Visionary Skills Training: Hosting Talking Circles (For Entrepreneurs)

A 1-day training for individuals who want to enhance their facilitation and leadership skills by embracing the transformative power of hosting talking circles and bringing this to their organisation.

What’s on offer?

This one day training is an introduction into the art of hosting talking circles – an ancient, and highly adaptable communication technology that tackles the everyday communication and relationship issues that hold us back, as well as creating more liberating practices that enhance agency, equality and participation.

Although they can take many forms, a talking circle is at it’s core a facilitated process where a group gather in a circle (unsurprisingly!), either as a one-off or regular practice, to explore a particular topic. They can be used to share stories, resolve conflict, deepen understanding or make wiser decisions, to name a few examples.

The existential challenges of our times require a radical renewal in how we work and how we lead. Talking circles create ‘islands of sanity’ – powerful spaces through which entrepreneurs can model new forms of servant leadership.

In this training day we develop your ability to host a range of different types of talking circle. Through these you’ll be able to hold space for courageous expression, enable greater empathy, embrace conflictual issues and adversity, and make wiser decisions. When facilitated well, talking circles provide a gateway to radical individual and collective growth.

Why practice talking circles?

• To build a healthy culture amongst those you work with through greater community cohesion and advanced wellbeing support
• To give space for individuals to build authentic relationships
• To create interesting, safe and authentic spaces for personal and group expression
• To cut through shallow beliefs and address the deeper issues at the core of entrenched social issues
• To develop the group’s ability to reflect on their own experiences, emotions and beliefs
• Learn to accept and embrace conflict as a natural part of life
• Help integrate personal and social identities, through reducing cognitive dissonance
• Enhance self-awareness and understanding of others

It can feel daunting to open up dialogue with others about sensitive topics, and yet choosing to ‘go there’ together can be incredibly liberating. Perhaps you notice ‘elephant in the room’ issues that simply don’t get addressed? Or when they do, it feels they aren’t truly explored? Perhaps you notice those in your networks could be more accepting and supportive of one another? Perhaps you want to create space to truly understand how others relate to issues around race, authority, working relationships or decisions that affect them?

Talking circles offer a powerful way of having deeper, more trusting relationships, helping individuals feel seen, heard and respected, and create a shared culture of safety and belonging. Perhaps you see your peers bottling things up, blaming others or being avoidant? Perhaps you simply want to beyond the ‘diversity & inclusion’ rhetoric and create genuinely safe containers to talk about racism, homophobia or other damaging power dynamics?

Kindness, honesty, respect, compassion, acceptance, courage…. every organisation aspires towards these and yet often people say these feel lacking at work. Talking circles provide a way to bring these values to life in a way that supports genuine ownership and democracy.

This 1-day practical skills training will leave you feeling more confident in your facilitation skills and fully equipped to bring talking circles (and other similar forms of communication and enquiry) into your setting.

We’ll walk you through various ‘talking circle’ techniques, practice them together, discuss their different use cases, equip you to run them safely and explore the theory that underpins this powerful practice.

This is for you if…

• You are a leader of an organisation and help to set the culture
• You want to support others to cut through the small talk and get to the heart of topics that really matter to them (e.g. around identity, relationships and culture).
• You want to develop your confidence working with mental health, strong emotions, trauma & conflict
• You want to create space for others to feel valued, heard and seen in their experiences
• You want to learn to relate to others in ways that alleviate their suffering, support their learning and make them feel cared for and appreciated
• You want to be more confident addressing conflict in your life and at work
• You believe in the transformative power of gratitude, deeper listening and empathy – knowing that an ‘empathy revolution’ is both possible and necessary

You will learn…

• How to facilitate different kinds of talking circles
• The social and developmental value of talking circles, as evidenced by leading neuroscience and attachment theory
• How to create a psychologically safe and trusting container
• Learn how to look after the wellbeing of everyone in the space – including yourself!
• Debunking common myths that hold us back from exploring our emotions and sharing our personal ‘stuff’
• The difference between therapeutic spaces and therapy (and why this isn’t the latter)
• How to maintain safe boundaries and key safeguarding considerations, knowing the limitations of talking circles and your role as the guide

PAYMENT

The true cost of this training is £110 per participant. However, we charge on a sliding scale to maximise equity of access. whilst ensuring we cover our costs. Please be mindful that if you purchase a ticket at the lowest end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the standard ticket price, you are limiting access to those who truly need a bursary place.

For Schools/Organisations

• £160 – High – For organisations earning £100k+ a year
• £110 – Standard – For organisations earning between £20-100k a year
• £80 – Support – For those on lower salaries in lower revenue organisations that may need a little more support

For Individuals

Please read about our sliding scale here to decide which ticket to purchase.

• £110 - Standard (pays for your place and covers our costs)
• £180 - Abundant (pays for your place and supports another)
• £80 - Subsidised - (for those in the middle of our sliding scale)
• £50 - Bursary (for those at the lower end of our sliding scale)

*please contact hello@thevisionaries.org.uk if you have any further questions or would like to pay via invoice.

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Facilitators

Nikki Levitan

Nikki Levitan has worked for over 20 years creating therapeutic settings that support the development of others. She is a professional coach and qualified Trauma & Mental Health Informed Schools Practitioner, supporting the wellbeing of each person. Nikki’s dedicated work with others focuses on their life skills, teaching emotional wellbeing, leadership and positive psychology. She is an expert in creating safe, non-judgemental spaces, working with people to identify and understand their driving values and their strengths.

Max Girardeau

Max is the Co-Founder of The Visionaries, and is a walking testament to how talking circles can create a healthy, empowering work culture. He is a Trauma & Mental Health Informed Schools Practitioner and has worked in school development for 6 years since graduating from Year Here, the social innovation fellowship where the idea for the The Visionaries was seeded. He is a qualified Mountain Leader and wilderness rites of passage guide, having trained with the School of Lost Borders. he has extensive experience with The Way Of Council (a form of talking circle) and has been facilitating talking circles with a huge variety of groups for 5 years (e.g. youth circles, boy’s and men’s circles, couples circles, family circles).