Circling the Square

Most facilitators who have spent time with mediation or restorative justice will be familiar with the power of circles.

I have to admit that, as a UK commercial mediator dealing with corporate conflicts and strife, circles have not been a prominent element in my work. Corporate lawyers want to believe that they remain totally in control of the mediation process. Our Anglo Saxon approach to 'sorting out the issues' leaves little room to acknowledge that the process may have an independent power of its own.

It was at this point that Evelyn Zellerer made her entry into 'my life as a facilitator', and in doing so, swept me unequivocally into her fascinating circle of energy.

Friday 13 June was the lucky date; the place Queen's University, Belfast. I joined over forty members and students of the European Forum for Restorative Justice who had selected Evelyn's 'Peacemaking Circles' workshop, making it one of the most popular events of the 8th International Conference.

It became apparent that many of us needed to 'unlearn' a number of learned behaviours before accessing circles.  Entry to the workshop was via a few moment's meditation and creative visualisation. Thus, hard-bitten practitioners and capricious researchers alike were transported into a new receptive mind-set. For those who needed extra intellectual support, Evelyn provided Judge Barry Stuart and R v Moses.

Evelyn's circles offer a structured but flexible method for dialogue in the restorative justice process. Accessing with an opening ceremony and working with shared values, Evelyn brings participants into ever closer collaboration. Then with a subliminal focus on the mind, emotion and presence, Evelyn draws participants into getting acquainted, building relationships and trust, and in a non-linear identification of issues and agreeing action plans.

Central to circles is 'the talking piece'. For Evelyn's workshop she provided a shell, but here cultural differences can be acknowledged by the choice of item which will be held by the speaker until they have spoken.

For detail about Evelyn's process, the reader will need to attend one of her workshops. But let me share the effect. With the numbers present, ours started as a big circle containing disparate detached delegates. As the process developed, the circle appeared to shrink and develop an intimacy and focus of its own. Members became acutely aware of each other's presence and value. At the same time, the light in the centre of the circle seemed to intensify. This was immersion physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, but without a sense of compulsion or resistance.

Evelyn's promise that the solutions would find us through dialogue was astonishingly correct. As we returned, at the end of the session, through our closing ceremony, we experienced a helium balloon sensation - rising above that which had kept us previously from circles and consensus.

So transformative was this moment, that it was to be mirrored within a day. On 14 June, in the heart of the Corrymeela Community at Ballycastle, restorative justice practitioners and academics formed their own circle as a tribute to Evelyn's work, and forged new rounded bonds of understanding and trust.

European Forum for Restorative Justice - Leuven Belgium / Belfast Northern Ireland

Michael Klitching, Chair International Forum for Restorative Justice, David Ford, Justice Minister for Northern Ireland and Tim Chapman, University of Ulster - Conference Chairman outside Queens University, Belfast

Whilst traditional mediation places a focus on re-engaging relationships, it has never been a core aim. Mediation, being party-led, goes only where the parties choose to go - frequently to reach a working agreement, but not to fix their relationship.

That is fine, but what if the parties to a dispute wish also to restore a trading, contractual, employment, operational, social, or other working relationship?

Restorative Justice (RJ) used to be the term for 'interventions between victims of crime and offenders'. Over the last few years, RJ has transcended this simple definition to become a highly recognised transformative technique for 'fixing relationships' of all kinds. Herein is its power.

After the European Forum's 'Accessibility and Initiation of Restorative Justice conference' in Leuven, Belgium in May 2014, I went on to join the Forum's 8th International three day Conference 'Beyond Crime- Pathways to Desistance, Social Justice and Peacebuilding', this year held in June at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, supported by the University of Ulster.

It is hard to imagine a more illustrious line-up of plenary speakers - Shadd Maruna and Kieran McEvoy, University of Belfast; Joanna Shapland, University of Sheffield; John Braithwaite, Australian National University; Tove Malloy, European Centre for Minority Issues; and Brunilda Pali, Catholic University of Leuven. Throughout the three days, there were fifty five parallel workshops, each headed by experts in their field, many with international expertise - Northern Ireland, Romania, Germany, Tasmania, Portugal, Estonia, Singapore, Hungary, Russia, Ireland, UK, New Zealand, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Albania, Macedonia, Belgium, Austria, Canada, Finland, Serbia, Sweden, Brazil, USA, Italy, Chile.

A summary such as this can only adequately address 'net effect'. Just as travel broadens the mind, so international collaboration broadens both vision and skill sets. The net effect for me as a facilitator was the opportunity to witness the communality of approach amongst other facilitators, and to experience the elements that inject energy into a process which at times can be very challenging.

Restorative Justice, whilst reminiscent of interventions in crime, has become the advance-track of the mediation movement. For public organisations, trading companies and in the workplace - facilitators out there - take notice and learn skills and approaches from RJ practitioners. Ignore them at your peril!