Our intention

We’re creating a community for practising Nonviolent Communication in real life, where the intention is compassionate connection – the quality of connection that leads to everybody’s needs being respected and addressed. The Listening Garden is our attempt to practise this kind of community in a simple, real way. See bottom of this page for how to join the Garden.

Who can join?

There is no training prerequisite. Anyone can read without logging in. To post, you create a login and accept a short set of guidelines. We’ll also use tags like Beginners, Well-being and Neurodiverse so people can find their pace and approach.

How does it work?

Within the garden we’re creating some spaces, each with a clear purpose. You can join with guided prompts, ask for empathy or perspectives on a live situation, or meet someone for a short practice slot. Stewardship is shared and visible: agreements are clear, decisions are logged, and there is a room to propose improvements. Feel free to join the conversation!

Community Guidelines

We agree to:

• Speak from our own experience and listen empathically.
• Share suggestions only when requested or after checking for consent.
• Be aware that everyone has the freedom of choice to pass and/or to ask for a pause.
• State our intention in each post (empathy, perspectives or practice).
• Speak and treat everyone with respect, even in disagreement.

Offboarding

• • If you feel doubtful that someone’s post is in alignment with the Community Agreements, in the first instance, raise it with the host of the particular space, who may give the person a gentle public reminder plus contact them privately with a link to the guidelines.

• • If the behaviour continues, the host can raise it with the Beekeeper for restraint, e.g. a 24-hour time-out; a conversation with the person involved; or removal.

• • If the matter isn’t resolved, the Beekeeper may bring it back to the Founders meeting. The Founders have the final say in any restraint.   

The Beekeeper

The beekeeper is the contact person for garden hosts if they see something that is not in alignment with the community guidelines, and can enact our offboarding process. The term for beekeeping is one month, renewable.

Forum Founders

The Founders are the people who have been co-creating this forum since its inception. Deep gratitude to Shantigarbha, Gesine, Rosa, Anette, Olaf, Raf, Bruford, Kate, Diego, Paul and Lesley. Thank you for stepping forward to help shape the future of this community. The Founders will also play a part in hosting the forum.

How do we make decisions?

Among the Founders, we have agreed a few simple guidelines to help us make decisions by consent:

1. 1. Each person has a voice that cannot be ignored in the decision-making process.

1. 1. We seek a strategy that everyone can live with, that is, there are no needs actively not met, no ‘paramount objections’. Paramount objections need to have a reason behind them. It’s not enough just to say, “I object.” You need to give a reason why (a need).

1. 1. Decisions are for a defined period only, and reviewed at that point.

1. 1. When you are asked if you consent to a proposal, relate the proposal to the aims of the group. Does this proposal take the group in the direction of the aims? Is it “Good enough for now, safe enough to try”?