Philosophy
Make room for deep listening.
Bring what you know, feel, and sense into the circle. Shared speaking turns create time to listen, reflect, and discover what your group understands together.
The practice
A practice you share.
Talking-piece practices appear in council work, Quaker meetings, restorative justice, and supervision groups. People sit where they can see each other, an object marks the speaking turn, and the group agrees to listen.
What listening can make possible
Hear what each person brings.
Each person brings experience, intuition, and knowledge. A full speaking turn gives those perspectives time to meet the group's collective intelligence. Through deep listening and trust, make room for higher wisdom to emerge.
Where circles are held
One practice,
very different rooms.
A circle is a shape, not a subject. The groups that sit in one look nothing alike — what they share is the decision to take turns.
- Supervision and intervision
- A practitioner brings a case and the group answers one voice at a time, instead of competing to give the best advice.
- Teams and retrospectives
- Everyone who was in the sprint gets a turn — not only the people who are quickest to speak in a meeting.
- Councils and community work
- The oldest use of the form: a group that has to hear itself before it can decide anything.
- Teaching and learning
- A class where the turn travels around the room gives its quieter half somewhere to stand.