Samoan Circle

Recently I participated in a Samoan Circle which was a process designed to try and bring about an understanding between different factions in our denomination around an issue that threatened to divide or worse still to lead to a schism within our denomination.  I am not going to write about the issue or who was there as we were all sworn to respect the confidentiality of the meeting, but I would like to look at the process and think about how it could be used to create better understanding between churches within Europe.  Historically Europe has had many religious wars and I would argue that the current conflict has its roots in religious extremism.

The Samoan circle is a leaderless meeting intended to help negotiations in controversial issues. While there is no ‘leader’, a facilitator can welcome participants and explain the seating arrangements, rules, timelines and the process. As with the Fishbowl process, the Samoan circle has people seated in a circle within a circle, however only those in the inner circle are allowed to speak. The inner circle should represent all the different viewpoints present, and all others must remain silent. The process offers others a chance to speak only if they join the ‘inner circle’.

1. STEP ONE: Put four chairs in the centre of the room in a circle with a fifth chair for the facilitator.

2. STEP TWO: The facilitator sets the stage and shares the rules, which are:

• Only people in the 4 chairs can speak at a time; everyone else observes and listens.  Once you have spoken can remain in the circle for any response before returning to the outer circle allowing others to take up the speaking seats.
• The people in the circle can discuss the topic at hand in any way they want.
• The people in the circle can only speak to others in the circle.
• If somebody else wants to participate in the discussion, s/he may signal this by approaching the four seats in the centre and waiting for somebody to leave. S/he may join the circle of chairs (and therefore the conversation) only once somebody has left the circle.
• The people in the circle can stay as long as they want, leave whenever they want and return whenever they want, unless someone signals that by standing behind the chair.
• If a participant wants to speak to a particular person, s/he must stand behind his/her chair and wait for one of the other chairs to become free.
• Once seated in the circle of chairs, a participant may ask that somebody who has left the circle return to it.

3. STEP THREE: The facilitator gets everyone in the group to agree on an endpoint to the discussion.

4. STEP FOUR: The facilitator leaves the circle and the discussion begins.

5. STEP FIVE: The facilitator becomes a participant like everyone else in the group. S/he is responsible for keeping time and may remove one of the chairs at a certain point to help bring the meeting to a close near the agreed-upon endpoint.

When Should I Use the Samoan Circle?:

The Samoan Circle is… 

• Great for exploring well-defined questions. If you can articulate exactly what you want to know, this is a solid choice.
• Helpful in polarized settings. If the discussion relates to controversial issues, this is a way to get lots of people involved in the conversation without having it get out of hand. The Samoan Circle forces people to listen to different opinions and engenders a strong sense of self-discipline in the group.

When Should I NOT Use the Samoan Circle?:

The Samoan Circle is… 

• Not well suited for seeking closure on an issue. If you want to come to a firm decision about something, this probably isn’t the modality for you.
• Not well suited for expansive discussion of broad issues. If you don’t know exactly what you want to find out, the conversation can go anywhere and will therefore be less useful.

 Over the years I have often found myself in difficult situations where I would have found this a much better way for all parties to be heard and to present strongly held convictions.

Chris Vermeulen