 | | | | | | | |||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
|  | |
Copyright 2002 Carrying Council in the Wilderness Council Roles So far, we have assumed that there are two roles assumed at any council – the participants and the facilitator. In addition, there can be a third role – the witness. The presence of one or more witnesses can provide a number of useful variations on the basic council structure. Participants Participants have the responsibility of … well, participating. But there is more to it than that. The participants model council behavior. There is an Ojibway teaching that right relationships depend on the constant cultivation of seven attributes – respect, caring, sharing, kindness, honesty, strength, and humility (Ross, 1996, p. 149). When council participants manifest these attributes in their dealings with each other, they teach – both themselves and others – that human relationships built on trust and respect are possible. Facilitators Facilitators are participants plus something extra. It is difficult to define the intuitive sense that good facilitators have of council flow and direction, their ability to hold the council to the four intentions, their sense of when to keep the discussion focused and when to let it move productively into new areas. Each council has a true purpose, which may or may not be the purpose the facilitator and participants believe it has; being in an effective council is like being led by an unseen conductor who knows the music the council is meant to play. In the Ojai tradition, this underlying music is called the interactive field of the council – the dynamic interweaving of all the people in the circle, together with an ineffable presence that seems to guide the circle towards meaningful interaction (Zimmerman & Coyle, 1996, p. 99). What good facilitators have, according to the Ojai teaching, is a heightened perception – an expanded awareness – that lets them perceive and support this interactive field, intuitively sense the web of connections among the participants in the circle. This perception is sometimes called reading the field. Witnesses Witnesses witness and do not participate. Witnesses sit around the outside of the council circle and observe the proceedings. The goal of a witness is to understand and eventually comment on the process of the council, and not the content of anything said. When witnesses speak in council about the council, they observe the four intentions; the purpose is to help improve the council process for both participants and facilitators. Witnesses may, as we discuss below, become participants, and participants may become witnesses. | ||
Back to the top
      
| ||
