The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair [Paperback]

Collaboration and group cohesion are vital to any healthy enterprise. In collaborative environments, good ideas can come from everywhere. Today’s thoughtful leaders support interpersonal experiences that ensure clear speaking, open-minded listening, and well-grounded decision making. Reintroducing our most ancient social process, the circle, welcomes everyone to equal participation. Here, two international leaders of circle as a modern methodology offer a comprehensive guide to this foundational human interaction.

The Circle Waylays out the basics of circle conversation based on the authors’ nearly two decades of experience implementing circle practice in organizations. Through illustrative stories that show the circle in action and delve into its deepest aspects, Baldwin and Linnea provide detailed instructions for getting started, setting intention, and resolving conflicts. Their work illuminates the profound impact of circle on people who participate in it.Foreword by Margaret J. Wheatley
Preface

PART I: The Circle Way
Chapter 1: Where Circle Comes From, and Where It Can Take Us
Chapter 2: The Components of Circle

PART II: Circles at Work in the World
Chapter 3: The Power of Preparation, Invitation, Intention, and Center
Chapter 4: Rotating Positions of Leadership in the Circle
Chapter 5: Accountability through Agreements, Practices, and Principles
Chapter 6: Circle Step-by-Step

PART III: The Art of Presence in Circle
Chapter 7: Story as a Core Communication
Chapter 8: Activating and Responding in Social Container
Chapter 9: Why Circle Takes Us to the Shadow
Chapter 10: Circle as Support for Collective Healing

PART IV: The Circle as Paradigm Shift
Chapter 11: Organizational Experiments in Circle Governance
Chapter 12: Circle as a Way of Life

Afterword
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography & Resources
Acknowledgments
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