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The Circle begins

Approximately 4 weeks.

This is the culture-building phase — the part of the journey where a group of individuals becomes a Circle. It’s about developing a high-trust, resilient core team, with effectiveness and equivalence as guiding principles.

The work is personal, collective, and foundational. You’re not just preparing to take action — you’re shaping the way that action will happen.

What this phase includes

Over roughly four weeks, Circle Founders take part in:

  • Ten 2-hour group sessions

  • Weekly one-to-one conversations with each founder

  • Reflective work, skills development, shared learning, and visioning

  • Equal Care working alongside founders as equal partners, recognising that every person brings unique strengths, lived experience, and insight

This part of the journey is designed to produce a Circle with a strong internal culture — one that can hold complexity, adapt to change, and build meaningful, lasting relationships.

What happens during this time?

Before roles or responsibilities, we start with relationships. These sessions create space for:

  • Deep listening and mutual introduction

  • Sharing lived experience and different perspectives

  • Building a foundation of respect and trust

We work together to:

  • Understand each person’s availability, capacity, and strengths

  • Set shared intentions and practical goals for the next stage

  • Agree on tools, ways of working, and what success looks like

  • Use sociocratic techniques to make shared decisions

We introduce the Equal Care model, share its history, and reflect on what we’re still exploring. Learning sessions include:

  • Culture-building workshops

  • Conversations about power, privilege, and inclusion

  • Skill-building in facilitation, decision-making, and governance

  • Exploration of sociocracy in practice

This isn’t about planning the work yet — it’s about deciding how the Circle will work together, even when things get hard.

What we commit to

We support each Circle member to create a Radical Candour Agreement, which is a personal statement about:

  • How they like to give and receive feedback

  • How they want to be supported

  • What they need from others when things go wrong

We facilitate a co-created partnership agreement between Equal Care and the new Circle. This sets out:

  • Shared values

  • Mutual responsibilities

  • What support will look like, and what independence will mean

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