1 concept of an impactful circle:
A small group, about 6-8 people, where everyone participates
An agenda and a designated facilitator to structure the conversations
Recurring sessions that build trust over time
2 steps to get started:
Circles Experience
Think through the set-up of your experience using the resources on this page.
Management Tool
Log into your my.circles management portal to get started.
3 work streams to create your Circles experience:
Design
U-Shaped Agenda
U-Shape Agenda: What makes a circle session different from a tactical meeting?
Experiences are only as good as their preparation and clean-up. In the world of Circles, the depth of conversation is made more possibly by a U-shaped agenda that starts light, dips to depth, and comes back up before a strong and on-time close. As a first design practice focus on the use of music and openings to start with a great mood – setting the stage for high-quality conversation – before wrapping with actions, another music cue, and an in-room debrief to capture learnings and reflections.
Resource:
– The Design Handbook
– How to create an agenda
Prompts
How can questions make a difference?
Your most important job in designing a meeting is to plan for the most important work. What are you inviting people to collaborate on together? What problem are they solving? Where are you drawing their attention? Prompts should be thought-provoking, intended to elicit honest and reflective shares. These questions literally “prompt” participants to share what’s lurking just beneath the mask of everyday responses. They pull people in, and engage them.
Resource:
– The Design Handbook
Reflection
What is reflection time, and what’s the best way to build it into your Circles experience?
Carving out time for participants to reflect is akin to the power of white space in a visual design. It boosts engagement, enriches the quality of shares and makes people better at actively listening to each other. It amplifies the intentional environment of focus and depth. Most dramatically, time for reflection makes everyone’s shares more concise, paying for itself in timing. If a minute invested in reflection saves, say, twenty seconds in each share, you’ve more than made up for the reflection time.
Resource:
– The Design Handbook
Facilitation
Energy
What can facilitators do to set a great mood, and how does the tech help?
Energy is contagious. Facilitators who “model” energy can have an outsized influence on a circle. Group energy is super-impactful, and can multiply with the number of participants. Energy management is even more significant when facilitating virtually, where you’ve got to work a little bit harder to compensate for the inherent flatness of the virtual environment. Knowing when to fuel energy and when to allow it to find its way. Ending with good feeling and a palpable sense of value received.
Resource:
– Facilitator Click Tour
Timing
How do effective facilitators keep the session on track while trying to encourage openness?
Great facilitators lift up each voice. This requires effective time management, and modeling enforcing group norms around sharing time limits. The right sense of timing produces a level of psychological safety that fosters the full engagement and contribution of everyone in a group. This is one of the most important jobs a facilitator has. We’ve built our technology platform to make effective time management for inclusive conversations easy.
Resource:
– Facilitator Click Tour
Flow
How can the session feel like an organic conversation when there’s a structured agenda?
Flow is the organic, seamless feeling that all is in hand, and that, as a participant, the facilitator has my back. Flow is the feeling that the structure has faded into the background. That each share and section builds on the last, in service of what needs to be done. The best facilitators notice and respond to the momentum of conversation, the natural direction in which it wishes to go, while keeping the session moving.
Resource:
– Facilitator Click Tour
Management
Communications
How can we use communication to ensure program success?
The right onboarding plan can ensure a smooth start, particularly if you’re designing an ongoing journey, and not simply one session. What communications will your participants receive, when, and from whom? Have a look at considerations and templates to help set clear expectations and engage participants and facilitators before the initial session has even started.
Resources:
– Communication Planning
– Introduction to Circles for facilitators
– Introduction to Circles for participants
Sorting & Matching
How do we sort participants into circle groups and create them on the platform?
The value of the right mix of participants is that it maximizes belonging while engineering for outcomes. Consider the variables for creating your groups (gender, background, function, tenure etc). Too many variables and you’ll verge on overthinking it. Too few and your best-laid plans could backfire as participants feel they’re not with “their people”. Creating “tribes” from your pool of potential participants is a key element of care and thought in the planning.
Resources:
– How to create a circle
– How to upload multiple circles
– Sorting sheet example
Data Strategy
In what ways is data helpful for a successful program? What data can I access on my.circles? What other data could I collect?
What are you looking to measure, and what will “good” look like? Quantitative measurement through our analytics of metrics such as attendance, value scores, and talk time distribution offer insight into session “health”. Additionally, our built-in debriefs capture qualitative comments that shed light on participant experience, efficacy of the design, and opportunities for innovation. Modeling a focus on data will help lead your facilitators to do the same, encouraging feedback loops that fuel innovation, and foster growth.
Resources:
– How to use in-room surveys to gather valuable insights
– How to review your data on my.circles
We are here for you!
As part of our community, you are never alone in creating connection and growth
Contact our 24/7 support team
Via your my.circles dashboard and via the CirclesSpace itself you can easily get in touch with our support team, who is here for you whenever you need us.
Join one of our live orientations
Want to learn about circles management, design or facilitation live in the CirclesSpace with us?
Get in touch here and we will slot you or your admin, designer and facilitators in for an upcoming session.
Let us take some of this off your hands
We have tools and processes for sorting and matching, generating invites, and loads of other essential tasks.
