Dreaming Circle
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
- Harriet Tubman
Introduction
Every project starts with a dream of an individual. Every person has many dreams and yet many of them are not even shared because of fear that they may be ignored or ridiculed. This activity will help you create an atmosphere in which dreams of every single person can be shared in a safe space and other people can add theirs. This process enables an emergence of collective visioning which everybody feels ownership over resulting in a higher level of commitment to implement the actions needed to fulfil the dreams.
Activity Type
Group / Experiential
Duration
15-60 minutes depending on the size of the group
Learning Outcomes
To learn how to build collective vision, engaging everybody in the group
To learn about grounds on which trust is built and how to bring trust to a group
To experience the magic of collective work
Instructions
Required Materials and Tools:
Flip chart paper, pens, talking piece
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Identify a dream - it can be any kind of a project that you would like to do. It could be painting your room, starting a new business or taking a weekend trip with friends.
Once a dream is clear, identify a group of people, it can be friends, family, colleagues or anybody else who is interested in the idea and can support it with skills and knowledge. Also, consider people you want to be with and work with. If the dream has broader scope, think about including people who will be affected directly by the project. Eight is a good number of people to invite, but anything else is also fine.
Once you have decided who the people are to share the dream with, invite them to a Dreaming Circle, a process of creating a collective dream. In this process, the dream of an individual dies in order to be reborn as a group dream. Because working for our project and not only your project means a big difference in how one relates to the project.
Participants of the Dreaming Circle are invited to sit in a circle. Some exercise can be done at the beginning to help people relax, let them introduce themselves etc.
The initiator of the circle presents her/his dream and explains what the project is about.
Then she/he gives people an opportunity to contribute with their dreams by asking Generative Questions ie. “What would this project have to be like in order for you to say this was the best use of my time?”. Be clear that no judgement is being made as there are no dreams that are wrong or right. Dreams can be contradictory as this is normal in dreaming and we will “rationalise” them later in the process. The desire is to let diversity be expressed.
Starting somewhere in the circle people present their answers, one dream at a time. If a person has nothing to add at a particular moment, they can pass as several circles are made.
It is important that every dream in the Dreaming Circle is being recorded and written down on flip chart paper. You can appoint one person to write for everybody or you can share the task. Be sure that name and the essence of the message are being captured, there is no need to capture every word.
The Dreaming Circle finishes after everybody has shared their dreams and they feel they have nothing more to add. Declare when the circle is finished.
It is very inspiring if you read the whole dream in the past tense as a story that has already happened.
Let the dream that you have created together serve as an inspiration for where you want to go as a group. Planning is the next phase of the process. Not everything said in the Dreaming Circle is feasible to be done, so be realistic in and decide together how you will try to make as many dreams as possible come true.
Resources
The Dreaming Circle is a part of the Dragon Dreaming project design methodology
Reflection
Is the dream you have created sustainable? Why? Why not?
How did people feel after the Dreaming Circle?
How motivated were the people after the Dreaming Circle?
Instructions for Submission
Upload 1 photo’s of the flip-chart paper with all individual dreams. Submit a written reflection from youth worker. Instructions on how to upload photos and how to submit things in Moodle can be found here: Instructions on Submission&Uploading
Instructions for Assessment
Provide feedback to at least one participant that has done this activity. Instructions on providing feedback can be found here: Instructions on Feedback
Author
Creative Commons - ySI4R Content Team (Inspired by Dragon Dreaming)