Reflection on the role of prayer and ritual in deliberative decision-making

In our January reconciliation session, we tackled a question that many of us have been thinking about lately: what is the role of prayer and ritual in deliberative decision-making? How can we help create a welcoming, safe space for Indigenous partners to share customs, rituals, ceremonies (including prayer) in meetings and projects? We had a robust discussion. The conversation was informed by notes on narrative, ritual, and metaphor from Julian Griggs and Michelle LeBaron’s resource: Advanced Group Facilitation: Resource Manual (2019).  We discussed how critical it is to an advanced facilitation practice to embrace symbolic approaches to engagement. We acknowledged this is a key area for professional and personal growth!

We opened and closed the session with two brief rituals, to put our learning into practice. This generated laughter and got us out of our chairs. We deepened our connections to one another and left the session feeling motivated, with new ideas to think about and trial in our work.