The Hygge Manifesto meets Working Out Loud Circles: 8 - Truce: No drama. Let’s discuss politics another day.

This is the ninth post in a series of posts looking at hygge and working out loud circles using Meik Wiking’s The Hygge Manifesto from his book “The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well” as a framework for discussion.

[taken from the Wikipedia entry for Christmas Truce 1914]

A “truce” is “a short interruption in a war or argument, or an agreement to stop fighting or arguing for a period of time” [from the Cambridge dictionary].

For hygge to be fully present, all taboo subjects and anything that might cause controversy are off-limits. Consequently, there would then be no opportunity for the gathering of people to degenerate into arguments and upset.

This reminds me of Stephen Covey’s “seek first to understand” the other person. People doing that in a completely open way with no judgement and no pushback would be a great way to maintain a “truce”.

In the context of a circle where no one knows each other and has little or no prior experience Covey’s “habit” definitely applies as the circle members get to know each other over the lifetime of the circle.

However, given that the circle only lasts for 12 weeks, it is important for people to say whatever needs to be said to progress the learning and the goals of the members of the group.

My experience in the 2 circles I have been a part of to date is that no subject is off-limits and everyone has been treated respectfully and gracefully throughout. May be if a circle did get into “fighting”, the truce could apply in week 12 during circle closedown …

What would you add to the hygge part and/or the working out loud circle part of this post?

Resources

For a full list of posts in this series see the index post

My Top Ten Resources for Encouraging People To Actually Work Out Loud (as at 6 November 2017) (this post includes links to Working Out Loud resources)

Author Info

Simon Fogg is an IT professional who has worked in IT for all bar 8 months of his 34 year career to date. He delivers business consultancy, project management and service management services as part of the Claritas Solutions team in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. Claritas deliver solutions to clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors across the UK. He was first introduced to Working Out Loud Circles in 2016 and has since led 2 x 12-week global/virtual circles (using Slack and Zoom) and is currently recruiting and setting up for launching an “out-of-the-ordinary” (more than 5 people) 3rd circle on a trial Workplace by Facebook community in January 2018 with members already using the platform.