The Hygge Manifesto meets Working Out Loud Circles: 9 - Togetherness: Build relationships and narratives. “Do you remember the time we …?”

This is the tenth 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.

The intentional building of relationships and creating memories provides the depth of hygge amongst a group of people. Storytelling is central to gatherings as people recount memories.

Over the course of 12 weeks  even in a virtual circle and especially with video calls, it is amazing the depth of relationships that circle members make within the circle. The circle guides encourage this relationship building across the circle as you share your experiences in response to the exercises. But may be even more powerfully the circle guide exercises encourage you to specifically and intentionally target people to build relationships with in deepening ways with a wide range of contribution types. Importantly, this i done from a spirit of generosity where the motive is definitely not “I need something from you”.

I have a number of rich and deep memories of conversations that have taken place in the circle and around the circle activities. One of these was a life-changing conversation. These memories are deep and powerful in the retelling.

Networking to me is now not a depressing word but networking is now not done in the old cold-calling sort of way. The circle guides take circle members through an inexorable process whereby even the shyest person (and I should know, I was one of these) can and wants to actively contribute to others.

I am learning to tell my stories more and more to whoever wants to listen.

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.