2019-12-11 XRFDH

This free workshop used the process of the Empathy Circle to explore how Extinction Rebellion can best build a facilitator army to embed new democratic tools into the DNA of society. After setting the context, the session will explore deeply the ideas we all might have and harvest the results for taking tangible steps forward.

• • Learn and practice the Empathy Circle process for constructive dialogue.

  • Contribute to deepening democracy.

• Original Facebook Event

Empathy Circle 1: Facilitator: Edwin Rutsch

XR Future Democracy: Empathy Cafe: How might we best build an XR facilitator army?

(View On YouTube or On Facebook)

Army term - association with war, tangible step to review options. Nature metaphor if possible. Embody a shift towards a partnership paradigm, not a domination one. Something that resonates with the kind of people interested in XR.

Need to encapsulate the sense of action.. Thousand of People working together. Haven’t found a metaphor that keeps the energy of the army. Army has sense of activity, forward movement.

Hive as a representation of nature, distributed network/community cognition, a pulsing and synchronization, can switch into democracy or fascism.

Army term inspired me to participate, Because I am so angry, Marshall Rosenberg or MLK influence may help here. Keep Army term for time being, the right term will emerge.

Dan, new to XR. don’t have a lot of experience about Xr.

Will talk about amateur ideas about how social movements work.

The twin approach - a balance of a meta narrative and psychotechnologies. They interact with each other.

Be good to review the term army in due course and to use an effective deliberative approach (not an online poll).

Empathy is a powerful form of action - often overlooked. Is the foundation of future action.

Marshall Rosenberg used empathy to get different groups to talk with each other.

Israel and Palestinian.

I get excited about the possibilities. Had a challenging day.

Am now feeling more connected, more alive.

Returning to the inquiry.. Wanting to support people that come and ask for help.

Am curious to see what we need to do to get it done.. And we are doing it.

I have been doing this for a long time.. And for me when we have the climate crises - going and doing more democracy seems like the answer. Others may not see this leap. And meta narrative have a role.

Meta-narrative: Empathy is the action and essence of all the practices. Dont need to concern ourselves with how to attract people, focus on what is most salient to us in the moment. Trust the process we are in. Sherry Burman, article. We need a vision we are working towards and this is missing in XR.

Vision - gives a shared impetus. Have been discussing the vision for an empathetic culture. An effective vision can provide so much and remove the need for say coaching and teaching, develops trust in the self.

The vision of a culture of empathy.. The means are then end.

Need an economic vision, a new model of economics

Create a system for wellbeing.

Building on the comments of Bukky Fuller.

Need a replacement to Neoliberalism

Empathy Circle 2: Facilitator: Lou Zweier

(No Video)

Keep it Simple

Emphasis on learning by doing

Expressed desire for more in-person spaces to come together

Think about how empathy circles fit into the cycle of Regenerative Culture (circle diagram)

Starting a group in your local community inviting community members into empathy circle practice

What about people who want problem solving to be part of the process? How to incorporate that.

One strategy for scaling the adoption of desirable values and practices is to recognize and bring forward those values and practices as they exist in other cultures (a la the Charter for Compassion), rather than inventing something new and expecting everyone to adopt it.

Empathy Circle 3: Facilitator: Bill Filler

(View On YouTube or On Facebook)

Bill: need decide on common goals and how we will achieve them. Faced with a paradox that we need to listen but also act very fast. Presented with a paradox of listening and acting quickly. How do we reach out to the population as a whole? Various views on this. Lots of burnout. Use this empathy circle can be one effective tool. You have to make an impact. Envisioning a mass of ECs, topics generated from Citizens Assemblies. Is a non confrontational option. Ask people to make their own judgement about how they feel about ECs.

Excited by Peter’s Community Organising model for Communities/Schools/Orgs (details below). Keen to build Empathy Circles, Facilitators and other tools (see Jane’s comments i.e. Role Play, Peer to Peer support, ) into the model and process.

Karolina: how do we build the facilitator army? Question about the word “army”. Learn through practice and regenerative culture. If we can build communities that are strong at deliberating, communicating, facilitating, then we can all be part of that army or swarm ;-) .

Does it make sense for anyone here to build tools for self-assessment that helps to see whether they are ready to become facilitators? Would like to see what’s out there and what people think about this.

Perhaps name the skills facilitators should possess, i.e. active empathic listening, gauging the temperature of the group, the ability to forward wisely some task on others (to engage them in facilitation slowly).

Resume from karO:

1. Developing regen culture as a natural environment for well-skilled facilitators swarm (army).

2. Considering the list of skills for facilitators (naming them) and maybe some self-assessment tools (self-questionnaire etc).

3. Peer support group

4. Role-playing sessions of full PA, CA, and roleplaying with rough participants

5. Organizing the campaign over the reclaiming Time in our life.

Franek: Feels messy. Hard to focus as has been in other XR meetings. Also studying. Hard to have the time. Doesn't like “army” either. Feels strongly about this. Wants to find out how to build a better community. Will try to work where he lives. Use his knowledge and exchange with colleagues/friends. Come to Future Democracy to learn.

Jane: Has been a facilitator for a long time. Started with NVDA in the Peace Movement / Anti Nuclear in the 80s. Has some ideas.

• • 1. Role Modelling - be the change

  • 2. Offering to facilitate future meetings. Good facilitation makes people feel empowered and then they want more. The local XR group want to learn facilitator skills due to their positive experiences.

  • 3. Peer Support. Passion is Community Music.

Peter: Working practically for past 15 years on system change (not climate change!) developing digital & dialogue tools for local democracy, participatory budgeting and community organising. Now have strong case studies in schools, colleges, universities, unions and geographic communities.

Many ideas prioritised are of an environmental nature and this has underpinned their move to declare climate & ecological emergency (case study here). Peter is collaborating on the XR Mass Mobilisation strategy (draft here) and this could be a model (process and roles here) that is rolled out to all communities, schools and groups which would generate demand for an army of facilitators / community organisers to help identify priorities and progress them into action!