Witness Circles, Samoan Circles and Inquiry Circles

Lisa Heft distributed this meaty two-page handout during her “showcase” session on these processes at the 2006 NCDD conference in San Francisco. ‘Samoan’ Circles invite participants to share thoughts on complex and even conflicting issues – without feeling that someone will be solving, arguing or debating what they are sharing – and knowing that what they say will be witnessed by others. Inquiry Circles invite deep, rich thinking through the sharing of richly-textured questions, without any cross-dialogue but instead engaging the group in deep listening and weaving a deeper understanding together. Lisa Heft uses the term ‘Witness Circles’ as an overarching term for these and other similar methods.

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