Learning circles
By: Naomi Alexander Naidoo
Tags: Leadership Development, Learning Organisation, Leadership, Organisational Culture, Learning And Development

People don’t lead ‘single issue’ lives, so there can be no such thing as a ‘single issue organisation’ — not if we want to create real and lasting change for the people who use our services, and the wider world. More and more organisations are starting to understand this, but the challenge, especially for small organisations and charities, is: how to address and respond to issues that aren’t part of our day-to-day operations when time and funding are already so scarce? At Chayn, we decided that our first step should be educating ourselves.

We are an organisation made up of staff and volunteers who are all passionate advocates for feminism, and many of us are survivors of different types of abuse and gender-based violence. We always take an intersectional approach, but we recognise that we aren’t experts in everything that connects to our subject matter or impacts the lives of the people we support. In order to develop our understanding in a meaningful way, we ran our first ‘learning circle’. We hoped to not only deepen our individual and collective knowledge, but also create a collaborative, non-hierarchical process for co-developing our organisational position on topics relevant to our work.

What we did

For our first learning circle, we chose the topic of prison abolition and non-carceral feminism, as it’s something with a direct connection to our work and something that many of us have been thinking about individually over the past year or so. We started by collaboratively putting together a reading list (you can access it here). We wanted to find resources as broad and varied as possible; from books and academic articles, to blogs, opinion pieces and YouTube videos, drawing on expertise and perspectives from all over the world. We made a small budget available for volunteers to buy books or access paid articles, to ensure that everyone was able to participate and access high quality resources.

Once we’d populated our reading list (which we continued to add to throughout the cycle) we asked volunteers and staff to commit some time to reading and thinking through the resources, before joining a group discussion once a month. The aim of the discussion sessions was to share what we’d learned, helping everyone get a good grounding in the materials without having to read everything. The sessions were also a space for discussion and debate, and to decide what areas we wanted to focus on or investigate more as the cycle went on. After three discussion sessions, we came up with a group document summarising what we’d learned, what we agree and believe, and the practical steps that Chayn could take to incorporate this learning into our future work.

What we’ve learned

Aside from what we’ve been studying, facilitating and running the learning circle was a learning curve in itself. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned, which I hope will benefit anyone trying to establish something similar in your own organisations.

Getting people in the (Zoom) room is the hardest part

Even though the learning circle was a popular idea, translating enthusiasm into action and commitment was a challenge. Because so many of us at Chayn are volunteers (me included!), our biggest challenge is often making sure we get enough people to show up on a given day to make an activity or work session worthwhile. The benefit of the learning circle structure was that people were free to do the reading at any time, with just one session a month to fit into their diary. However, even with lots of reminders and encouragement, we still only had small groups turning up to the discussions. If I did this again, I’d spend some time coming up with more creative ways to make people feel engaged with and excited about the topic. The flipside to this is that with a smaller group, we were able to have some really in-depth discussions and those who did turn up were really committed.

Curating a diverse reading list is easier said than done

Chayn has a global reach — and a global team — and we really wanted to make sure that the resources we read reflected this. However, most of the resources we were able to find on prison abolition were from a US or UK perspective. In some ways this is unsurprising, as the conversation and movement around prison abolition in the Global North has been largely led by black American activists and academics. Even so, we felt that there must be materials out there that we were missing. Even though this cycle is over, we really want to keep learning — so please get in touch with any relevant resources, experts or organisations working in this area, based outside of the Global North.

Don’t expect easy answers

One of the biggest takeaways from our discussions was that there is no simple ‘solution’ to the problem of how to dismantle the carceral justice system, and what to replace it with. As an organisation supporting victims and survivors of some of the worst things human beings can do to one another, we want to prioritise victim/survivor safety and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. We also know that existing criminal justice systems dehumanise people, and are steeped in patriarchy and institutional racism. What stood out to us during our reading and discussions was that there is no ‘blueprint’ for how a society built on humanity and dignity — not punishment — would look, and what the practicalities of keeping people safe from one another would look like. Every question led us to more questions! As the sessions went on, I tried to keep the structure focused enough to keep us on track — but loose enough to allow the conversation to develop organically. This was how we got to our best insights and had our most significant ‘lightbulb moments’.

We’re still learning, and this process will evolve as we go. We are deepening our work towards creating a culture of continuous learning, growth and questioning our own assumptions — for Chayn as an organisation, as well as a group of individuals.