Life can be busy!! Often through that busyness, we loose sight of the culture / traditions that bonds us as a family. Movie nights, snuggle times, family trips to the park.. all times that speak of connection, closeness, love, warmth, joy, celebration and reassures us that we matter.
We at the Med Giraffe, are currently working with a family group which includes two young people aged 11 and 14, who see the value of what NVC / Dynamic Governance can contribute to their lives as individuals and as a family.
What does this work look like in a “typical” session?
We start off with a Needs check in … “Thinking about the time since we were last together, what needs have been met / unmet” This is a great way to connect to what’s important to us as individuals.
We then launch into the Dynamic Governance Decision Making Process with a review in rounds (each person shares one at a time) what’s been working as a family over that time. A great chance to celebrate each other and the striving as a family!
We also want to look at the ways we can improve as a family, how can we make our lives and each other’s lives more wonderful… so we do some rounds of “What’s not working.”
Enter DOTOCRACY! Each person gets three dots to choose thing that is not working that they feel most impacted by in this moment. This is where we gauge the desire for change and movement forward.
Then it’s time for creativity! Let’s look at the chosen thing that is not working and brainstorm strategies to address that thing. Each person gets their sacred space to talk to express their creative ideas that they are drawn to. All ideas at every point are written up on a white board and photographed by all family members to keep as a reference.
Re-enter DOTOCRACY! Each person gets three dots to choose the strategy / strategies that they are most drawn to. We count the dots and write up the strategy that has the most dots.
We tweak the strategy so its doable, stated in the positive, clear, we add a review date and we go into a round of Clarifying questions / Responses / GIVING CONSENT (Am I willing to give this a go for a period of time, review it and tweak it if necessary?) If I have any objections (I cannot live with this idea… then I speak it now!) If no objections… CELEBRATE AND RUN THE EXPERIMENT! (honour the flow of life, keep moving forward!)
We celebrate that Charli and Emily both ran the Dynamic Governance part of our previous family session with support along the way. That’s empowering & inspirational stuff!! It’s a pleasure to be working with you all!! (heart emoj)
If you want to chat with us about how you could introduce this into your family / work / organisational culture, give us a call.