Workshop 17: The Purposehood Forum

People who practice forums in their family, work, and communities report tremendous benefits to all participants, while enhancing their members’ and employees’ overall satisfaction.

Live Your Purpose, Together.

A forum group is made up of 8 to 10 diverse people with no direct conflict of interest or competition who meet typically once a month for four hours. One of the group members is appointed for a one-year term as a moderator to keep order of the process. In a community, these could be people who don’t work together, or those who compete in the same fields or are colleagues in the same department. You start by building trust—emphasizing total confidentiality, with no judgment or direct advice usually conveyed with phrases such as “you should” or “should not.” Everyone is there just to listen, connect, and share their own experiences.

1. Start the forum session with everyone stating their name and their Purposehood Statement to remind themselves and everyone else about the journey they are on so they may receive more relevant feedback from the group.

2. Take two minutes for the expand practice where everyone includes the others in their wish bubble.

3. Then the moderator proposes an icebreaker such as: “Name your favorite selfish or altruistic act you have done in the last month.” Or one from the second daily practice: “What balance action have you done today and how did it make you feel?”

4. Then everyone takes five minutes to fill out their forum update sheet about the major positive and negative events since the last meeting in personal, family, business, communities, and nature categories.

5. Each person then takes up to three minutes to share their update, which also highlights any major issues they might be facing.

6. Once everyone is done, the members, with the help of the moderator, choose two issues based on two criteria: importance and urgency.

7. The person with the issue selected then presents the details of the issue in 20 minutes, then spends 10 minutes answering clarifying questions and finally, 15 to 20 minutes listening to the group’s feedback as they share their experiences with any similar issues they’ve faced.

8. During the four-hour session, at least once the moderator initiates a three-minute focus practice such as taking an everyday object and asking everyone to write down 10 ideas on how it can be improved or used, or each person can simply choose to focus on an object, a person, a feeling, or their breath.

9. Everyone has the privilege of calling one pause if they need it, and the whole group joins them for a 51-second pause practice.

10. Finally, take two minutes to end with the expand practice where everyone includes the others in their bubble of gratitude.