SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES
Social Technologies are a set of tools geared to enhance collective leadership and generate Social Innovation at all scales. Many of the Social Technologies Anamaria uses come from the Art of Hosting®, a set of emerging practices that facilitate conversations in groups of different sizes, supported by principles that maximize participation and collective intelligence and wisdom, welcome and listen to different perspectives, and transform conflict in a creative cooperation. These include the Circle, World Café, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, ProAction Café, storytelling and more – practitioners can tailor the approach to their context and purpose. Anamaria also uses techniques from Theory U, to design collective transformational experiences, and tejeRedes to build networks. Through her experience with Aldeafeliz Ecovillage, Anamaria has experimented with sociocracy, Non Violent Communication, and ProcessWork.
LEARNING CIRCLES
The circle is a structure that represents the whole, community, a cycle, and our planet. I love to be in a circle of human beings with a common purpose of learning and responding with creativity and compassion to what life calls from us in the present moment.
The Learning Circles are a space to socialize experiences, theories, practices and social technologies that foster organizational learning and human development in a way that is interactive and open. They provide an experiential taste of a topic that we consider important to address the personal, organizational and social challenges that we are facing in order to achieve sustainability at all levels: ecological, social, economic and human. The Learning Circles always leave participants with a useful tool that they can implement in their contexts, to generate development or transformation. We hope that in this collective conversation new solutions emerge to the complex problems that sustainability and social innovation present at all scales.
WOMEN'S CIRCLES
This is the story of women’s circles:
Once upon a time, there were a scattered group of women of different ages, powerful women in their fields, who would not have known each other. Every day, they demonstrated their professional acumen, and their ability to make things happen both at home and at work. What these women privately yearned for was a safe space where they could be themselves, and explore parts of themselves they had left behind in their quest to become modern professional women. But they were torn between this secret desire and their multiple demands, which would not let them set aside time to explore something different.
Then one day, the opportunity came to participate in a women’s circle, inspired by “Women who run with the wolves” bringing together women from different walks of life, all hungry to find a way to reconnect with their creative and wild feminine. It was an invitation they could not decline, although their rational minds did not find a clear set of deliverables from this call. Slowly, they realized they were creating a sacred moment together, and learned to let the unexpected emerge, around the feminine circle. Because of that, they decided to join the circle and invite their friends. Because of that, a beautiful group came together and shared intimately on all things feminine. The talking piece was an element that helped them all feel welcomed, and music was played to connect emotionally and through movement find an authentic voice. Until finally, the insights of this rich conversation crystallized in various creative projects they each made and we all celebrated in the jointly created altar.
