I am in several conversations these days about purpose and meaning. With teams that I’m working with. With colleagues old and new. With family. With participants in the programs I get to be a part of offering.
It’s not new to be in these conversations. However, it is renewing.
One of those conversations is about what it takes to bring circle — deliberate process for turning to one another rather that away — in hierarchical circumstances where the pattern of circle is foreign or even disparaged.
It occurs to me that these conversations require rather immense courage to invoke seemingly small things. It takes courage to interrupt a pattern with the suggestion akin to, “…perhaps there are other ways that we could share our learning together here that brings more wisdom and clarity…” It takes courage to name form that contributes to a relational path — “…let’s begin with a check-in that invites a bit of presence; let’s close with a check-out that invokes a bit of witness…” Courage for seemingly small things that in the bigger story are about growing a culture of connection.
In these conversations, I enjoy them most when they are oriented to learning. Learning practice. Learning orientations. Learning granular steps that have impact. Learning refreshed pictures of the broader view.
It is learning, and sharing, and integrating — with kindness, with consciousness, and with flow — that have a way of restoring lot of purpose and meaning in groups.
