing our work, expanding our outreach, and through training other facilitators, consultants, and leaders in many fields, kept working to normalize and bring circle to center as a alternative group process. When Amazon and the Internet, and our e-store capacity came along the book could be more easily found.
In 2000, through our association with business visionary, Margaret Wheatley, PeerSpirit Circle started going global in the From the Four Directions and Art of Hosting networks, and now, Berrett-Koehler, a business book company, recognizes circle practice as mainstream enough to bring The Circle Way into the heart of their business group process offerings. So, yesterday was quite a day–as we were carrying this subtext through all the meetings. We were carrying the story under the project; carrying fifteen years of work to help a far-out, woo-woo, women howling at the moon, men drumming in the woods, touchy-feely, get it out of here(!) concept into the board rooms and staff meetings and committee meetings and nursing staff debriefs, and conflict resolution meetings where we and many others have benefited from another way to speak and listen.
In our Berrett-Koehler circle, we addressed the second question: What do you notice on the fringe today that you want to see move to the center in the next 15 years? It’s a very interesting form of strategic planning: for a company involved in both setting and responding to business trends, and also for any person wanting to redesign their lives in the current conditions of the world around us. Try these questions on yourself as a journal writing exercise, with your family and friends after dinner, in the next circle where you need of a conversation starter–and here on this blog.
When I look back, the first question creates a sense of acomplishment and perspective regarding what I’ve been up to all these years in journal writing, circle, and storycatching. When I look around, the second question gives me a way to map current societal trends (what’s moving toward deeper integration, such as sustainability; what’s moving out of the way, such as excessive consumption). When I assess how to focus my own passion, willingness, and skills, the third question helps me set trajectory.
So many of us are in a process of reassessment, may these questions lead us into an ability to tell ourselves the story of how we have navigated the social conditions that surround our lives. As we tell the story of how we got here, we notice the synchronicities and choices that shape our lives. As we create the story of where we’re going, we shine a light on the path forward.
Let’s share responses and stories and see the range of what we notice–and what we are committed to bringing from the edge to the middle!
Copyright ©2009 Christina Baldwin. All rights reserved.
What can I say other than “Amen” and fasten those seatbelts; we’re moving forward thanks to you.
thanks for signing me up for the Storycathcher Blog! I look forward to keeping in touch with you and hearing about the publishing of the book! Good work!
The questions inspire me to continue looking for the things that will make a difference in our lives, that are on the fringe now and how I am committed to contributing to their emergence in mainstream society. Living sustainably and watching the shift toward localized consumerism is one that I am gleefully watching move from the fringe to the center. The image of bringing concepts and ideas from the fringe of society (the outer circle) into the center is the “circle” at work at it’s greatest and highest good. No one person, group or organization is solely responsible for the results, but society as a whole takes on the movement from the fringe to the center. A slow process at times, and it gives us hope for humanity’s ability to accomplish great things. Thanks for your commitment to the work!
Christina, I read your posting with joy and awe. I had no idea that a publishing company would be so deeply involved in the content of an author’s book, as you describe. You also gave such a clear sense of the emergence of circle into the mainstream…I am thrilled with this journey!
I continue to use and experiment with circle in many forms as well, in all of the groups I work with, and I look forward to your new book with eager anticipation.
All is well, and all manner of things will continue to be well!
Love, Brenda
Hello Christina,
Thank you so much for sharing this blogpost. It is soooo encouraging to hear of “corporate” minds embracing these concepts at last - and full credit to B-K for putting into practice the process they are supporting through publication of your book. I am very excited for your new book and look forward to introducing it to many of my clients - especially the ones from whom I STILL hear the woeful cry - how do we get people to engage in meetings and make their contribution! Circle of course. Love
Aileen
We’re looking forward to welcoming you back home to Whidbey, and to nurturing this new book on its way. Finally a record of your pioneering circle work that we can spread far and wide! Can’t wait to get my hands on it…
Aloha Christina,
I’ve worked out of Honolulu across the Pacific through Micronesia all the way to Palau and south to American Samoa for some ten years now. When I began this work, I nervously introduced Circle as a means of starting and closing each day of a three week workshop with forty educators from Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM: composed of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae), Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), American Samoa and Hawaii. During the final day of the workshop, I asked, again in circle, what folks thought of Circle as a means of fostering communication. A big Samoan man, who was a Talking Chief of his home village on American Samoa, smiled broadly, sort of chuckled, and said, “Circle is the way we work in Samoa. When the village has things to decide or just to discuss, we go to the fale (meeting house), sit in a circle, and the talk moves around the circle until everyone has an opportunity to have their say. We go around as often as necessary and for as long as is necessary. So, Sandy, Circle was not new to us, and we were pleased that you knew of it as a way of working.” Many of the assembled folks from other Pacific nations reinforced what he said, indicating that Circle was not a new invention to them. We’ve continued to use circle in all our work together.
That positive experience led me to introduce circle in the classes I teach at the University of Hawaii–mathematics for teachers classes. The things I’ve learnt in circle are astounding, the most startling ones I cannot share as ‘what’s said in circle stays in circle’. I can say that the use of circle in my classes has a profound effect on the students, a freeing of the soul and spirit which I’m sure would not be realized if it were not for our work together in circle. Sometimes I get ‘too much’ information, more than I comfortably want to know about my students, but the sharing of such knowledge in a non-judgmental atmosphere gives the students an opportunity to be heard, really listened to, as they say. Listening closely and carefully, I’ve come to realize more and more, is critical for communication to have a chance to occur.
Enough said. Mahalo plenty for the three questions from your meeting with the publishers. I can hardly wait to hear what my students and friends across the Pacific respond with when next we meet in circle.
[...] her Storycatcher Blog Christina Baldwin described a session with her publisher in which participants formed a circle and [...]
Christina — wonderful to see your use of the questions is posed at the NW Catholic Women’s Convocation last May. That was such an intensely lively session — I loved doing it. Glad you are encouraging people to see the ways in which change is happening — and the possibilities ahead.
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