First Circles of Kansas conference

On Sept. 11, the Circles of Kansas Community of Practice 2013 was held at Trinity Heights Methodist Church in Newton. This was the first such meeting of Circles for Kansas.

Organizers hoped for around 25 people; more than 100 signed up. People came from across the state, some from Circles groups already formed, others just beginning, while others were in the exploration stage.
What is always inspiring to me are testimonies from Circle leaders--people in poverty who are working to get out. One such leader, Jo Lewis, made this insightful comment: "We're all in the same boat but have different paddles. Mine was a fork."
Heather Cunningham, the National Circles Training Center coach, spoke to the group. She noted the importance of community practices. She said that workers spend one-third of their time looking for information and are five times more likely to ask a co-worker for it.
She said there are more than 1,000 Circles groups in over 70 communities in 23 states and part of Canada. The first national conference for Circles was held this year. The second one will be held April 28-May 2, 2014, in Fort Collins, Colo.
The conference had breakout sessions in the morning and afternoon. In the first slot, I sat in on "Conflict Resolution Language" with Jeanne Erickson. She distinguished unnecessary conflict from genuine conflict and emphasized focusing on people's interests, not their positions. There was too much to summarize here, but it was excellent. She recommended the book Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury.
In the afternoon, I sat in on "Trauma, the Brain and Your Circle" with Wanda Pumphrey, also excellent. She talked about the long-term effects of trauma on the brain and how the prefrontal cortex--the thinking, analytical part of our brain that moderates our fight or flight behavior--may shut down. She talked about ways Circles can support the healing process. Here's a good quote: "Healing starts as soon as someone listens to you and your story."
Over the lunch period, Ed O'Malley, director of the Leadership Center in Wichita, talked about the Circles vision. He mentioned three things Circles groups need to do:
• increase their comfort with ambiguity,
• hold to the purpose,
• create the container for the work.
Heather Cunningham closed the conference with a short presentation about leadership. She said that if we make leadership something bigger than ourselves, we fail to recognize it.
I came away further encouraged to continue being involved in this important work of being with people who are working hard to get out of poverty, in the face of huge systemic barriers. I bristle each time I hear some politician (or anyone) talk about how lazy poor people are. I've never met such courageous and resourceful people. I want to say, Just try to walk in their shoes.