How does the Leadership Circle work?

The Leadership Circle

...is the primary decision-making body for Let Us Rise.

We believe that true, long-lasting societal transformation will only happen as we transform personally and as a community. We also believe that strategic and systems-level thinking are critically important - that we can't just do our personal work and ignore what is happening on the societal and systemic levels. So the Let Us Rise Leadership Circle has two equally important goals:

To create a community that supports our transformation as people and as a community-to be the change we wish to see in the world.

To achieve our mission by running a successful campaign.

To support these goals, we convene once per month. We devote the first half of our meeting to transformational work, and the other half of the meeting to taking the People's Campaign forward.

Transformational Work
The first half of every meeting is dedicated to being the change we wish to see in the world. We do this in a variety of ways: exercises in peacemaking and conflict resolution, group discussion, and so on.

In addition, every Leadership Circle member is committed to our Aspirations and Guiding Principles (click here to read), and to the Commitments of the Leadership Circle:

As a member of the Let Us Rise Leadership Circle,
☼ I commit to participating in a way that respects the power, energy, creativity, brilliance, health and well-being of myself and others.
☼ I will make my best effort to support myself and others in transcending the psychological and cultural ways in which we're stuck. I commit to growing!
☼ I commit to reading updates from the Creative Circle and RSVP-ing to meeting announcements in a timely manner.
☼ I commit to participating in and sharing my ideas in Creative Circle meetings when the agenda topic is exciting, inspiring, important to me, or when I feel called to be there.
☼ I will make my best effort to attend Leadership Circle meetings, which will happen no more than once a month.
☼ I commit to creating meaningful relationships with other Leadership Circle members and building community. As part of that, I will host host/organize a social gathering for the Leadership Circle (it can be anything! - whatever would be fun for you!), and I will attend at least a couple gatherings that other people organize.
☼ There is no term length or limit to the Leadership Circle. I commit to participating as long as I am excited and uplifted by this work.
☼ I acknowledge that I am a member of the Let Us Rise Leadership Circle and that my name and affiliations will be listed publicly.

Decision-Making
We seek full consensus. This does not mean we get bogged down in endless debates. Rather, we look for the wisdom that everyone brings, and stretch to reflect that wisdom. In cases where we simply cannot reach full consensus and a decision must be made, we are prepared to follow the majority position (though we have not yet had to do this).

Accountability and Democracy
As this campaign expands, we expect the Leadership Circle to grow. We are looking for models we can use to engage Visioning Circle participants in the leadership of this campaign.

We are also in the process of developing an approach to accountability that transcends the us/them mindset. The kind of accountability that plays a central role in community organizing, for example, looks like this: those with less-power take power by holding those with more-power accountable. We are developing ways to hold ourselves accountable which are rooted in a "power-with" approach. Our understanding is that we are all better off when we all step into our full potential to serve others.

Our Leadership Circle is open to all who are willing to make the above commitments. If you are interested in participating in a group of people who are all growing, transforming, challenging ourselves, and doing unique work, please consider joining us. Input your info here and one of us will be in touch with you.