Beyond the Team: Spreading the Circle to Systems, Stakeholders, and Society

Abstract
Healing doesn’t stop with staff. To fully transform organizations, the reflective principles of the SWEET Healing Circle are to reach stakeholders across all levels—executive boards, funders, government agencies, community partners, and clients themselves. This article explores how healing-centered practices and Four-Layer Thinking can shape decision-making, governance, supervision, and community relationships. We outline strategies to build alignment and integrity across the ecosystem of a mission-driven agency and propose that healing is not just for teams—but for systems, structures, and society. 

Keywords
Systems transformation, SWEET Healing Circle, SWEET Institute, stakeholder alignment, reflective leadership, organizational integrity, Four-Layer Thinking, trauma-informed governance, policy practice, healing-centered systems, relational infrastructure

1. Introduction
Many teams have started the work. However, if the larger system doesn’t reflect the same principles, the healing stalls. Healing-centered culture is to expand beyond the staff meeting or program retreat. It is to touch:

• Executive leadership

• Boards and governance

• Community partners

• Funders and regulatory bodies

Healing is not an isolated event, it is a relational ripple. This article offers a framework for bringing the SWEET Healing Circle’s reflective, responsible, and relational approach to every layer of the system.

2. Theoretical Framework: Systems as Networks of Reflection and Power
2.1 Organizational Systems Theory
According to Senge (1990), organizations are systems of relationships shaped by patterns of interaction, language, and power—not just strategy. Healing occurs systemically when those patterns are made visible and redesigned.

2.2 Power-Aware Healing
Brown (2018) and Kania et al. (2018) emphasize that power is be named, shared, and healed for culture to change. That means engaging those with institutional influence—not just those with front-line experience.

3. Application and Analysis: Expanding the Circle
3.1 Board and Governance Circles
Boards shape values, budgets, and direction. Healing-centered boards:

• Reflect on organizational values before making funding decisions

• Consider the emotional and systemic impact of growth strategies

• Model transparency, regulation, and values-based conflict resolution

Try: Quarterly board Circles with Four-Layer reflection on strategic decisions

3.2 Funders and Institutional Partners
Many funders say they value innovation and trauma-informed work. Few reflect on how their funding structures create urgency, fear, and reactivity. 

Healing-centered partnerships involve:

• Slower timelines for deeper integration

• Process-focused metrics (e.g., retention, safety, growth)

• Joint reflection on shared values and long-term goals

Try: Annual funder learning Circle with shared impact storytelling

3.3 Community and Clients
The people agencies serve are part of the system, not separate from it. 

Healing-centered agencies:

• Invite client advisory councils into values and policy conversations

• Reflect on power, language, and relational rupture in services

• Co-create rituals of feedback and co-healing

Try: Monthly client-staff listening sessions with reflection-based facilitation

4. Implications for Systems Change
4.1 Alignment Across Layers
When everyone—from board chair to case manager to tenant leader—is invited into reflection:

• Values become real

• Conflict becomes collaborative

• Policies reflect practice

• Culture deepens

4.2 Healing as an Ecosystem
True transformation requires:

• Executive participation

• Stakeholder reflection

• Leadership modeling

• Infrastructure that holds it

The Healing Circle becomes not a room—but a way the system breathes. 

5. Conclusion
If healing stays with the team, it gets diluted. If healing reaches the system, it becomes undeniable. The future of mission-driven work depends not just on what we do—but how we relate across roles, systems, and society. That’s how we heal from the inside out—and ripple the healing forward.

References

• Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead. Random House.

• Kania, J., Kramer, M., & Senge, P. (2018). The Water of Systems Change. FSG.

• Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday.

• Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

• van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Viking.

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