In part one of this series I talked about the theory of how to set up and run a learning circle based around sustainability. Now that I have just completed our first one, this is the practice of how it all worked.
Attendees
To give this a go it seemed that 6 participants would be a good number initially. Two of those participants would be Linda and myself (obviously) and I approached two other couples who were friends of ours through permaculture Sydney west. Both couples were interested and seeing as we all knew each other that would reduce any time required on introductions etc. Being active in PSW also meant that all couples had at least a baseline knowledge of sustainability issues.
The Meetings
My initial thought was to set up the meetings to be held weekly, but after some discussion we made the decision to get together fortnightly. This was far enough apart to be able to follow up on any actions agreed by members of the group but close enough together to be able to keep the thread of what was going on. Also, we were all busy so the difficulties associated with committing to one night a week for 8 weeks were made easier by giving us a week off between each meeting. By and large we were able to keep to this schedule with only one of the meetings needing to be put off for a week or two due to outside circumstances.
We set up the meetings so that each couple would host a meeting at their home each successive fortnight, starting with us. This worked well as we lived at fairly similar distances from each other and it meant the hosting couple only had to do it once every three weeks. We got together usually in the hosting couples lounge or dining area. There were to be a total of 8 meetings, one for each issue to be discussed and a final one so we could do a wrap up of the series, find out how everyone felt about the process and where the group felt they wanted to go from there.
I opened the first meeting with a summary of what learning circles were about, how they worked and what issues we would be discussing. The meetings were generally structured so that I gave a quick introduction, we then discussed each of the three focus questions in turn and then agreed if any actions were to be carried out by the attendees. The meetings took about two hours and at the end the hosting couple provided tea, coffee and supper while the other couples also bought some food to share.
The Questions
In developing the questions I first needed to work out what the sustainability related theme of each meeting would be. To do this I used the same sort of breakdown I used when developing the Sustainable Lifestyle Assessment Matrix (SLAM) and came up with the following headings –
- Food
- Energy
- Water
- Transport
- Waste
- Consumption and
- Community.
Under each heading I developed the three discussion questions as covered in the previous article –
Question 1 – aspect of subject applied to your life, when have you had experience of the issue in your life and what does it mean to you/how do you feel about it?
Question 2 – what barriers are there which prevent you and/or your family from improving activities around the subject under discussion?
Question 3 - what actions can you take to improve your performance around the issue being discussed, what actions will you commit to doing?
Once I had developed the questions I emailed them through to the other couples so that they could review them before each meeting and consider what their responses might be.
A copy of the questions I developed may be found here.
Review (so how did it all go?)
After the seventh session we got together an eighth time to discuss how everybody felt the process went. The first question was around what went well or what “worked”.
The general consensus seemed to be that the entire process worked pretty well. It was worthwhile to remind some participants of what they knew but also by committing to the group, actions arising were carried out that may have fallen by the wayside otherwise. Some permanent changes were made in the areas of food and transport but other areas such as community were a bit more “woolly” and longer term although a couple of ideas brought out during this particular discussion made it onto my personal “to do” list.
The fact that it was a small group and partners were involved was good because discussions involved everyone and both partners were part of the discussion. Meeting as a group also allowed us to “recharge” with likeminded individuals and focus on our needs rather than the larger group (in this case PSW). A dedicated time for discussion also meant that time was given to considering each subject and everyone was able to get something out of each discussion.
The headings and the process of focussing on one heading per meeting using the questions was good in generating discussions and acting as points of reference when the discussion wandered off topic. The discussion wandered of course somewhat frequently but we always made it back onto the topic (sometime with a little nudge from me) and this generally contributed to a relaxed atmosphere. The social aspect of having a relaxed atmosphere and being welcomed into each other’s homes was also appreciated as resulting in a pleasant experience for all.
While the feeling of the group was that my facilitation was good in general terms, my feeling was that it was a difficult call to pick when to guide the conversation back into the area to be covered. I think that perhaps I erred on the side of not guiding things enough but in the end we seemed to get where we needed to go.
The list of things which didn’t work is thankfully much smaller – we had no note taker and so some of the points we pondered would escape due to busy lives and/or poor memory. Providing everyone with a pen and paper and the time to record any insights would remedy this shortfall.
It was also noted that some of the questions were a bit broad, particularly when discussing the big subjects like food and energy. A refining of the questions would be worthwhile for any subsequent learning circles. There was also some overlap between the areas but to a certain extent this is inevitable for example food waste can be covered under “food” or “waste”, etc.
And there was no wine!
Where to From Here?
Over the last few months our get togethers have been very pleasant and so we have decided for each family to develop a sustainability related project and then we will pool our resources to assist each family in turn to realise the project. We are still in the planning stages at this point, watch this space.
