The Work Between UsFace to face · 10–12 & 1–3
Before we gather
Read the Training Three selections. Bring your booklet. Consider: What helps me feel safe enough to be authentic? Review the Touchstones orientation as needed.
Touchstones: Speak your truth with respect · Be present as fully as possible · Turn to wonder · Create and maintain a trustworthy space
Selected readings for this trainingHumanity check-in
10:00–10:30 · Image choice · welcome
Choose an image or word that reflects how you arrive today.
Facilitator notes
Normalize complexity and imperfection. Invite, never require, disclosure. Revisit confidentiality as a shared practice and acknowledge its limits. Participants can pass or keep their response private.
Looking at myself
10:30–11:20 · Third Thing · writing · pairs
What roles or masks do I wear at work? When do I hide parts of myself? What helps me feel safe and authentic?
Facilitator notes
Offer a stone, mirror, art image, or poetry as a Third Thing. Do not ask people to expose personal trauma. Allow private writing and equal-turn paired listening with no fixing or advising.
Pause
11:20–11:30 · Break
Move, rest, or find a quiet space.
Facilitator notes
Provide a seated option and protect the full break.
Trust builders & breakers
11:30–12:00 · Table dialogue
What behaviors invite honesty? What behaviors make people hold back?
Facilitator notes
Discuss observable leadership and communication patterns, without naming colleagues. Ask what conditions make it safer to speak honestly. Each group carries one insight into the afternoon.
Lunch
12:00–1:00 · Lunch · outside learning time
Rest and return at 1:00.
Facilitator notes
Do not assign relational work during lunch.
Practice a courageous conversation
1:00–1:45 · Scenario practice · groups of 3
How might we tell the truth, stay curious, and take responsibility for our impact?
Facilitator notes
Use fictional scenarios below. Rotate speaker, listener, and observer; about ten minutes per round plus framing and debrief. Observers notice respect, curiosity, and accountability. Practicing a scenario is an invitation; written reflection is an alternative.
Notice what supported trust
1:45–2:00 · Whole group
What language helped? Where did curiosity make space? What might repair require beyond good intentions?
Facilitator notes
Debrief the process rather than reporting personal stories. Distinguish reflection from a formal mediation or promise of repair.
Pause
2:00–2:10 · Break
Take a breath before turning toward the future.
Facilitator notes
Keep the full break.
Humanity-centered agreements
2:10–2:40 · Group visioning
What would it look like if people could fully belong as humans here?
Facilitator notes
Create two or three observable agreements about communication, listening, and repair. Ask how the group will revisit them and what support is needed. Avoid promises the participants do not have authority to keep.
A practice to carry forward
2:40–3:00 · Private commitment · closing
One authenticity practice. One trust-building action. One conversation to approach with care.
Facilitator notes
Invite a manageable next step without requiring a conversation that feels unsafe. Offer optional peer affirmation grounded in something observed today. Use a one-sentence closing round or written harvest; end at 3:00.
Whole Group Debriefs
Whole Group Debrief · Humanity check-in
What did our check-in reveal about the range of human experiences we bring into work?
Chapter 7: Reflective Rhythms for Collective Growth · Journaling Prompts and Practices: what surprised you; where you feel rushed · packet p. 8
What did our check-in help you notice that connects with your writing about surprise or the places in your life that need more time?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · Looking at myself
What did the reflection and paired listening reveal about when authenticity feels possible?
Chapter 9: Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging · Reflective Journal Prompt 2: assumptions about professionalism or leadership · packet p. 15
How might those assumptions help explain a mask you described, or a part of yourself you hold back at work?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · Trust builders & breakers
Which behavior did your table identify as especially important for inviting honest participation?
Chapter 9: Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging · Reflective Journal Prompt 4: where belonging remains conditional · packet p. 15
How does a trust builder or breaker your table named connect with whose stories feel centered, missing, or misread in your journal response?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · Practice a courageous conversation
In the practice conversation, what changed when someone named impact and stayed curious?
Chapter 12: Compassionate Workforce Transitions—Layoffs and Redeployments · Communicating with Clarity and Care · packet p. 24
Although our scenarios are not layoff conversations, what transfers from this section’s emphasis on presence, clear facts, silence, and respectful witnessing to the conversation you practiced?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · Notice what supported trust
What did our debrief reveal about the difference between intending to help and supporting actual trust?
Chapter 12: Compassionate Workforce Transitions—Layoffs and Redeployments · Reflective Prompt: change, loss, and feeling seen or supported · packet p. 26
What did your earlier reflection on feeling seen or supported help you recognize about the words, curiosity, or silences that supported trust in the practice?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · Humanity-centered agreements
Which agreement would make the greatest visible difference in how people experience our work together?
Chapter 9: Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging · Implementation Invitations: Audit for Structural Belonging; Create a Culture of Consent · packet p. 16
How could one agreement your group proposed change a team rhythm or protect invitational participation, so belonging depends less on people adapting themselves?
Open this debrief in the trainingWhole Group Debrief · A practice to carry forward
What have you discovered about a way of being that you want to carry into your next interaction?
Chapter 11: The Living Organization—Foundations of Relational Restructuring · Reflective Prompt: relational soil that needs tending · packet p. 21
How does your next authenticity practice or trust-building action tend the relational soil you identified before new structures or changes can take root?
Open this debrief in the trainingFeedback
Let us know how this gathering went for you so we can make it better going forward.