Summary
Concern: When 2 people dominate the discussion. Not everyone gets to talk equally. Participants may feel left out.
How Might We give everyone more equal time to speak and be involved?
Ideas
at the beginning mention to go around and speak to people who haven't spoken.
make it a point//rule to speak to someone who hasn't spoken in that round.
each person be aware of spreading the attention.
have a hand signal of the level you have of wanting to speak.
just let it go, that's the way it is. everyone is free to speak to who ever they want.
?
Concern: people may feel uncomfortable with setting up the technology and preparing for the online empathy circle.
How might we give technical guidelines for online participants?
How and when to mute?
Preparing for the call by getting comfortable, making sure you have your coffee/tea/water at hand so you don't have to get up
What to do when you have to leave your seat. (Jessica modeled that wonderfully)
Considering what the viewers will see (do you want them to see your clothes? If not, how can you adjust your camera...)
Sound checks.
how to adjust audio levels so that the levels are equal.. for views it is difficult to have many different audio levels.. don't know any easy was to do this. would be a good feature for Zoom to build int.
Framing yourself in the call. Ie, so that not just the top of you head is showing.
having good lighting.
Ideas
( ) Create an intro video for technical guidelines
( )
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Thanks so much for the opportunity to participate yesterday! I am even more excited about working with you, both individually as groups.
Last night I thought a bit about how the circle went and
How we might use it (EC) at Crossing Party Lines.
Some of my initial thoughts:
Promote your work at our meetings, through flyers and announcements.
For some CPL meetings, break out into empathy circles rather than the large group format to teach the process
Co-host some Empathy Circles and perhaps an Empathy Tent at the Women's March in DC.
Form an official partnership by bringing our board into the discussions and see what they come up with.
If Center for Building a Culture of Empathy is not yet a non-profit organization, look into leveraging our non-profit status to solicit and collect tax-deductible donations
As for feedback,
First know that I found yesterday's empathy circle to be very real and very instructive.
I purposely chose to set aside the facilitator's hat I wear at CPL meetings in order to fully experience being in an empathy circle. After the meeting, when I reviewed it from the facilitator's perspective, I found myself wondering if it would have been better if David and I hadn't hijacked the conversation so often and wondered how that might have been avoided. I'm still not sure, and I'm not sure it would have been better.
Eventually, you will have a collection of amazing videos that together illustrate the power of empathic listening and empathy circles. That specific circle tells its own part of the story.
That said, when I participate in future circles, I will do my best to pivot more frequently to include the others and avoid that level of one-on-one discussion and to give a triggered individual a chance to recover.
The one suggestion I can offer is that you provide participants some technical guidelines for participants that cover such things as:
How and when to mute
Preparing for the call by getting comfortable, making sure you have your coffee/tea/water at hand so you don't have to get up
What to do when you have to leave your seat. (Jessica modeled that wonderfully)
Considering what the viewers will see (do you want them to see your clothes? If not, how can you adjust your camera...)
Sound checks.
This doesn't have to be written, it could be explored in the pre-circle portion of the call that will be edited out.
Thanks again for allowing me to participate. I look forward to working with you more closely in the future.
Warmly, Lisa