learning circles = team building

This summer I was fortunate enough to have worked in New Orleans with a youth program. One of the best things about the program was the new relationships that I formed with my coworkers. It was crazy to me how we were able to become so close so fast. I’m sure it had something do with our personalities clicking and because we lived together worked together, ate together and hung out together. But another factor I’m sure played a role in our close relationships was the learning circles we took part in during the first week. We continued them through the whole summer but I think the ones we did during the training week were crucial in the strength of our team.
We would wake up every morning and start our days out with a Freire Circle, which is basically a learning circle but it’s a little bit different from what we would do in our CI5900 class. It would change time to time but for the majority of the mornings someone would think of a topic, we would then go around and share a story that related to this topic. Many times it was a personal story that allowed us to gradually open up to one another.
One morning, we had an exercise were the facilitator called out different categories and who ever fell into the category would have to step across the line and face the people who weren’t apart of the group. For example, the facilitator called out “if you are part of a minority racial group step across the line�. This went on for about ten minutes. At first the categories were simple and fun, likes and dislikes, then they began to get deeper and heavier. After the exercise we all went back and sat in a circle. We went around and each of us gave our feelings on how the activity made us feel. It was a really powerful experience we had on the third day together and it really gave us a deep sense of who everyone was.
Another way we used learning circles or something similar was during our training seminars. After someone would present we would debrief when they left by using a method called rotating chairs. It was actually a professor at the University of Minnesota, Lisa Albrecht that introduced this to us. Instead of going around in a circle, people who wanted to give their feedback on the training session would raise their hands and the person who was finished speaking would call on the next person to speak. They would have to say the other person’s name before passing it and this was a great way to get to know each other’s names. I also liked rotating chairs because it allowed us to speak when we felt we had something to add. I also thought it was a good idea to use this method and debrief after the speakers because it was another way to get to know about each other. I was learning in the first few days, how my coworkers felt on some big issues and issues that would somehow influence us over the summer. For instants, we had a speaker talk about the effect of natural disasters on young people. Rotating chairs was a great team building exercise too!
Since taking this course, I’ve realized how powerful the learning circles were in helping my crew work as a team this summer. I truly think by allowing us to communicate in this way with one another was the foundation of our strong bond. Because there were about 20 of us, and most of us knew no one coming in, this structure of the learning circle provided us a way to connect with everyone instead of just a few. One incredible thing about the learning circles was that they allowed our diverse group to come together as one family versus several groups. The fact we were so close and one group working as one, allowed us to perform that much better.