Rounds

Rounds are a social practice that I got to know through sociocracy. It’s the simple practice of speaking one by one. Everyone has the chance to speak, and no one interrupts or comments on what is being said outside of their turn. The same is also what happens in traditional circle practices with a talking stick. 

There are several uses of rounds – for clarifying questions, reactions, ideation, and to ask consent in an orderly way. 

But the main functions of rounds is that they hold a container in which we can weave: there is a clear clear boundary of who will speak and in what order, and a clear prompt to speak to. It protects the group and its integrity so coherence can be woven on its inside. 

Let’s say we want to decide how to go about a new project idea. We could be talking about lots of things – alternative project ideas, why similar projects haven’t worked in the past, what to have for lunch and whether to hire an additional two staff. But that’s a lot of things – and if we stretched our attention that far, we would likely hit a limit of how many things we can hold. We would fray the context. 

So to hold our bandwidth, we need to strengthen the container. We talk about one topic for one or two rounds, and then we go to the next.

Rounds allow weaving because they slow down interactions just enough to make sure we can listen more than we speak. Each contribution is therefore more context-aligned that it might have been without round. It slows the chatter to the speed of trust, reducing the risk of losing coherence.