Workplace Circles.

Your own people, holding small circles of colleagues at work. Six to eight people, eight sessions of 75 minutes, in work time: a place where wellbeing is practised together, not only talked about.

Watch the film: 3 minutes How to begin
In three minutes

The idea, on film.

What a circle is, who hosts it, what happens in a session, and what your organisation sees.

Workplace Circles

Your own people, holding circles at work · 3:03

What a circle is

A small group that practises together.

A Workplace Circle is not a talk, a course to click through, or therapy. It is a small, closed group of colleagues who meet eight times and practise one skill each time, with a colleague of their own who has been trained to host it.

Small

Six to eight colleagues

The same people for all eight sessions, so trust can grow. The host takes part too.

every circle
Regular

Eight sessions of 75 minutes

Weekly or fortnightly, in work time, in person or online on a video call.

about two months
Practical

One skill, every session

A short why, a practice with a tool each person keeps, real conversation, and one thing to try that week.

every session
One session

Seventy-five minutes, the same shape every time.

Because every session has the same shape, people relax into it, and the time goes to the practice. Here is a session from the middle of a circle.

0:00Arriving
5 min
A short practice to land: a breathing space, then a thought to arrive with.
0:05Check-in
12 min
The talking object goes round: one question, about a minute each.
0:17The why
6 min
One finding, briefly, in plain words.
0:23The practice
22 min
The skill itself, with a tool each person keeps.
0:45Debrief
7 min
What people noticed.
0:52Big talk
12 min
Real conversation, in threes, with question cards.
1:04This week
3 min
One small thing to try before the next session.
1:07Check-out
5 min
One word, one intention.
1:12Closing
3 min
A moment of quiet, and the circle ends on time.
The Circle Console running a 75-minute session
The host's screen in the Circle Console: the run-sheet with a clock, the words to say, the tools and a safety box. Shown with an example circle.
Why circles, and why your own people

Practised together, hosted from inside.

Practised, not just told

Most people already know a good deal about what helps them at work. What is hard is doing it, week after week. A circle gives a small group a regular time to try one thing together and come back to say how it went.

Everyone speaks in turn, holding a talking object. That matters: across 192 small groups, Woolley and colleagues found that a group’s collective intelligence rose with its members’ social sensitivity and with evenly shared turn-taking, not with how clever the individuals were.

Hosted by trained people, with a clear guide

Small groups do not need a specialist in the room. In a randomised trial in Kosovo, mind-body skills groups led by trained schoolteachers lowered post-traumatic stress in adolescents (Gordon and colleagues, 2008). In London, eight-week community courses run by pairs of volunteers raised life satisfaction in a randomised trial, and their leaders were asked to stick closely to the course guide (Krekel and colleagues, 2021).

Your hosts get that kind of guide for every session, and the skill to host stays inside your organisation.

Two kinds

A whole team, or colleagues from across the organisation.

A team circle

A team that already works together, as one circle, working on how it works: what is strong in it, how it handles mistakes and hard times, and what it is for. The leader takes part as an equal member, and the host is someone who manages nobody in it.

A colleagues’ circle

People from different teams who join one by one, on a topic for their own working life: stress and pressure, leading others, a hard conversation, the first years at work. Nobody sits in a circle with their own manager, or with anyone who reports to them, so people can speak freely.

The workplace circles

Topics for working life.

Each circle has eight ready-made sessions. While your licence is current, your hosts may run every one of them, and every workplace circle added to the library later.

Paths

A New Chapter

Changing Direction Well. Adults changing career, or thinking seriously about it.

workplace circle
For everyone

Back Yourself

Confidence That Holds. Anyone who wants steadier confidence.

workplace circle
For everyone

Begin and End Well

Morning and Evening Routines. Anyone who wants calmer evenings and better mornings.

workplace circle
Meaning and faith

Changemakers

Making a Difference from Where You Are. People who want to make a difference, at home, at work, in their community or in the world, whatever their title or starting point.

workplace circle
Situations

Disagree Well

Hard Conversations, Handled With Care. Anyone who wants to handle disagreement and difficult conversations with more steadiness, respect and skill.

workplace circle
For everyone

Emotions, Everyday

Naming, Reading and Handling Feelings. Anyone who would like to understand their feelings better.

workplace circle
Life stages

The First Post

Flourishing at Work. People in their first years of work, from the first post after studying to about five years in.

workplace circle
Life stages

Handing On Well

Passing On What You Know. People in the handover years, roughly 55 to 65.

workplace circle
Callings

Leading Others

Growing the People You Lead. People who lead others at work or in a community.

workplace circle
Paths

Parenting Well

Raising Children With Warmth, Together. Parents, step-parents, grandparents and carers raising children from about two to eighteen, whatever the family looks like.

workplace circle
Callings

Practice Well

Doctors, Caring for the Carers. Doctors at any stage, from internship to retirement, in any specialty and any setting, public or private.

workplace circle
Callings

Practice Well

Lawyers, Well in the Law. Lawyers at any stage, from candidate attorneys and pupils to partners, advocates, in-house counsel and judges, and law graduates on their way in.

workplace circle
Situations

Retiring Well

A New Shape to the Days. People about to retire, newly retired, or a year or two in.

workplace circle
For everyone

Steering Together

Living with Intention. Anyone who sometimes wonders how they ended up living the way they do, and would like to steer a little more.

workplace circle
Situations

Stress and Pressure

Carrying It Differently. Anyone carrying a lot.

workplace circle
Callings

Teach Well

Staying Well in the Work of Teaching. Teachers and lecturers at any stage, in schools, colleges and universities, public or private, from their first year to their last.

workplace circle
Callings

Teach with the Evidence

A Practice Circle for Teachers. Six to ten teachers, lecturers or tutors who want to try research-based teaching practices together.

workplace circle
Callings

Teaching Flourishing

Practising Together What We Teach. People who teach the flourishing skills.

workplace circle
Callings

Team Circles

The Way We Do Things Here. A whole group that already works or meets together, as one circle.

workplace circle
For everyone

Ten Keys to Happier Living

A GREAT DREAM Circle. Anyone who would like to live a little more happily, and to try, in good company, what the evidence suggests.

workplace circle
For everyone

Thinking Together

Thinking Skills That Become Habits. Anyone who wants to think more clearly about the ideas, plans, problems and decisions of ordinary life, and to make good thinking a habit.

workplace circle
Callings

Work Well Together

The Leaders' Circle. People who look after how a team works.

workplace circle
Safe by design

Five agreements, read together in the first session.

Every circle first reads its own agreements: what is said stays in the circle, listen to understand, anyone may pass. A workplace circle then adds these five, and each person says “I agree”.

  1. Nothing said in the circle is used in anyone's appraisal, review, selection or discipline.
  2. Joining is a free choice. Saying no, or leaving, has no consequence at work.
  3. The organisation hears how many came, never what was said or who said it.
  4. Every practice speaks about strengths, practices and events, never about any person's failings.
  5. A live conflict, a complaint or a matter of someone's safety stays out of the circle; the facilitator helps the people concerned find the right place and support.

A circle is not therapy, crisis support or a team-building event. Your hosts are trained in safety, scope and referral: every session has a safety box with the help lines and your employee wellness programme, and if someone is at risk the host acts the same day and talks to their Senior or Trainer.

What your organisation sees

Numbers, never names.

Your contact person has a private page for your organisation: the licence, the participant places, your hosts and the people in certification, and every circle with the number present at each session. That is all. No names of members, and nothing anyone said.

An organisation's private Workplace Circles page
An organisation's private page, shown for an invented example company.
Your people become the hosts

The Certificate in Circle Accompaniment.

About thirty hours over ten to twelve weeks. Each person you choose:

1

Sits in a circle

First as a member: present at seven of its eight sessions.

2

Learns

Seven modules: talks or films, a reader, and tools to complete.

3

Shows it is safe

A knowledge check on safety, scope and referral, with a pass mark of 80 percent.

4

Hosts, observed

Leads a session that a Circle Trainer observes and signs off.

The certificate is issued the moment the last step is done, and anyone can confirm it at accompany.co.za. After that, every host works from the Circle Console, a Facilitator Guide for each circle, short films and a manual, and talks after every circle with a Senior Circle Facilitator.

A host's My circles page in the Circle Console
A host's view: their organisation's licence and places, and their circle. Example data.
How to begin

Four steps.

1

Choose your hosts

One or two people others trust, who will not host anyone they manage.

2

Order

Their certification, the yearly licence and participant places: by card or by EFT invoice.

3

They qualify

Their observed session can be their first circle at your organisation.

4

Run circles

As many as you want while the licence is current. Add places as people join.

The price

Three parts.

Certify a host

R9,500 per person, once

The Certificate in Circle Accompaniment, for each person who will host your circles.

The Workplace Circles licence

R12,000 a year

While it is current your hosts may run every workplace circle, and start new ones. Your private page comes with it.

Participant places

R750 per person, per circle

Eight sessions, and each person’s own tools and workbooks. Under R94 a session.

An example: two hosts, six circles of eight a year

Certify two hosts (once)R19,000
The licence, one yearR12,000
48 participant placesR36,000
The first yearR67,000
Each year after, with the same six circlesR48,000

Forty-eight colleagues a year in a circle of their own: after the first year, R1,000 a person a year.

Order Workplace Circles   or talk to us first

Questions

What organisations ask.

Is this therapy, or a wellbeing talk?

Neither. A circle is a small group practising skills for wellbeing together, hosted by a trained colleague. It is education, not treatment, and the host knows when and how to refer someone for professional help.

Who should we choose as hosts?

People others trust and who like listening: often someone in HR or wellbeing, or a respected colleague in any role. A host never hosts a circle with anyone they manage.

How long does it take to become a host?

About thirty hours over ten to twelve weeks, alongside work. The observed session at the end can be your first real circle.

Can a manager join a circle?

Yes. In a team circle the leader takes part as an equal member. In a colleagues’ circle nobody sits with their own manager or with anyone who reports to them.

What does the organisation find out about people?

Only the number present at each session, on your private page. Never names, and never anything that was said. Each circle agrees to this in its first session.

What if someone is struggling?

Every session has a safety box with the South African help lines and your employee wellness programme. If someone is at risk, the host acts the same day and talks to their Senior or Trainer.

Can circles meet online?

Yes. The session is the same on a video call with cameras on.

How many circles can we run?

As many as you want while the licence is current. Each person who joins a circle uses one participant place.

What happens if the licence ends?

Circles that are running carry on to the end. New workplace circles start again when the licence is renewed.

Begin

Grow circle hosts inside your organisation.

Certify one or two of your own people, then run as many circles as you want.

Order Workplace Circles Talk to us first