Last Tuesday was my first Circle Conversation at the selfHUB, the topic: Sustainability. I was very excited about the opportunity of preparing and hosting (along with Frauke Godat) this event. Brand new methodology for me and for most of the guests too. Finally we met 18 people from different nationalities and backgrounds (even somebody joining from Taiwan!).

We prepared the chairs in a circle and for the centre: some nice flowers, talking objects (a stone, wooden sticks and a ball with the shape of the world) and We Are What We Do postcards. Just the person holding the talking object can speak, the others will be listening. We also prepared some food and coffee, we are talking about a HUB lunch after all

When everything was prepared I used some crotales (music instrument) for calling the people to gather into the kitchen. Before we introduced the burning questions and the background information for calling this conversation, Frauke read the principles and practices:

THREE PRINCIPLES:
The circle is an all leader group.
1. Leadership rotates among all circle members.
2. Responsibility is shared for the quality of experience.
3. People place ultimate reliance on inspiration (or spirit), rather than on any personal agenda.

THREE PRACTICES:
1. To speak with intention: relevance to the conversation in the moment.
2. To listen with attention: respectful of the learning process for all members of the group.
3. To tend the well being of the circle: remaining aware of the impact of our contributions.

Source www.peerspirit.com ©2001 Baldwin/Linnea. Extracted from Baldwin’s book, Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture.

In this kind of conversation the silences are also important, they are important to think what the others are saying and think how you can contribute to the group. Not always the silent moments are uncomfortable, they might be even useful. It is also important taking the time into account so you can spare the time properly.

In the first part of the conversation we talked about what does sustainability mean to us, different ideas came out, it’s not simple defining Sustainability, each one had their own idea and opinion:

Long-term commitment, balance, Is it better to act locally or globally?, Think big for big things, self awareness that we are a world-citizen so everything we do has a repercussion, long-term commitment, are we prepared for the big change?, continuous improvement, will you live without your ipod…?, Why to buy bio-food if it much more expensive?, fair trade, money incentives, alternative materials, art related initiatives…

We continued the conversation with the following question: How do we live sustainability at the selfHUB?

We talked about different aspects (the mission and role of the selfHUB regarding to be sustainable, e.g. using recycling paper…) but mainly about the heating and the old windows we’ve got. This seems to be our main problem, because we loose too much energy. The point is that building is somehow protected by the council and we are not allowed to make changes like that.

For me, it was a very rich and meaningful conversation. For the check-out everyone who participated at the conversation tried to reach to a conclusion, so everyone got a profit from the circle.

We all agreed that this conversation must have continuity. In the last few weeks I’ve been gathering ideas, using the loo-communication board, the blog, chatting with the people involved in the selfHUB… , so hopefully some of them will come true.

This is my commitment: I’m going to try to practice what I preach, I’m going to DO (instead of too much thinking and not acting) and I will try to transform the selfHUB into a more eco-friendly space.

So, this is one of those days that I feel HUB! And that’s a great feeling!

Iñigo Blanco